Friends,
I hope you have had a successful 2024 and that your year is coming to a satisfying close. As we finish out the year and look ahead to 2025, I want to thank you for your support and for being an important part of our fast-growing and amazing community. At the Asian Chamber, we are excitedly planning 2025, but I wanted to take a moment to reflect on this past year and give you perhaps a glimpse of what’s ahead…
Our plan at the start of 2024 was to level up EVERYTHING – in fact, “Level Up” was the title of the 2024 State of the Chamber – and I am proud to say that we more than delivered.
A few of GAACC’s 2024 events: (l to r) Yellow Yellow performs at Nightmarket.fun – May, 2024; Board Chair Minh Tran at State of the Chamber – February, 2024; Dr. Loretta Chen addresses the crowd at the inaugural Asia x Austin International Market Summit – March, 2024
Just some highlights for the year…
- One of our long-standing and popular groups, the GAACC Women’s Club, added an entirely new set of wellness events to their series, doubling opportunities for the group to connect. Our thanks go out to 2024 Women’s Club Captain Aileen Yu, owner of Mathnasium of Southpark Meadows, for developing and launching the Wellness Meetups!
- We launched the Asia x Austin International Market Summit during SXSW to explore the rapidly growing ties between Austin and Asia. At Asia x Austin we also partnered with Unstoppable Domains to launch .AUSTIN – making Austin the first city in the United States with a Web3 domain! Registration is now open for the 2025 Summit – we hope to see you there.
- Heading into May, Minh Tran took over as GAACC Chairman of the Board and, in his first formal role as Chair, helped celebrate the Austin AAPI Professional Summit.
- Mid-May we launched the Austin Asian Impact Day at City Hall to meet with City Council members and Travis County Judge Andy Brown. We released the results of our powerful new Impact Survey, recognized Channy Soeur for his extensive contributions to the Asian community in Austin, and celebrated relationships with key partners like Accenture, Angelou Economics, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, and Opportunity Austin.
- We worked with our friends at The Lunar Foundation to launch Nightmarket.Fun where we welcomed almost 100 vendors, more than 20 entertainers, and over 2000 participants with lines around the block…
- We partnered with AABDC and Bank of America to bring back Project Rebuild and provide $30,000 in small business grants to ten local, Asian-led enterprises! That program was part of our Small Business Summer series where we worked with the City and our partners at DECA – the Diversity and Ethnic Chamber Alliance to bring greater resources to small businesses across the region.
- Together with our DECA partners the Black Chamber, the Hispanic Chamber, and the LGBT Chamber, we helped establish the REED Advisory Council and advanced the REED Plan, an important program designed to help deliver greater economic equity across the region.
A few of GAACC’s 2024 events: (l to r) GAACC Women’s Club meeting – April, 2024; DECA’s REED Plan Announcement at Austin Public Library – July, 2024; Austin Asian Impact Day – May, 2024
- We launched the GAACC Foundation to promote Asian art, culture, and education in Central Texas. The Foundation’s first public-facing program was Asian Eats ATX – an all-new event concept for Austin designed to raise funds, celebrate Asian cuisine and culture, and create a whole new way to be a foodie in Texas. Thank you to Kimberly Chung at Orchid Events ATX for helping us make that happen!
- Coming out of the summer, we launched the GAACC NextGEN Committee to help support the development of young AANHPI entrepreneurs and professionals. In related news, we also welcomed the first cohort of the GAACC Leadership Accelerator to empower high-potential Asian leaders in Central Texas.
- Later in September I was pleased to accept the invitation from Williamson County’s Judge Gravell to join their delegation to South Korea to participate in the Williamson County/Yongin City “Sister City” signing ceremony. That same week GAACC signed an MOU with the Yongin Chamber of Commerce. Also, as part of our efforts to support Williamson County in reaching their goals to attract and support Korean businesses, we launched the Korean Business & Technology Committee and a Korean Business Workshop Series.
- In October we had another awesome and sold-out Fall Classic Golf Tournament, followed by our annual Board Retreat where we welcomed SEVEN new Board members. We also held our Annual Advisory Board Mixer where we recognized Rashed Islam for his leadership and incredible contributions to the Asian community in Central Texas over many years.
- In November we “Awakened The Dragon” at Ovation where we presented the 2024 GAACC Business Awards to four area businesses and individuals, recognized Clifford K. Chiu for his extensive global, national and local contributions to the AAPI community, and presented Jerry Won with our coveted “Achievement” award.
- Finally, we closed out the major events of the year at our Winter Member Party where we announced that we’ve crossed the amazing milestone of 5,000 Chamber members!
A few of GAACC’s 2024 events: (l to r) the inaugural Asian Eats ATX – September, 2024; the 11th Annual Fall Classic Golf Tournament – October, 2024; Ovation Gala: Awaken The Dragon – November, 2024
It’s been a very special year at the Asian Chamber, and we could not have done it without you. I want to thank our members for your support, our staff for believing and delivering, our committee leaders, Board members, and Advisory Board for your leadership, guidance, and dedication, and all our volunteers, partners, and sponsors for all coming together to help us make the incredible possible.
Next year – I assure you – we will not slow down. We will continue to level up, build community, and deliver on our mission to be THE leading partner driving economic growth and opportunity for businesses with ties to Asia and Asian Americans in Central Texas. Please mark your calendars to join us on February 13th at our 2025 State of the Chamber to learn more about our plans for the year.
From all of us at GAACC – we wish you Happy Holidays, a Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year.
Warmly,
Mark Duval
President & CEO
Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce