Mejia: How the McAllen Chamber of Commerce can become more relevant to local businesses

MCALLEN, Texas - The new CEO of McAllen Chamber of Commerce has given his vision for the group.Josh Mejia was appointed president and CEO of the chamber in the summer. He recently gave a presentation to the McAllen Citizens League.“In the year 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic was at its peak, there was a massive shift of mentality that took place in the country that steered away the attention from Wall Street to Main Street, and that's still going on. And that's something that we should all be extremely passionate about,” Mejia said.One of the new initiatives, Mejia said, is supplementing the City of McAllen’s economic development efforts.“We're focusing on supplementing the city of McAllen’s economic development efforts…  by providing entrepreneurship, commercialization and innovation programming to be able to help these businesses not only start, which is the surface-scratching that we have been doing for several years, but to take a much deeper dive and be able to scale up to any level they wish to desire.”By that, Mejia said, he is talking about helping Mom and Pop shops become a brick and mortar. He said the chamber should be able to help such businesses if they want to mass produce. “(We want to) be able to engage them with traditional and non-traditional financing resources. The sky should be the limit here in the city of McAllen. We have all of these elements and resources that a lot of folks sometimes go to other parts of the country to seek,” Mejia said.“We have it here. It's just a matter of consolidating them. That's a low-hanging fruit. And as a chamber, if we truly have the heartbeat on the pulse of the business community, then this should be a very easy win that should excite everybody moving forward.”Editor’s Note: The attached podcast features Mejia’s presentation to the McAllen Citizens League.Go to www.riograndeguardian.com to read the latest border news stories and watch the latest news videos.