Full-speed ahead only gear for Chamber’s Konicki

FULL COUNT: Lisa Konicki, Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, says that Westerly’s downtown is at the highest occupancy rate that it’s had during her tenure with the Chamber. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
FULL COUNT: Lisa Konicki, Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, says that Westerly’s downtown is at the highest occupancy rate that it’s had during her tenure with the Chamber. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Lisa Konicki is going full-speed ahead 17 years into her role as executive director of the Greater Westerly-Pawcatuck Area Chamber of Commerce.
She’s on a continuous mission to find innovative ways to improve business and strengthen the community.
“Our core programs have to be balanced between tourism marketing, economic development and special-event production,” said Konicki.
Among the triad of programs, all are laced with her boundless enthusiasm. Konicki is spearheading the development of a new website called Destination Downtown that’s a collaboration among several communities, linking them together as ”Historic. Hip. Happening.”
She gets fully engaged in the summertime event called River Glow, with its floating bonfires, music and fire jugglers.
Challenges to businesses in Rhode Island’s slow-moving economy just nudge her to move to the next level.
“In a sluggish economy, a chamber’s role becomes amplified because businesses are going to rely on you even more,” said Konicki. “You have to be responsive to trends and change gears. Our constituents are our businesses.”
She embraces change – and admittedly often initiates it – to keep businesses, residents and visitors interested and to invigorate the local economy.
“You’re only relevant if you’re addressing the needs of your community at that point in time,” said Konicki. “You can’t be married to one program or event. The community as a whole is very receptive to new ideas.” Konicki said there’s plenty to be proud of, despite the economic challenges facing the nation and the region.
“For us here in Westerly, our downtown is at the highest occupancy rate that it’s had during my entire career with the Chamber,” she said. “We’ve reached a point where our downtown has defined itself as a culinary and artistic destination. We have live music every night of the week.” Konicki came to the Westerly-Pawcatuck Chamber early in her career, after three years at the Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce. Her first work experience in Hartford, just out of college, got her in the habit of thinking big, with 3,500 members in the Hartford Chamber.
So when she arrived in Westerly, her first goal was to grow the Chamber’s roster of 450 members and get it on solid financial footing for long-term growth.
“We needed to find new sources of revenue, so we launched a massive membership drive. The goal was to contact every single company that was not a member and invite them to join,” she said.
The result was 123 new members in one day, increasing over the years to the current membership of 870.
A former board member of the Chamber, Barbara Stillman, who owns the Atlantic Beach Casino Resort in Westerly, said in nominating Konicki for a Providence Business News leadership award: “For more than 17 years … she has provided steady leadership during some incredibly challenging times. … She took this organization from a small-town Chamber to a dynamic regional business organization with an outstanding reputation.”
Konicki has an expansive view of what builds a healthy economy and a vibrant community.
“One thing that’s helped sustain me in this work throughout the 17 years is that this Chamber is a great force for doing good in the region,” said Konicki. “It’s our mission to create commerce, but it’s not just about helping businesses make a profit. It’s also about creating an image of our community, so people want to come and visit here and live here, and that generates money for our businesses.”
Konicki considers a wide variety of projects as part of her work. “This Chamber is absolutely committed to philanthropy and addressing community needs,” said Konicki.
“After Superstorm Sandy, we raised $428,000 for businesses in Misqaumicut,” she said. “It’s also about things like buying vintage bike racks for downtown that allow for a more pedestrian-friendly downtown community. It’s about purchasing vintage signage for downtown telling people where the train station is, where the art gallery is. These are investments our Chamber is willing to make.”
Konicki views her two-state Chamber – in Rhode Island and Connecticut – as an advantage, not separated but joined by a river.
The Pawcatuck River Duck Race, for example, makes use of thousands of rubber ducks dumped in the river to raise money for charities in the region.
“It’s two states, one state of mind,” said Konicki. “We make sure the visitors to our community don’t realize there’s a border. The flower pots our chamber purchases are on the sidewalk on both sides of the borders. The banners for our events are on both sides.”
Thriving on collaboration, Konicki is nourished by relationships she’s developed in both states.
“My Westerly magazines are on display in the Mystic, Conn., Chamber,” said Konicki. “We have a bus tour where the first four hours are at the Mystic attractions and the same bus comes to Westerly for lunch and a tour.”
Always, Konicki has something new brewing to boost the economy and the vitality of the area.
After she spearheaded an effort to get Internet votes, Westerly finished in the top 20 of more than 130 towns competing in Benjamin Moore Paints’ program called “Main Street Matters.”
“The businesses are thrilled,” said Konicki. “The company will be painting our downtown – for free – next spring.” •

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