Momentum has been building in our region, and here at the Chamber, we can feel it. We felt it when the Convention Center opened, when All-Star Week hit T-Mobile Park, and when Tacoma Link expanded to Hilltop. It’s momentum I feel more and more every time I see a small business’ door open on a clean street downtown, or when tourists pack the nearly completed new Seattle Waterfront.

And at our Regional Leadership Conference last week, that momentum launched its official name: Upward Together.

Upward Together was born many months ago while sitting at the Chamber conference table with some business leaders and community partners, including recently retired community and business legend Phyllis Campbell. We were marveling at all the significant milestones coming to our region in the next five, 10, 15 years. We reflected on how much the business community had contributed to making the milestones happen. We talked about how important it was for all of our community to celebrate and feel connected to them.

And we realized this concept was something we could organize around. So, we got to work enlisting partnerships from groups like Together Washington. Chamber member company DH came up with a name that captured the vision. If you’ve seen me lately, you may have noticed I am wearing a necklace with a gold arrow pointing upward – it’s a necklace that I gravitated toward that sealed the deal on the name!

Upward Together is a collaborative, community-wide effort that celebrates the region’s big wins like large-scale events, venue openings, and important anniversaries. It is a coalition of like-minded partners who are dedicated to fostering inclusivity, creating more opportunities within our communities, and generating enthusiasm, which is especially important in the wake of the pandemic.

The goal is to bring us together so that everyone can champion one another’s efforts – and to start to think about what’s next.

I left our Regional Leadership Conference inspired after hearing from Boeing Commercial Airlines President & CEO Stan Deal, FIFA World Cup 2026 CEO Peter Tomozawa, and Gardner Global Inc. Founder & CEO Jaebadiah Gardner. We talked about how to position the region to lead on sustainable aviation fuel, transform King County’s civic campus into a modern and welcoming neighborhood, ensure that our transportation system is meeting everyone’s needs, and use partnerships to take advantage of the opportunities to electrify our systems to combat climate change.

I shared one of the Chamber’s values, We are Leaders, and one of the hallmarks of that value is seeing the landscape and the big picture. As leaders we need to focus on two big-picture things.

First, making government work for business so we can continue to generate prosperity for everyone, and to grow the economy in the region.

Second, as an employer community, we need to rally around a vision, celebrate the milestones together, and set our sights on the things we want to accomplish to make this place we all love even better.

If we want our region to dominate in AI, what is the one thing we can all agree we need to do and how should we focus on it?

If we are going to accommodate future growth, how should the business community spend our political capital?

When the Seattle Waterfront is completed, many of us are going to remember one thing we personally did, or that our company did, or that the business community did, to contribute to making that vision a reality. What’s the next thing you want to look back on and remember?

One way you can share your thoughts right now is to take our Business Index Survey, which will be open for just a few more days

You’ll be able to give us your input on:

  • Key problems of employers and their employees in Seattle
  • Future plans for maintaining a business presence in Seattle
  • Changes you have made or are considering regarding work sites or spaces in Seattle
  • The state of in-person work in Seattle

There are many amazing things to look forward to in our region: light rail expansion to points east, north, and south, creating more connections to the 42-mile Eastrail, and cutting the ribbon at the Sounders’ new practice facility at Longacres.

Let’s keep up the momentum, celebrate the wins, lift each other up, and embrace collectivism when it comes to our success.

That’s our call to action, and that’s Upward Together.

With enthusiasm,
Rachel