Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
Join Dr. Ralph Ford, Chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and guests for conversations about interesting things happening in the Erie community.
Behrend Talks: A Penn State Podcast
Supporting Erie’s business community, with Brandon Mendoza
Dr. Ralph Ford, chancellor of Penn State Behrend, talks with Brandon Mendoza, president and CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, about the Erie 300 strategy and the role of local universities in economic-development work. Originally recorded on January 12, 2026.
I'm Dr. Ralph Ford, Chancellor of Penn State Behrend, and you are listening to Behrend Talks. My guest today is Brandon Mendoza, this president and CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership. Brandon has led the chamber since uh January 2025, just passing that first year anniversary. And today we're going to be talking about uh his observations of the Erie community, all the great work going on at the chamber and then the region. Uh, welcome to the podcast, Brandon.
Brandon Mendoza:Thank you, Ralph. Um, super happy to be on and uh happy to hit that one-year mark uh this past week and uh looking forward to a great discussion.
Ralph Ford:Likewise. Well, let me tell our listeners a little bit about your impressive background. Uh and uh I will say first and foremost, uh I know you really well. I serve as chairman of the board of the chamber and I served on the committee that hired you, so we're not going to pretend uh otherwise. But here's some of the backstory. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, but uh spent parts of your youth, I think, in upstate New York and Poconos, Cape Cod. You've lived in Pittsburgh for a significant period of time. We'll get into all of that. Bachelor's degree from Lockhaven University, a master's in public administration from the University of Pittsburgh. A lot of professional accomplishment before you came to Erie. Served as director of government and public affairs at the Master Builders Association of Western Pennsylvania, and as executive director of NAOP, a real estate uh trade group, and we'll talk about that in Pittsburgh. Served as uh government affairs manager for the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce. You were named to the Pittsburgh Power 100 list three times in 2022, 2023, and 2024. And after just six months in Erie, you were named to uh Erie Readers list of 40 under 40, among other things. So uh, anyways, uh a little bit about your background there. Let's uh let's get started, you know, as we uh think about the first year. What's your biggest takeaway?
Brandon Mendoza:Thanks, Ralph. And I I should say I just eked into the 40 under 40. I had I had to show him my birth certificate.
Ralph Ford:I wasn't going to say anything.
Brandon Mendoza:Um, but I I technically qualified. You know, the first year uh, you know, it was a lot, uh, as you know, Ralph, as the chair. One coming in organization with a hundred and fifty-year uh track record in the, you know, in the region, one just learning just where things were left off. Um, you know, kind of making sure that I wasn't coming in and implementing a whole bunch of change without taking stock of what has been and what has been done, what we've done well, what we haven't done well, and then building on and doubling down on some of the successes from the past uh while also embracing new initiatives and changes of for the future. So that was a lot of year one, a lot of relationship building. One thing I can say about Erie is that this is a relationship town. Uh the people want to know you, uh they want to be able to have your phone number on speed now for when they you know for when they need you. And uh it does take time to establish those relationships. So I had to learn early on, I had to prioritize that relationship building. Uh, even in year two and and forward, like I'm spending a good amount of my time uh relationship building, you know, without any ask and not asking for money necessarily in these or asking for support or anything, or a lot of times I'm just wanting to learn about these leaders in their businesses and their community work that they do and and what drives them. Uh, because you know, I at the end of the day, we'll figure out if there's something we can do together from a work standpoint at a later point. But the first year really just relationship development. And then at the end of this past year, as you know, we rolled out our new um strategy, which we'll get into.
Ralph Ford:Absolutely. We're going to talk about the plan called Erie 300. But let's just stick with the relationship building. I think you know, as someone who came here, uh, although I've been here in the community for quite a while, it's absolutely true. People want to know who you are. How did it happen? I mean, it I bet you people were just calling you all the time and saying, Hey, I need to meet you. And you you probably had a list of 50 people to meet right away.
Brandon Mendoza:Right. Yeah, right away. Um, you know, so whenever I came on, we sent out kind of like the mass email like every leader does, like, I'm glad to be here, blah, blah, blah. But I also added my availability and my calendar on there, and uh lo and behold, it got filled up pretty quickly. That being said, I did have to um kind of early in 25, I had to kind of really look and think about the community leaders that were not on that initial wave of meetings and make an effort myself to reach out to them. Um, and to be quite honest, there are some that I'm still trying to get on the schedule right now with. Um, and really, like I said earlier, really just to develop the relationship and to find out, you know, uh what their vision of this region is and um and how they've been successful in their work.
Ralph Ford:Well, you uh you know Western PA well. You were in Pittsburgh for a while, you were being very successful there. So, what made you decide to uh apply for this job in Erie and uh find that this is the right city for you and your family?
Brandon Mendoza:Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest. We were pro my wife and I were kind of at a uh a season change in our lives, and we kind of wanted uh a change of pace. And um, you know, we both looked at this opportunity as a new adventure. Uh honestly, we love Erie. We love being on the water, we love the quality of life, we love having the different types of quality of life relatively close. Right. If like if you want a rural setting or you want an urban setting or you want beaches, nautical setting, you know, you want you know the wine scene, the the cultural scene, you have it all here, and uh we we also think it's a great place to raise kids. So we honestly are all in on Erie. We we actually really love it. My first purchases in Erie were one, a boat and two, a snowblower. Snowblower.
Ralph Ford:So you own both now.
Brandon Mendoza:Yes, we we we own both.
Ralph Ford:Oh, perfect. Well, as you, you know, I'll say represent the business community, of course, in so many ways. You know, in terms of that business community, what stood out to you as you looked at Erie, Pennsylvania?
Brandon Mendoza:I think early on I looked out there are some pretty powerhouse civic leaders within the business community in Erie. I think what stood out was um there's a long history of civic leaders. What I think what I've noticed was missing was just, and I think it's more of a last 30 to 40 years thing, there wasn't um a strong convening entity. Meaning the chamber has been a strong convening entity, but not all of the business community has coalesced around our chamber. Whereas, you know, spending 15 years in Pittsburgh, I could say 99% of the decision makers, business leaders have coalesced around the LEAD conference. Yes. And so, and that doesn't mean everybody's a member and all of that, but it's the the key decision makers are. Um, so that was that that was interesting. Um, I think um, you know, uh as I met with business leaders, I think there's a a coalition uh or or um a recognizing that you know the region has momentum. A lot of these businesses have felt momentum in their organizations, but I think there's also uh kind of a you know, there's a lot of change. We know we just had an election in 24. We have we've got a first uh term of a new administration in at the national level. We had a county executive and mayoral race this past year. Now we've got a new county exec and a new mayor. Um, so there's just been a lot of change, and then obviously we've we've got um an upcoming gubernatorial uh election and statewide elections this year as well. So I think there's there's a recognizing of the momentum, but there's also some hesitancy in that people want to make sure they're on the right side of it. Not to mention you've got this like AI, just new age technology that's changing every industry in the background of everything. So I do think that people sense momentum in their businesses and in the region, but there's also everybody's preparing their organizations. There's a lot of uh businesses and organizations in strategic planning, uh thinking about the future. We just went through our own effort at the chamber. Absolutely. And just that future thinking is there, and everybody wants to one prepare for the growth of it, but also protect on any sort of downside risk.
Ralph Ford:Well, two things stand out to me from what you just said. First, uh, you personally seem very well connected in Harrisburg and have a lot of government experience. So let's just start with that. Do you want to comment on that?
Brandon Mendoza:Uh yeah, so I spent about uh probably what uh a decade of my life in the government affairs world at the Ellington Conference. And um in that time, uh I also led what we used to call our first Friday speaker series, uh, which was all of the government affairs people in Pittsburgh. We had a monthly speaker series, and we would bring in the you know, the speaker of the house, the governor, the, you know, all of the statewide officials, some of our federal elected and whatnot. So not only with my own work, but really through that First Friday group, I met an immense amount of political leaders, not just in western Pennsylvania, but all throughout the Commonwealth. That being said, the other thing is, you know, you know, working on the Shell project at the Ellington Conference, uh really, because my role at the conference, I led our federal and local government affairs. So I actually didn't get to Harrisburg as much as um, you know, some of my colleagues. I went to DC, yeah, you know, which one thing you learn about DC is by the time one administration goes through and another one comes through, the entire town turns over. Um so everybody that I knew is now on to their third career probably by now in DC. But that first Friday group, and then also working on the Shell project, uh, we did the at the Elgin Conference, we worked on the Shell project um with two different administrations, started with the Corbett administration, and then it turned over to the Wolf administration. So working with both of their DCED leads, and then obviously all of the elected officials involved in those. So I've got pretty deep relationships in Harrisburg now, um, even though I wasn't a Harrisburg lobbyist.
Ralph Ford:Well, one, and you just made me think about it as you're talking through this, is I definitely know you have uh a well-developed relationship with the lieutenant governor. And uh you two I think worked together a bit in Pittsburgh. So that always helps too.
Brandon Mendoza:Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say I'm I'm I'm a little bit older than Austin, but um it's kind of funny because uh I think whenever we f first started our relationship, you know, we kind of had an almost like a mentee mentor relationship, and and I was the mentor. I don't I think now, you know, he's the lieutenant governor, maybe I'm the mentee right now.
Ralph Ford:That's okay. You can take credit, I think. Absolutely. Well, continuing on, I mean, this sense of momentum, and everybody's looking forward, by the way. We're doing it here at Behrend. It's great time. We're looking at our next strategic plan, AI, all of those things, that's created a lot of momentum. But Erie often sees itself as the underdog. Is do you think that that's correct? Should we change our thinking around that? I'd love to hear what you think about this underdog persona that we we often have.
Brandon Mendoza:I think we need to rethink it. I think um from everything that we're seeing with the early adoptions of AI, our region is actually well positioned. Uh one, we have a great institution like Behrend, and having deep um you know, knowledge in terms of machine learning, engineering, uh, and obviously, you know, AI adoption. Two, I think, you know, you're looking at uh we're we just went through a year of basically jobless growth. So a lot of regions that have, you know, this is kind of the irony, a lot of regions that are are experiencing very large population growth. I think the Sundelt, right, Southwest, they're gonna start, in my opinion, they're gonna start to feel the pinch of, I mean, we basically went through a year of job stagnation here, right? Uh even if I mean my portfolio went up last year, but we didn't hire that many people in the country. I think uh you're gonna see, you know, um regions like Erie, um, that have good workforces, that have good quality of life, that are, you know, uh, I would say right now labor constrained, if you will. I think that is not gonna be that much of a downside asset in the future. I think um you're gonna see some strife with a lot of places that are not keeping up with job, you know, with job creation and so forth. Um that being said, so the other thing I think is that our quality of life is one of the best in the in the country. I think people get hung up on the snow and whatnot. And I try to remind people, it snows in Jackson Hull, it snows in Boulder, it snows in in Cape Cod. It's it I can name places that you would put as as uh first class places where it snows just as much, if not more, than it does in Erie. And I think people get, you know, it's like, have you been on our lake in a in the in the middle of summer? Have you gone to the dozens of festivals around the community? Um, you know, have you experienced wine country in the fall here? Like it's just a beautiful place. And I think we gotta like, you know, sometimes when you live a place, you live in a place, it's kind of you know uh forgotten. But like you gotta kind of remind the community um about you know just the assets that we actually have.
Ralph Ford:Yeah, you're absolutely right. I'll say, you know, maybe hallelujah, but I think we've got to change that narrative and just by not even saying it. And maybe I shouldn't bring it up here, but it you know, it has to be discussed. But to your point, you know, I grew up in upstate New York, and I can tell you it's a lot colder up there. And the summers aren't as sunny. And I spent a fair amount of my life in Arizona, and I say, yeah, it's great if you like hundred days of 100 degree weather, it gets a little tiring. So uh there's a lot to do here in the winter. Uh we we uh we get through the snow, and uh yeah, it's a it's a phenomenal place. Uh so many cultural assets, on and on and on we could go. It's uh I think it is one of your goals, and let's switch to that. Uh it's one of your goals to help tell the story differently. So you took some real significant time this year with your team. You listened a lot, and uh you've developed a new strategy called Erie 300. So take some time, step us through what this Erie 300 strategy is, and uh, you know what you're thinking about.
Brandon Mendoza:Absolutely. And so, first, one thing that you'll notice is that we did not call it a plan. It's our strategy, and the reason why we wanted to name it our strategy is because it's our real-world North Star in terms of directing our work. So, if anybody asks what we're up to, I can lay out very clearly this is what we're up to. The strategy has six key pillars. We start off with our Aries Advocate pillar, and that's very clearly any successful chamber in the country has a robust advocacy agenda and program, and they and they don't, you know, they're not they're they're not trying to boil the ocean and solve every problem, but they're picking two to three items a year, and that's their focus. You know, when we were at the L Eden Conference, we picked one to two policy items each year, and if nothing else, that was gonna get across the the finish line. Um so with our Erie's advocate work, we've got a number of advocacy items on there, but I'm not gonna have my staff try to get 20 items across. Each uh annually, we're picking one to two items and we're getting those across the finish line. And this year we're gonna be working with our um state delegation, uh, particularly Senator Laughlin uh and others in in the you know the delegation to get what we're called the AI Act um across the finish line, which will help with our regional airport, which we'll we'll talk about more. There's more advocacy work on it, but that's right now that's our our focus in 2026. Uh second pillar is um our catalyst pillar, and it's our economic development work. And the reason why why we termed it the the catalyst pillar is because we're not trying to um program manage or be real estate developers or be lenders. We're trying to connect, project manage uh one thing as a chamber. We get lots of leads from site selectors to businesses internal to Erie and outside of Erie that are looking to expand. So we're making sure that we're connecting those folks to our real estate partners about sites, that we're connecting with our electeds, about site readiness and funding and all that sort of stuff. And then also um, particularly if it's a speculative project, if there's any tenants and different things. So, our economic development work, one thing that we're doing there that's kind of new, is we're we're taking the success of our accelerator program, our our fire accelerator, uh, and we're really trying to add a 2.0 onto it that's pivoting towards Erie specific businesses. The original fire accelerator uh was what we would term as a stickiness accelerator. So you're taking in uh mostly external firms outside of Erie, and then we're uh immersing them in a uh in a cohort that's um meeting in Erie. They're staying in Erie. A lot of these folks stayed throughout the program, and the goal is to get them to establish roots in Erie. Now, this has been successful. Um First Ascent Biomedical this past year was a great success in that not only did they go through the program, uh they've also now set up a significant lab here in Erie, and from all indications, uh probably will double down on that investment in the future. Great story. So that's that's kind of like the model, right? That's that's what it was set up to do. And what we're looking at is trying to make sure that we have uh an Erie specific version of that accelerator. So not stickiness, but more businesses that are at that plateau, can they go through an accelerator program, get an infusion of investment, but probably more importantly, investment come out of the program with partners to help grow their business. So uh so those are our our main areas on the on the catalyst.
Ralph Ford:If you don't mind me interrupting, when do you see that starting?
Brandon Mendoza:Well, uh we're working right now to secure funding um for it. We have a number of um funders that we're talking to. Um but the the goal is really to have a business or two go through the program uh in 26. But we're uh trying to get the money.
Ralph Ford:Well, you've got a lot on your plate. So first two pillars, let's keep going with the third one.
Brandon Mendoza:Absolutely. The third one, which I think kind of hits off on what we talked about earlier, which is our Erie brand. I think one consistent and just about all of my meetings that I've had in in year one with members and business leaders, whenever I would ask them, like, what do they think about the region's storytelling and how we kind of position ourselves in the broader marketplaces uh in a broader marketplace? Most consistent answer was we don't really have a good brand. There are good stories that come out of Erie, there's lots of good things that happen in Erie, but we haven't done a good job of coalescing around a message and being consistent with it. One placemaking brand that I think is probably just really strong, another Great Lakes area. Um, if you think about about 15 years ago, the the Pure Michigan, that campaign they led, you know, we did some some outreach to some of those folks involved in that. And when they when they developed it, it wasn't just about what external potential tourists thought about um Michigan, it was also about lifting the spirits in the love of Michigan within Michiganders. So I think if we whatever we do on this Erie brand, it's not just about what the external people think about Erie, it's about lifting that internal love of Erie and reminding. I think it's a reminder, it's a lot of reminding that has to happen.
Ralph Ford:That this is a great place. Well, that sounds like a a big effort.
Brandon Mendoza:It is, it is now. Luckily, there I think there's a lot of partners that are willing to work with us and support that effort. Um, we're gonna be uh coordinating with uh a number of our of our leadership folks in the region on that.
Ralph Ford:Well, I said that I won't say it's not possible to do. It is actually, and I think we've got to take a different viewpoint than we have in the past.
Brandon Mendoza:100%. I mean, one good thing here is um I do have a good friend who's the um the CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee and um a very similar organization to the Erie Regional Chamber or the Allegheny Conference, regional chamber, you know, and economic development organization. And he literally just went through this two years ago uh in Baltimore, and the brand building of a region, it it sometimes sounds uh you know very big, but at the end of the day, it's like what is our message? You know, it's every business leader, right? It's being consistent and you know, and every institution has that, you've got that elevator pitch, right? Ralph, if you met a student um, you know, who was undecided uh on Behrend, I know you have your three points that you would bring up. If you met uh an alum that might write a big check to Behrend, I'm sure you have that that pitch ready.
Ralph Ford:Absolutely.
Brandon Mendoza:This is making sure that as a region we have our own pitch.
Ralph Ford:Yeah. Well, for listeners who might be joining us again, I am having a conversation today with president and CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber, Brendan Mendoza. Right now we are talking about the Erie 300 strategy that's been unveiled. And there are six pillars. We've just talked about the first three, so let's keep going with pillar number four.
Brandon Mendoza:Um, pillar number four is actually our AI forward work. And I would say, let's start with AI, right? First of all, we have to make sure that we as a chamber are integrating it in our operations in a smart way, that you know, we actually check in with industry standards and know how to use it, make sure our staff knows how to use it. So that's what we're doing right now. Another part of this pillar is uh working with institutions like Beeron on um creating a basically a collaborative where we can actually discuss what we should be doing as a region in this space. Um, you know, I know we're working right now actually with Ralph and your team and in our AI collaborative to bring in a speaker from Pittsburgh who who's a CEO of their um AI strike team to talk to us about you know what you what sort of things they're thinking about. Obviously, they've got a certain set of assets. We've got a certain set of assets here in the re in our region, but it's still good to know what other regions are doing and considering. And then um the third part of that is connected to our catalyst work on the economic development uh side, which is we have to line, we have to win some AI-related business investment. Data center would be nice, uh you know, a big AI expansion, uh AI firm expansion into the region. Um, but that be that being said, we've got a number of AI startups in the region. We, I mean, there's at least one, uh a number of them from your alums. And then uh additionally, you you know, I talked about um first ascent biomedical earlier. They're basically an AI firm, sure, right? So we're you know, we have some AI wins. Now it's about trying to build a little bit of a cluster uh in the region. Um so a data center would be ideal just to kind of make sure we're building that ecosystem here. We're talking to a number of site selectors and others on those opportunities and working with our our real estate partners, but you know, nothing um signed as of yet.
Ralph Ford:Well, is anyone on this campus will tell you we're talking about it constantly. I joke there are a few days that go by where I don't have a conversation. But the you know, I've been a big advocate that this is something we have to address as a region because it's just such a game-changing technology, and I absolutely don't want to see Erie, and neither do you, uh, fall behind in this space. And early on, the conversations we had where people were intimidated. Uh, but it's really a general purpose technology that once you start to dig in, you start to see that there are a lot of applications. So you don't have to be a deep AI researcher to get to to apply and what you're doing and uh increases productivity. I think we're seeing that in the national statistics right now and the economic growth this last year being driven not only by data centers but by productivity that comes out of it. So it's a great space.
Brandon Mendoza:Absolutely. And I think you know, we're you know, we're each year it's only going to be getting exponentially more important. So, you know, we're just making sure that we're starting that on-ramp for our members and our businesses so that they're ready as well.
Ralph Ford:All right, next pillar.
Brandon Mendoza:Uh the next pillar is our connection pillar. This is our events and our programming. Once, you know, obviously, every time you know an organization goes through strategic planning, you you're always trying to ask your members, what are the things that we're doing that we need to maintain? And at the top of that was programming and events so that members can connect. I think coming, uh, you know, we're six years out of COVID right now. Um, I think there's a lot of people that still remember a time in which they could not get together. Um, and members still were valuing experiential um events, right? They don't want to just go to an event, they want to experience an event, right? It's kind of like um, you know, experiential uh retail. They don't want to just go spend their money, they want to ex they want an experience in exchange for spending their money. So one of the things that we that we double down on in the strategy is not just event programming and events, but top-tier experiential events. Like when you go to a chamber event, you come away with either um thinking you learned something that you otherwise would not have learned or you experienced something that you otherwise would not have experienced. Um and uh that says a lot. Um, you know, obviously in 25 we brought out these uh events called our knowledge breakfasts. Uh we did something different. We made them totally free events to members because the whole point of knowledge is to try to share it. Yes. Um obviously it's not free to us. We, you know, we we got plenty of sponsors that we, you know, that we uh went after to make sure that we could make them free. But the point there was also to return member value and uh to to start a speaker series. We also uh added our our Spirit of Erie event in 205, which uh Ralph, as you can attest to, at the beginning of the year, we were coming up with this this event, and by September 25, we were at the convention center with nearly 600 people that had experienced what we talked about, an event that left them thinking, wow, this was different. So that connection pillar is really critical. Uh something that we're adding in 26 that I love is we're adding a ski outing. And this is, you know, like we talked about earlier. Time for ski outing, yeah. So in February at the end of uh, you know, so towards the end, we have um ski outing plan for um Peak and Peak. And uh, you know, so anybody that wants to attend or any members and so forth. But the connection pillar is just a critical one. It's how it's it's how businesses and leaders connect with other leaders and other businesses, is how opportunities that were off the table get on the table and so forth. And then um I'll pivot to the last pillar. Yeah, go right ahead. So while we have the Erie 300 strategy, we also have a plan in the strategy, and that's our Erie 300 plan. That's our long-term sustainability plan for the chamber. It actually is also where the name of the Erie 300 came from. So the chamber in 2024 celebrated its 150th year as a chamber. Uh last year, the city of Erie celebrated its 230th year as a city. Uh, and then this year, in 2026, the country is celebrating its 250th year. So I think you know, so you do the math, yeah. 50 years for the country, 70 years for the city of Erie, and then 150 years, you know, chamber. So that's where you came up with the Erie 300. Um, high level, it's our long-term sustainability. One of the things that we are going to do in this plan is uh start an uh endowment for the chamber. Uh and the pitch here is very simple. Think about the immense amount of good and problem solved that this chamber has done for 150 years. In our rollout video, we had a um a photo from a leader-to-leader trip. A lot of chambers do these leader-to-leader trips where they go to another city that maybe they admire, maybe they have uh something in common with, and they learn about what are they doing differently there? What's the how are they growing this particular industry? How are they doing so well in this area? Um, and so forth. So about a hundred years ago, or not about a hundred, it was literally a hundred years ago, so towards the end of the year, a hundred and something business leaders from Erie on behalf of the chamber went to Duluth, Minnesota. It's one of their many like benchmarking trips that they were doing at the time. Um, and there's this photo of like Duluth business leaders and Erie business leaders, and there's like there's a hundred of each, right? In downtown Duluth, Minnesota. Um I just wonder like what sort of problems did they come back and solve after that? What sort of businesses did they start? And one of the things I just, you know, that we're trying to remind folks with this uh long-term Erie 300 uh plan and endowment and all the work that we're doing there is we're starting to plant that seed to make sure that we're here to solve the next 150-year problems. We don't know where they're gonna be. They could be a pandemic, could be global recessions, financial recessions, new industries, you know, new paradigm shifts, all of those sorts of things. But that's why you need institutions that are there that can be there whether you're in growth times or lean times.
Ralph Ford:Well, super well said, great vision there. I want to talk about two things before we finish up. One is uh I'd love your perspective on universities, innovation, entrepreneurship, what you see in this community, because that is often the lifeblood of new growth. So what's your what are you what are your observations so far?
Brandon Mendoza:Well, I think most successful regions have academic university institutions that are doing more than just educating students. Obviously that's that's mission number one in at any academic institution is to educate students. But you know, let's just say your institution and and the work that you guys are doing at Knowledge Park, you're a key part of our economic growth in the Erie region. Um and that's that's you stepping outside of you know, kind of pushing the envelope. Um and most most successful regions need institutions that can do that and will do that. Whether, you know, it's Pittsburgh and CMU and Pitt or you know, or um you, you know, obviously the research triangle, obviously, well known. I can go on and on, but you need some institutions, and not every institution is in a position to do it. Um obviously resources matter, you know, access, all of that sort of thing. But you have to have it. Um because not only that, the amount of businesses that start out of our top-tier academic institutions, the amount of problem solved, you know, much like chambers, right? How many problems are solved daily, right? But um on the economic development side, on the innovation cluster side, you know, we're you know, we're trying to build these clusters, right? You kind of built, you built this cluster right here at Knowledge Park.
Ralph Ford:Absolutely, yeah.
Brandon Mendoza:And um, you know, I think you know the the goal is long-term to make sure that they're that's also part of that AI cluster building and so forth as well. But that's the great thing about those institutions. The other thing is that a lot of these um investors in businesses, they like locating near innovation clusters themselves, too, right? So the you know, they have a whole bunch of problems they got the they want to solve, they like being located to problem solvers. So to me, it's a win-win.
Ralph Ford:The number one reason we get companies in the park. First and foremost. So it is about talent, and of course, our mission is to produce those extremely well-prepared students, but all the companies they they do want to be here for the research, they want to be here for the intellectual property that comes out of it. But first and foremost, they want to be close to the talent pipeline because talent, no matter what's going on with AI, I think long term, I know job growth is more anemic in the country this year. People still need talent, they fight like the Dickens for that talent and being close, and that's the that's why a lot of regions are successful. So, yeah, you know, I'm a true believer in this, and uh I believe universities have a large part to play and should play if they're able to.
Brandon Mendoza:100%.
Ralph Ford:The other thing I wanted to talk about uh was some of the successes actually. And uh you've had uh some really nice success in partnership with the uh Erie Regional Airport in the uh Fly Erie Fund. So why don't you walk us through what's been transpiring there?
Brandon Mendoza:Absolutely. So uh over the last number of years, a chamber had started what we call our Fly Erie Fund. And I think, you know, importantly, we're not trying to subsidize every flight out of our airport. I think that's kind of a misconception a little bit in the community. The overall flight Erie fund is to basically invest in a key number of flights that help increase air traffic at the airport that in turn then lowers the average employment cost that the airport has to pass on to airlines. So by increasing you know, strategically increasing um investing in flights that increase the um the overall average of flights, that increase in average of flights helps lower the uh average employment costs. And when that average employment cost is lowered, then our metrics go up because the let's just say I'm gonna I'll get to Chicago in a second. But uh let's just say you um you're flying to um you know Florida or Charlotte right now, right? Let's just say right now we're at the better, we're on the better side of the metrics of of those um airlines, meaning uh not only are our planes full, but you know, their average ticket price is probably a little higher. So that means their margins are higher, which means more flights for Erie. Right? So you you take all of that, and um, I should say the Fly Erie Fund did not uh subsidize any flights for the Chicago service that was announced, but we didn't need to because the average employment cost um and the flight metrics of the existing flights at the airport were such that uh both you know American and um United saw really strong metrics that they wanted to get back in on this market. So that's good, that's a part of changing that that narrative too, because it's it's math, right? They you know at the end of the day, the airline industry is in the in the industry of making money.
Ralph Ford:Super competitive, yeah.
Brandon Mendoza:Yeah. And at the end of the day, we we as a region uh put together a good strategy to help us change our metrics. Now, there's still a lot of long-term work that needs to happen, not just on uh keeping our employment costs low, uh, but make sure that our uh our airport has the um the necessary revenue that they need long term, not just for operations, but also for um facility improvements and um other other uh upgrades. Uh the other thing is that we're definitely gonna be looking to continue the additions of service. You know, uh we uh we're we're looking at a number of markets um that we may go after over uh over the next few years or so as well. So we're not we're not just gonna rest on our laurels with Chicago. We want a few more flights. I think for a region of our size, an airport of our size. Um, you know, getting to um about a dozen direct flights would be ideal and so forth, you know. Not to speak for Derek, you know, we'll talk directly on um, you know, what his goals are and so forth. But I you know, I I should say, you know, I'm very pleased. I'm very pleased with just the return of the service to Chicago for what that's gonna do, not only for business travel, but also for leisure travel as well. Absolutely. And I'm very pleased that two airlines came in because that's important for our consumers in the Erie region and keeping those costs, you know, we want to make money, but we also want to make sure our uh competing, our Erie folks are getting uh like a good price point.
Ralph Ford:Well, the thing that you said that's really important, and I'll stress it again, is this is not just a short-term fix that the fund goes away and that the situation returns. You create a structural change so that the whole competitive situation is strong enough then to sustain airlines coming here. And I think it's important what you said. There's no funding going for the Chicago flights, that's just based on the success of the metrics of the airport.
Brandon Mendoza:Yep, that's based on economics. And I think the I'm I'm very long-term, and and um you're right, it's not a short-term fix. We are trying to help save our airport for the long term because it's an asset that if it were not to be here, it would be very hard to start. And it's such a when we talk to our larger businesses in the community, it's a pivotal thing that they need to keep adding jobs at their existing operations, let alone new investments and new operations. So it's a it's a critical need.
Ralph Ford:Well, we're coming to the close. So I'm going to ask you this what does success look like for you in the chamber five years from now?
Brandon Mendoza:Oh, um, that's a tough I need the entire hour for that one, Ralph.
Ralph Ford:Uh maybe we went through it with over Erie 300.
Brandon Mendoza:I would say so. In our Erie 300 strategy, uh, we have our Erie dashboard, and I'll tell you what we said to our board, which is obviously you you know very well, Ralph. Um, we're trying to get to 90 to 95 percent completion on our dashboard. There are some items I'm sure that won't get done. 90-95% is our target. The good thing is um we we've already got a few things ticked off already, and we were trying to add Chicago service in 26 and got that, got that uh got it in 25. Got that in 25. Uh, but that being said, um, we have a dashboard. We're we're reporting out quarterly to our board. Um and um, you know, and uh and we will be uh sharing that with members and the public, like not the dashboard, but the the metrics as we check them off and so forth. Um we're trying to be as transparent as possible about telling the story about not just the problems, but when things get solved, we want to we wanna talk about them and and make sure that there's a celebration about those things as well.
Ralph Ford:You have been listening to Behrend Talks. This is Chancellor Ralph Ford, and my guest today has been Brandon Mendoza, the CEO and president of the Erie Regional Chamber. Thanks for being with us today, Brandon.