Message From Our Director
Meet Duncan Geddes
Welcome to The Parks Chamber of Commerce.
Our mission is to help businesses succeed with the right tools, connections, and resources.
We're a public/private partnership that convenes business, nonprofit, elected, and municipal leaders to help attract people to live, visit, and invest in the City of Loves Park and Village of Machesney Park, Illinois.
We produce high quality events - including our Annual Dinner and Awards night, Golf Outing, Business Afterhours Networking Events, Business Breakfasts, tours of local businesses and attractions and our Signature Event “State of” Series - to help connect our members to each other and the community.
We partner with local elected officials and other chambers of commerce on a variety of business events including the annual International Business Summitt that hosts foreign trade representatives from around the world.
We collaborate on holistic Placemaking strategies to guide the growth and development of The Parks into magnetic destinations for commerce and healthy living that will ultimately help attract people to live, visit, and invest in our area.
We provide Red-Carpet Services for members and businesses investing in The Parks that include Ribbon-Cutting Ceremonies and Grand-Opening Celebrations.
We represent the business community, advocating for a competitive business climate and collaborating with elected leaders on strategies that support the retention and attraction of primary employers.
We collaborate with regional partners to provide free and confidential advising to business owners, operators, and entrepreneurs.
We document our members’ businesses online and promote them in our Member Directory at ParksChamber.com. Chamber members can also publish promotions and coupons, Press Releases, and Events directly to our website.
The Parks Chamber is proud to be the first organization in the region to provide custom-built, search-engine-optimized, and mobile-responsive technology tools to help our members promote and sell their products and services online. Chambers of commerce started as brick-and-mortar lobbies, where residents and visitors could research information about local businesses. In today’s digital economy our Members Plus App allows chamber members the ability to offer innovative strategies for online promotion to other chamber members.
More information about our chamber, the innovative technology tools we provide for members, our events, and more are highlighted throughout this website. We encourage you to learn more about our members’ products and services by viewing their listings in our Directory.
Thank you for this opportunity to serve you and the businesses within our region. If you're not a member of The Parks Chamber, we invite you to join today!
Sincerely,
Duncan Geddes, Executive Director
