JANUARY 2017 • Volume 13 • Issue 1 I hope everyone had an enjoyable and wonderful holiday season. As we ring in 2017, the Queens Chamber is ramping up efforts to bring you an action-packed series of events designed to generate more business for your organization. We want to make THE QCC LOOKS FORWARD TO A TREMENDOUS 2017 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!! HAPPY NEW YEAR! I sincerely hope everyone had an amazing holiday with family and friends. In 2016, the Chamber experienced a 30% increase in membership, resulting in the representation of approximately 90,000 employees in the borough. With over 250 events throughout the course of the year, we greatly increased the opportunities for our members to collaborate and grow their businesses. And rest assured, we plan to surpass our 2016 statistics! In 2017, we are creating new partnerships and adding new, diverse events with other Queens-based organizations to pass the benefits on to YOU. Here’s a look at some major developments we will be rolling out in 2017: New Website We are completely overhauling and redesigning the Chamber website. Not to give away too much, in sum, the new site will be much more user-friendly, will be sleekly designed, and will increase the functionality of your individual Member pages. This means you will have greater marketing opportunities and abilities to build a more stylistic page. The new website is set to launch in February. Quarterly Membership Meetings We want to make sure our Members are engaged and active. To do this, we plan to host a series of Membership Training meetings to accomplish three things: remind you of all the benefits included in your Membership package, get you involved with all relevant committees, and properly train you on the new website. Being successful with the Chamber is all about networking and connecting. If you are not active with your Membership, you are not maximizing your exposure and therefore not taking full advantage of the opportunities we have to offer. Our quarterly Membership meetings will accomplish just this. Dates to be posted soon. Queens College Tech Incubator Backed by Queens College of the City University of New York, the New York City Council, and the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the Tech Incubator at Queens College (TIQC), the first such facility in the borough which will help early-stage ventures build successful technology companies and, in turn, expand job opportunities and promote innovation and development in the borough. The incubator is designed to appeal to Queens-based startups, including those led by women and immigrants. While the first incubator is housed at Queens College, the Chamber is dedicated to partnering with each college and university in Queens to set up similar incubators. If you are interested in participating, please reach out to us. More Business Card Exchanges, Committee Meetings, Job Fairs, Networking Events, and Seminars Yes, we hosted over 250 of these events in 2016, but why stop there? We are committed to making Queens the most economically-successful borough, and believe we have the ability and diversity to do so. Our success is tied to yours, so we will be increasing the amount of networking opportunities and business-building workshops. Your ideas are welcome, so if you have a topic you wish to share or present, get in touch with us and we will make it a reality. The Chamber looks forward to serving you in 2017. Respectfully yours, Thomas J. Grech THOMAS J. GRECH EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE QCC 2017 your best year yet! We are also very excited about the continued growth opportunities in our great borough of Queens. The economy in Queens is thriving which equates to growing opportunities for local businesses. One of the great opportunities for our borough is the tech sector. With academic institutions like NYU Poly and Cornell Technion, the attraction is certainly here for our younger generations. And with many other tech incubators in the works-– one of which is the Queens Chamber’s--the New York City tech ecosystem currently dwarfs San Francisco and is now contending with Silicon Valley. New York City Tech Boom Per recent statistics*, New York City’s tech ecosystem employs 291,000 people, or 7% of the 4.27 million people working in New York City. By comparison, the retail sector employs 354,000 people or 8% of total workers, while healthcare employs 665,000 people or 16% of total workers. From 2003 to 2013, the New York City tech ecosystem grew faster than both total New York City employment and total U.S. employment by adding 45,000 jobs, an increase of 18% during this period. At the same time, employment increased by 12% in New York City and 4% nationally. Dollars and “Sense” The hourly wage for a worker in the NYC tech ecosystem is $39.50 which is 49% higher than the average city-wide hourly wage. Further, according to 2013 data, the New York City tech ecosystem generated over $5.6 billion in annual tax revenues to the city, which represented 12.3% of the total 2013 tax revenue. In comparison, $2.5 billion comes from property taxes, $1.3 billion from personal income taxes, $0.9 billion from sales and use taxes, and $0.9 billion from corporation and business income taxes. Tech in Small Biz and Startups New York City tech firms are mostly small businesses that are productive employment generators. For example, the “Computer Systems Design and Related Services” industry includes over half of all city tech industries firms. Falling into this category are tech startups, which have an average firm size of 13 persons. Such startups are experiencing exceptionally high growth in NYC. Age and Gender in the Tech Field Recent college graduates are the most sought after in the NYC tech industry. The NYC tech ecosystem presents employment opportunities for all ages, but especially for recent college graduates. Tech employs people predominately between the ages of 25 and 54, while the NYC economy has greater share of people aged 55 and greater. Gender distribution in NYC is generally even except in the tech economy, which remains male-dominated. This underrepresentation is in tune with national averages, where there exists a 20% to 50% difference between the number of male and female employees. Why the Boom? The over-performing New York City tech economy is due to the digital transformation of New York City business. As companies demand more accessible, instantaneous services, tech jobs increase as well. And the more a company requires technology, guess what: the more that company will require additional tech support. Moreover, tech industries, most notably those associated with startups, are ushering in a new era of growth – the firms within these industries are younger and more volatile. *These statistics were extracted from the article, “The NYC Tech Economy,” which reported an analysis conducted by HR&A Advisors and a coalition of NYC’s leading tech companies and consultants. For an in-depth look at the findings, visit http://www. nyctecheconomy.com/. MAYRA DIRICO PRESIDENT OF THE QCC
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