Have We Met Name: Barbara Engel Title: Executive Director Organization: South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Contact Information: 5908 E. Bannister Road KCMO 64134 (816) 761-7660 www.southkcchamber.com Target Businesses & Services: Start-ups and existing businesses both large and small. Services offered are education and training.
As executive director of the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Barbara Engel finds herself working closely with companies of all sizes.
“The majority of our 250 members are small businesses,” said Engel. “Our primary service is creating opportunities for people to meet, network and do business.”
Business owners come to the chamber seeking a broader network and a way to tap into new client populations. Sometimes they have specific questions about the area, especially the east side of the district surrounding the Bannister Mall area (3-Trails Community Improvement District). Engel is the only employee of the chamber, and so sees herself as jack-of-all-trades. Accounting and Web site management are outsourced, and Engel relies heavily on volunteers.
Engel said the mission of the chamber is to represent business in the Sixth Council District of Kansas City, Mo., and to work to make the area a great place to live, work and do business.
The chamber hosts a monthly luncheon at Hillcrest Country Club, a multi-chamber business fest, an annual golf tournament, an annual civic leadership program called Leadership South Kansas City, an annual awards dinner and a wine tasting/dinner auction event in the fall.
“There is often an educational component to our activities, such as guest speakers,” Engel said. “Our leadership program is one of the best in the state. It’s well organized, highly informative, bi-state and lots of fun.”
The chamber acts as a referral service to businesses in need. It is well connected in the entrepreneurial community and can usually direct start-ups, existing businesses with challenges or expansion businesses looking for the right assistance.
“We work with a multitude of organizations such as surrounding chambers, elected officials, the school districts, the police department, state departments, such as MoDOT, and neighborhood groups,” Engel said.
The South Kansas City Chamber partnered with the Raytown and Grandview chambers for the first annual Triangle Business Expo. Engel said it was a great success and a low-cost opportunity for folks to meet and do business.
Engel and her board of directors are creating a foundation called Kansas City South, which will operate autonomously and do the charitable works of the chamber in the Sixth Council District.
With the creation of the foundation, the chamber will work with surrounding neighborhood groups, Bannister Mall and the 3-Trails Community Improvement District to stop the decline in that commercial/residential area.
Engel was hired as full-time director at the chamber in 1997. She earned a bachelor’s in education from Ohio University. She taught school for 15 years, and managed the Women’s Leadership Institute and the Women’s Entrepreneur Program for Avila College. Bill Williams is the managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly.
