2023 Affiliate Chamber Spotlight: Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce
Chamber Name + Website
Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce
Number of Members
950 members strong, with a goal of hitting 1,000 members by the end of 2023
How Does a Business Join Your Chamber?
You can join online at our website — Ankeny.org — or you can set up a meeting with Jamie Anderson, our Senior Director of Membership & Partnerships. She will take you through the member benefits and work with you on the joining process.
What is a Signature Offering of Your Chamber?
We are an event-based chamber with three major events supporting our community; Ankeny Chamber SummerFest, Corks & Caps and Discover Ankeny. We also host events like our Witches Night Out where we promote our shop local campaign and our Ankeny Bus Tour where people can see the growth of our amazing community. We also hosted our first ever Minority-Owned Business Summit where we are making connections for minority-owned entrepreneurs and business owners here in Ankeny.
What is Your Chamber’s Biggest Accomplishment in the Past 12 Months?
The Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce started its Multicultural Taskforce where they planned our first-ever Minority Owned Business Summit. We also hosted a class, “What Lies Between Us” an educational journey to your personal racial healing, and it was open to the community. We had a great response and have started to work on our next steps.
What Initiative/Project Are You Looking Forward to in the Upcoming Year?
We will be doing a lot of storytelling to help promote Ankeny as the best place to work, live and own a business. We have a rich history and as we approach our 150th Anniversary for the City of Ankeny it is a great time to talk about how we started, where we are and where we are going.
What Partnership Tools/Resources Have Been Most Beneficial to Your Chamber Members?
We are always pushing our members to utilize the job board to help promote employment opportunities in our community. We also enjoy the educational opportunities provided to not only our staff but our members as well.
What Are Your Upcoming Events?
The Greater Des Moines Partnership is the fourth largest regional Chamber of Commerce in the nation. Learn more about Partnership Affiliate Chambers, browse the Membership Directory and read additional Affiliate Chamber spotlights.
Melisa Cox
Melisa Cox has been the President/CEO for the Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce going on two years in December of this year. She graduated from Iowa State University and lives in Johnston with her husband, Erick, daughters Sophia (16) and Gabby (13) and their beloved boxer Tyson Gary.