Blake Fry is president of the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, a role he’s held since 2015. Fry lives in Hudson with his wife, Michele, a speech-language pathologist in the Stillwater School District, and their children, Abby and Liam. Celebrating Hudson is important to Fry, who moved to the area from Oklahoma City to work with the University of Wisconsin–River Falls to establish the campus in Hudson in 2010. His role was to oversee external relations, marketing, government relations and economic matters, which, according to Fry, was a natural precursor to the Hudson Area Chamber.
What is your favorite thing about your position?
Chamber executives get the opportunity to take on big projects and ideas that create a better community and business climate. It is much like the opportunities elected officials have, but you get to take a pass on that whole running-for-office thing.
What has been the most challenging aspect about it?
Twenty-five years ago, chambers had a near-monopoly on creating opportunities for business networking. With the emergence of social media, chambers are looking for new ways to provide return on investment to members. One way of adding value is by tracking issues that member businesses could not address on their own. For example, when we started to hear from our downtown businesses that they were losing business due to parking concerns, we worked with the city to hire a consultant that has developed a long-term parking strategy for our central business district.
What does the city of Hudson mean or represent to you?
I am amazed at the strong sense of community that Hudson has maintained during a period of rapid growth. While the city might look far different than it did even 10 years ago, what Hudson is at its core hasn’t changed. This is a community where businesses are supportive of each other, busy people go out of their way to volunteer their time to help youth, and newcomers are welcomed with open arms.
What is the most unusual part of what the area has to offer?
We recently worked with other chambers and economic development organizations to bring members of the Site Selectors Guild to our area. These are the individuals who help companies identify where they should expand or establish new operations. The site selectors said that Hudson is the best of both worlds: On one hand, Hudson has incredible natural beauty, great dining and shopping, and a beautiful historic downtown, but it is also located in one of the most dynamic metropolitan areas in the United States. When you add in the favorable business climate that has been created in Wisconsin, there is no question why Hudson has become an attractive place to live, work and play.
