2025 flew by — let’s run through each month and reflect on all the good stuff we did this past year!
(Advocacy folks don’t fret: Your much-needed and very-detailed “Policy Wrapped” is coming soon. Let’s reflect on the fun stuff first, eh?) Click on each month below to read the recap, and check out the "Best Of" photo album here.
2025, Year in Review:
In January we …
- Co-hosted the East King Chambers Coalition’s 2025 Legislative Kick Off event on January 7, where we platformed our 10 fellow Eastside chambers, as well as 10 elected officials working their tails off in Olympia this session,
- Put on another well-attended Eastside B2B Networking Group with the help of our friends at Reality Break Escapes,
- Learned more about local (and corporate) sustainability efforts at our January session of Executive Business Roundtable,
- And joined forces with the Seattle Chamber for our joint board meeting, hosted at T-Mobile’s Bellevue campus.
In February, we …
- Celebrated Valentine’s Day early at our Network Power Hour session on February 5,
- Hopped over to Olympia for the 2025 East King Chambers Coalition’s Chamber Day at the capitol campus on the 11th,
- Talked space and innovation with Blue Origin at our February 13th Executive Business Roundtable program,
- And hosted 500 folks for our 2025 Women’s Leadership Conference “Invest in Yourself” on February 25.
In March, we ...
- Held the first official meeting of the Bellevue Mobility Coalition, or BMC, at the Chamber office to crank out some transportation-related goals and deliverables for the year,
- Hosted a conversation with the new head of the Overlake system, Jon Duarte, at EBRT
- Heard about the feasibility of scaling nuclear power with TerraPower’s CEO at our March edition of Chamber Lunch, “Going Nuclear” on March 20
- Hopped over to Mercer Island for a joint member networking event,
- And helped organize the recent press conference in Auburn featuring local mayors protesting the state’s proposed tax policies.
In April, we ...
- Went deep into the development of commercial, residential, multifamily, and affordable housing at our 2025 Eastside Real Estate Symposium on April 3,
- Discussed cybercrimes — and how to stop them — with Microsoft’s Steven Masada at Executive Business Roundtable,
- Caught up with fellow members at Network Power Hour and Networking After Hours
- And rallied the community’s support for nonprofits at our Corporate Citizenship installment of Chamber Lunch “Corporate Citizenship” on April 17.
In May, we ...
- Brought together local small businesses to network and learn more about the Comcast RISE grant program, (S/O to Fogo de Chão for hosting us!)
- Held another get-together for our Eastside B2B Networking Group,
- Chatted about the wine industry at our final Executive Business Roundtable of the season
- Celebrated the Open House and ribbon-cutting at IMA’s new Bellevue headquarters,
- Reflected on our recent advocacy wins at our summer PLUSH Happy Hour,
- Discussed disaster preparedness at Chamber Lunch, “It's a Disaster!” on May 15
- And threw another successful “Believe” event through the Eastside Leadership Initiative.
Over the summer months, we ...
- Held our 2025 Annual Gala, the Chamber’s sustaining fundraiser, where we celebrated the boom of cricket in our region,
- Hosted a sold-out Network After Hours session with our head-o-membership, Sarah Martinez,
- Attended an official polling release party, put on by our PAC, the Eastside Business Alliance,
- Welcomed WaFd Bank’s Brent Beardall return for our Mid-Year Economic Forecast lunch,
- Closed out a particularly eventful — derogatorily speaking — legislative session alongside our fellow Eastside Chambers of Commerce for EKCC’s Legislative Wrap-Up,
- Brought on our new hire, Rob, as well as a handful of summer advocacy interns,
- Helped promote WaFd Bank’s candidate Meet & Greet mixer,
- Started hosting site tours in the BelRed neighborhood to show policymakers the impacts of different code and zoning decisions,
- Spearheaded getting our website’s Community Calendar up-and-running,
- And rolled out our new “VIBe Check” polling results webpage tracking the issues that matter most to Bellevue-ites.
In September, we put on a bunch of ...
- Member Events! The ladies got together for Meet & Eat, Meta hosted a slew of our small businesses for an AI community accelerator, Niko Financial Consulting popped by our office for a budgeting workshop, and we held a joint “Business After Hours” networking sesh with the Mercer Island Chamber.
- Ribbon-Cuttings! Primo’s, OCD Anxiety Centers, the Crossroads location of 1st Security Bank, and Hästens Bellevue each celebrated their grand openings over the last few weeks.
- Advocacy Meetings! Our Transportation Committee, Policy Council, Bellevue Mobility Coalition, PLUSH Committee, and the East King Chambers Coalition all got together to start setting our agendas for the year.
- Speaker Events! The big dog for this last month? Our Chamber Lunch City Council Candidate Forum.
In October, we ...
- Held the mega-event over at Microsoft, our Eastside Leadership Conference,
- Kicked off our Executive Business Roundtable program with a pre-World Cup briefing from our partners in Seattle,
- Heard from the King County Executive candidates at our second Chamber Lunch of the season,
- Celebrated the opening of the new BelRed Arts District studios,
- And popped across the lake for a board meeting at Fred Hutch.
In November, we ...
- Held another successful Economic Forecast Summit with Bank of America’s Joe Quinlan, and this year, our guest speaker from UW, Thomas Gilbert,
- Discussed AI during our Executive Business Roundtable program,
- Hosted two different networking events for our members — one held “after hours” and other with our partners in commerce, the Mercer Island Chamber,
- And closed out the month with our final advocacy committee meetings of the year.
And to finish ‘er off, in December we …
- Bid farewell to our VP of Government Affairs, Jodie Alberts, following our annual DC Fly In and Holiday Elected Leaders Party,
- Celebrated the opening of Theatre33’s “Studio 33” space,
- Brought our state electeds back for a "legislative look ahead” session of our EBRT program,
- And prepped for our early January Legislative Kick Off with our fellow Eastside Chambers of Commerce.
