Chamber News

Welcome New Members

Construction & Engineering Shared Interest Group Discusses AI Integration

Early Wednesday morning, members of CCCBI’s Construction & Engineering Shared Interest Group gathered at Triple Crown in Radnor for a candid conversation about the AI usage, integration and security.

The discussion brought together Chamber members who have been acknowledging the growing presence of AI in previous construction and engineering SIG meetings. Noting this recurring theme, CCCBI welcomed Alex Smith, founder of spktr to offer some expert insight into how and why AI can be used for this specific industry.

Alex shared practical examples of how these businesses could use AI agents to streamline everyday operations while keeping people at the center of the decision-making process. From evaluating whether to bid on a project, to turning job-site conversations into daily reports, to creating a centralized “company oracle” that makes institutional knowledge easier to access, AI has the potential to help businesses work more efficiently with the teams they already have.

The conversation also emphasized that implementing AI comes with important responsibilities. Attendees learned about considerations around liability, insurance, privacy, data security and establishing clear internal guidelines for how AI tools should be used.

These discussions are exactly why CCCBI created our Shared Interest Groups. They provide members working in similar sectors an opportunity to speak candidly about common challenges, learn from one another, identify emerging policy issues and recognize that many of the pressures they are experiencing are shared across the industry.

Thank you to Fearless Resaurants and Sydney Grims for hosting our group. And we are especially grateful to Stephen Volpe of Volpe Enterprises for his leadership of the Construction & Engineering SIG and to all of our members who contributed to such a productive conversation!

Youth Leadership Program Kicks Off 2026-2027 Year at Wawa Corporate Headquarters

This week marked the official kick-off of the Chester County Chamber Foundation's Youth Leadership Program for the 2026-2027 school year!

We started on a high note by visiting Wawa Corporate Headquarters in Media. Nearly 30 10^th, 11^th and 12^th grade students from schools across Chester County gathered for a full day of team building exercises, Wawa history and fun.

The day began with introductions between this cohort, which will become invaluable as the students cultivate their personal and professional networks. Next, came a founding exercise in YLP, The Bagel Project. Here, students are broken up into teams to found, build and execute their own company and specialized product - bagels. With creativity and teamwork, the students created business plans, designed new products, crafted a full marketing campaign including ads, commercials and social media. This exercise is fundamental in fostering camaraderie and sets the tone for the program year ahead.

Following The Bagel Project and a delicious from Wawa, John Kalogredis, manager of Food Service Process Design and Integration & Chester County Chamber Foundation Board Member, guided our students on an in-depth tour across the Wawa Red Roof Campus and office space. It was incredible to go behind the scenes of their test kitchens, staging workshops and much more.

Thank you to our gracious hosts for an amazing start to our year!

Legislative Update

Virtual GAC Meeting Welcomes Five Panelists for Midterms Forecast

CCCBI’s Government Affairs Committee hosted former elected officials and political strategists for a discussion on the November 3rd election and the political dynamics in Washington, D.C.

GAC Chair Charles Boruchowitz and Vince Galko, Managing Director of Mercury Pennsylvania, moderated the panel, which included:

· Toby Moffett, former U.S. Representative for Connecticut's 6th District

· Vin Weber, former U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 2nd District

· Annie Kuster, former U.S. Representative for New Hampshire's 2nd District

· Brette Powell, former Special Assistant to President Trump and Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison

Panelists shared their perspectives on the upcoming midterm elections, including the fight for control of the House centered in Pennsylvania races, such as PA-01 and PA-7. Panelists drew on experience from both sides of the aisle and in the White House, speaking candidly about the changes each party has experienced over the past 20 years and how they saw the parties evolving in the future. Panelists fielded questions from some of the over 50 members in attendance, including on the Farm Bill and other key legislative items.

At the state level, the General Assembly has few session days left and, with heightened tensions, is unlikely to move on key legislation, such as regulating skill games.

Thank you to our guest speakers and to our Members who joined us for this timely discussion.

Member Spotlight

Plan for Technology

Here's a question most business owners never think to ask, and it's the one that matters most: how do you know your IT company is doing what they say they're doing?

You get an invoice. You get a report. Maybe a dashboard with some green checkmarks on it. But can you verify the backups ran clean? That every laptop is actually protected?

That access got pulled when someone left in March? For most owners the honest answer is no.

Not because they're careless, but because checking that work takes the exact expertise they hired someone else to have.

So you trust. And trust works fine right up until the day it doesn't.

That's the gap our Certified IT approach is built to close. Standards, so systems are set up consistently instead of one-off by one-off. Documentation, so your environment can be explained to your team, your auditor, or your insurance carrier without depending on one person's memory. And verification, which is the part almost nobody does.

This year we became the first company in the Philadelphia region to earn SPECTRA cybersecurity certification. It's an independent audit of the security controls we actually deliver. So what we tell you about your protection isn't our word for it, it's an auditor's. For a lot of our clients it also means better terms on cyber insurance.

We've been doing this since 2003, for companies from five people to a hundred plus. The threats have changed, the tools have changed, the rules have changed. The bar for proving you're doing it right should have moved too.

Don't take an IT company's word for it. Ask them to prove it.

610.933.2421 | planfortechnology.com