Esther-Marie Lawrence, the new Executive Director of the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce, addressed the Rotary Club of Thomasville on Thursday to discuss her role and plans for the organization. The Chamber has played a significant part in supporting local businesses and fostering community growth in Thomasville for over a century.
Lawrence highlighted the Chamber’s leadership class, which has operated since 1981. “This has been an integral part of the community since 1981, and is one of the more special things the Chamber does,” Lawrence said. “We take around 20 emerging leaders through a very intensive leadership development program throughout the entire year.” The program runs monthly for a year and includes both training sessions and visits to local businesses.
“They do leadership development in the morning and then in the afternoon we go out to businesses, industries, and other organizations where they get a lot of backstage access,” Lawrence explained. She encouraged members of Rotary to nominate potential participants from their organizations.
The Chamber is also recognized for its ribbon cutting ceremonies for new or expanding member businesses as well as quarterly networking luncheons. “We do a lot of ribbon cuttings for all of our new members who wish to have one,” Lawrence said. “We also do ribbon cuttings for our members that are launching a new branch of business or commemorating a significant anniversary.”
Networking events have been an important offering from Chambers across the country, but participation changed during and after COVID-19 restrictions. Lawrence described how event attendance shifted: “Once the program started to be re-offered, people were not in the mood to gather,” she said. “When we surveyed our members, they didn’t want to come to a business after hours; they wanted to be home with their families, so that’s when we created Thomasville’s Chamber Connects, which are held quarterly during lunch.” With interest now increasing again, she indicated plans to survey members about future gatherings. “It is my hope we will be having more networking events, activities, and opportunities for our members to gather,” she said.
A notable initiative is the School2Business Summit designed to connect educators with local industries. “We want our educators to see what the business needs are and our industries to understand what’s happening in our schools, because they are the ones preparing the next generation of workforce,” Lawrence said. She added that collaboration could help retain young talent within Thomasville.
“You are investing in these young people and this future workforce,” Lawrence said. “It’s such a shame to put all energy into them and then they move away and do not let this community enjoy the fruits of their labor. We want them to stay.” To further integrate younger residents into local commerce, there is now a Young Professionals group open to both members and non-members.
Lawrence concluded by expressing enthusiasm about expanding programs at the Chamber: “I’m excited to bring back more programs to the Chamber.”
Further details can be found at https://timesenterprise.com/2025/07/30/rotary-club-hears-update-from-new-chamber-director/.
