San Mateo Area Chamber presents 2025–26 work plan; council questions funding for leadership program

San Mateo City Council received a presentation from the San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce on its 2025–26 work plan, with Chamber leaders and local business partners outlining membership growth, event results and four priority areas for the coming year.

The Chamber emphasized member services and business retention, downtown placemaking and events, leadership and workforce development, and stakeholder convening. Erica (CEO, San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce) and Pauline Chung (director of member outreach and engagement) described results from 2024–25 and plans for 2025–26, and councilmembers asked about onboarding new businesses, funding for the Chamber’s LEAD Forward program and how the city and Chamber plan to leverage major 2026 sporting events.

The Chamber said it now has roughly 350 members and highlighted business-referral network (BRN) groups that meet regularly to exchange referrals. Erica cited an example from Carmen Avila, saying that “she credits over 221,000 enclosed business to our BRN referrals.” The presentation also summarized public events and outreach: Septemberfest 2024 drew more than 5,000 attendees based on cell-phone data; a downtown survey gathered about 1,300 responses; and the Chamber’s Best of San Mateo campaign drew more than 40,000 votes in its second year. The Chamber reported 250–320…