Members of an organization that has been around for 105 years are unwilling to rest on their laurels and willing to make some changes in their image.
The Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce is unveiling a new Web site this month, which will include a new logo and new colors -- green and blue.
The logo will display a blue globe, in keeping with the chamber's new slogan: "Connected to the world."
The globe replaces the chamber's emblem of an airplane that flies through the blue and gray lettering.
The new logo and Web site -- www.pittsburghairportchamber.com -- are part of an initiative that members have been working on for more than a year, said Sally Haas, president of the chamber.
"We definitely have an international focus out here," Ms. Haas said, "including many foreign companies. We want people to have a global experience."
The chamber represents "31 very diverse communities" to the west of Pittsburgh. "We have mature communities and we have new communities and we want to tell our story," Ms. Haas said.
And, or course, the chamber territory includes Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay.
The chamber's territory begins at the Pittsburgh-Green Tree border and extends west into communities in Beaver County and in the vicinity of the airport.
More than 1,000 businesses are members of the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce. A staff of seven works in the chamber's main office in Moon with an additional employee in a satellite office in Carnegie.
The chamber wants to get its communities "positioned to make sure there is economic vitality," Ms. Haas said. Chamber programs include helping entrepreneurs and start-ups.
The Western suburbs welcomed the world during the Group of 20 summit. Though the summit was held in Pittsburgh, foreign leaders and their entourages flew into and out of the International Airport and the U.S. Air Force 911th Airlift Wing in Moon.
Motels and hotels in the Airport Area Chamber territory were filled during the summit, and many of those customers ate in west suburban restaurants.
Though it's too early to tell whether the G-20 will bring new business to west suburban communities, "the exposure was definitely worthwhile," Ms. Haas said.
The roots of the chamber go back to 1904 when the Merchants Protection Association was founded. It was reorganized in 1949 as the Coraopolis Chamber of Commerce. In 1970, it became the Airport Area Chamber of Commerce.
Linda Wilson Fuoco can be reached at
lfuoco@post-gazette.com or 412-722-0087.
