The staff of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated another year of progress and development in the community during the 127th annual banquet held at Midnight Garden on Thursday evening, which featured a keynote address from Ilana Preuss of Recast City LLC and a pair of new awards alongside the Community Impact recognition.

After thanking the host of sponsors who made the event possible, Hy-Vee for catering the dinner, Midnight Garden for hosting and Chamber Events and Tourism Coordinator Brittany Sichra for her planning efforts, President/CEO John Hall reflected on the year that was.

“It’s clear to me that this past year’s been an incredible one not because it’s been easy but because the momentum we’ve worked so hard to build is finally helping us unlock and achieve some of the major efforts that we’ve long envisioned,” Hall said. “Big projects are moving. Community priorities are aligning, and we’re seeing the kind of progress that only comes from persistence and partnerships and shared vision.”

He highlighted the growth of the local 4th of July celebration and Marshalltown as the Red, White and Blue Capital of Iowa, a new human resources study and subsequent recruitment video and staff additions and promotions at the Chamber.

“It’s the strongest and most well aligned team I’ve had the honor to work with, and they show up every day with heart, hustle and purpose,” Hall said.

Looking forward, he said the community’s businesses need housing, retail options and amenities to attract great employees, and he also discussed the Chamber’s efforts to engage and inform the public through the Main Street reconstruction project. Hall then introduced Preuss, whose past experience includes work at Smart Growth America and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and echoed the themes of other recent banquet speakers as she dove into strategies for redevelopment in struggling cities with a focus on small-scale manufacturing.

She asked audience members to consider why they do what they do and what drives them forward before sharing some examples of communities like La Grande, Ore. that found ways to reinvent themselves.

“They knew that this area that was once thriving could be again, but that they needed to go about it in a different way. What worked 20, 30, 50 years ago was not gonna work today, and they recognized that,” Preuss said.

Downtowns full of empty storefronts and disappearing middle class jobs, she added, are widespread problems in cities across the U.S., and Preuss then dove into what she saw as some of the biggest drivers of these problems: an oversupply of retail space (and as a result, dying malls and business districts), the high cost of renovations, and an expectation that the arrival of a national chain will save a community.

Her suggestions for reversing the trends centered around what she called a series of ’80s style improvements: avoiding ‘silver bullet’ solutions, creating great and unique places to attract and retain talent as a competitive edge and helping businesses build deep roots. As she segued into small scale manufacturing, Preuss used the shorthand phrase “hot sauce, handbags and hardware” and cited the example of Lillie Mae Chocolates, which she had visited earlier in the day and also had complimentary popcorn on hand for attendees. She also shared stories of other successful operations around the country including a turkey call manufacturer and retail store in Alabama.

A recent survey of small to mid sized towns in the South and Midwest found that people stayed for three main reasons: places to gather, people felt included and aesthetic beauty.

“That’s what tied people to a place, and we can use small scale manufacturing businesses and grow small scale manufacturing businesses by doing that and starting with what you have,” Preuss said. “The way we always start is by saying ‘Well who’s already here, and what do they need? And how do we grow that?’ And focusing on the people in the community today and what those needs are from those business owners and who wants to create those businesses.”

She urged those in the crowd to take actions that would catalyze the changes they want to see and create a spark for small scale manufacturing. Preuss also commented that in some cities, zoning restrictions have hampered entrepreneurial endeavors and advocated for an environment that incubates new businesses.

“We’re finding that this is the spark that gets people excited about what’s possible. This is the spark that creates great places that talent want to be and want to stay. This is the spark that really creates that economy that isn’t the only engine,” she said. “We want that positive feedback loop to be going so it can do it on its own.”

The spaces and buildings for such businesses may already exist in Marshalltown, she said, and closed by encouraging community members to take initial steps and spread awareness.

“I believe that it is about helping more people achieve their dreams. I believe that every place deserves to feel valued and valuable and that the people who live there also deserve that as well, no matter where we are (or) who we are in the country,” Preuss said. “This is about building up that local resilience and both acknowledging and continuing to grow that community pride, which is so apparent in this kind of work. And so it is about talking to new people, finding those strengths, identifying those gaps and really making it easy to be an entrepreneur in the community.”

Once Preuss had wrapped up her remarks, the Chamber staff presented a total of three special awards. First, State Farm Insurance Agency Owner and Class of 2008 MHS graduate Tyler Peschong was recognized as the inaugural Rising Star, and the Marshalltown Community College (MCC) eSports coaching team of Andrew Goforth, Nate Rodemeyer and Max Pietrzak received the Tourism Champion Award from Chamber Tourism Director Dylan Does. Goforth then delivered a memorable and fiery speech in which he declared that Marshalltown is “the house” of eSports within the state of Iowa, drawing on the well-known adage “the house always wins.”

Finally, Midnight Garden and Midnight Ballroom Owner Luisa Ortega received the Community Impact Award and stood at the speaking podium facing out toward the crowd inside the venue she owns for the first time. Damon Morrison was recognized for his year of service as the Chamber Board President before the banquet was officially adjourned.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.