TD Local Shines on the North Coast

Oregon State Chamber of Commerce awarded Seaside Chamber of Commerce (Katie McCloud) in recognition of an Outstanding Social Media Platform for her ‘Women in Business’ campaign.

Oregon State Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Conference took place in Hood River this week, themed ‘Rise to the Challenge’.

With 111 Chambers of Commerce across all of Oregon (80 of which are represented by the OSCC), this conference is the largest gathering of chamber professionals in the state of Oregon.

Katie lived in The Dalles for more than 10 years, attending school, working 3 jobs at Cousin’s Country Inn, and was a former employee of The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce, where she served in multiple capacities. She started as an ambassador & greeted the cruise ships; she conducted ribbon cuttings and spent time with authors/visitors for tourism familiarization tours, and eventually she ran events like Cherry Festival and Hops & Hogs.

Katie during setup of 2019’s Cherry Festival in The Dalles

She moved to the Oregon Coast in 2021, realizing that the next step of chasing her dreams for small business advocacy & speaking up for those not getting the recognition they deserve was over 150 miles away.

Here's what Brian Owen (Seaside Chamber CEO) had to say about this rising star: “The Seaside Chamber is proud of all leaders within our community. Our organization, last year, hired a young inspired professional who has grown into not only a community leader but a trusted, celebrated, and now award-winning leader. Congratulations Katie McCloud, we are honored you choose us as your team!”


More about the Award Winning campaign from Katie:
”This was a very last-minute idea we had, and I called someone who we all know as "Miss Seaside" to be a guinea pig for this idea (Ruth Swenson of the Hillcrest Inn),” said Katie. “I sat her down and asked her 5 questions and posted them on social media and It. Blew. Up. The amount of support likes and reshares is something we never would have imagined. And from there we went to work. We knew this was not only something that was wanted but truly needed as a way to give back to these incredible women.”

“We have interviewed and posted 27 women from a wide variety of businesses. Monday through Friday in the month of March. Not only is it highlighting them but we also ask them who inspires them and whoever they say that is our next interview. So, it is women supporting women while also sharing their advice to the next generation of female leaders, asking them, “what they would tell their younger selves” to “how they got started and why.” I have never had so many emails and messages, and even being stopped on the streets as I have with this campaign. If a post is not up by a certain time, I am getting people asking me 'when is it out? Who is next? are you going to interview this person?'“

“This has been a very emotional campaign, and there have been many teary eyes as I talk about it at events or when I am listening to the recordings,” Katie said.
”I type word for word what they said so it truly sounds like them. We also put a fun, candid photo of them instead of a headshot to show their personality. The best part of this is showing the women what the last person said about them and seeing them feel so appreciated and seen. And also, being at a networking event and hearing at the next table 'did you know that about so and so? I had no idea she did that!'“

With how overwhelmingly positive this has been from people in the community we are going to grow upon this and start a committee, a webpage with resources, luncheon speakers and so much more.

This is just the beginning, and the community is wanting more.

I started this almost selfishly as I personally wanted to know more about these women, and I figured if I wanted to know I'm sure other people did to.”