The Sedona Chamber of Commerce has started the new year with a new president and CEO, David John Key, formerly director of business development at the Tempe Chamber of Commerce.

“I’ve worked marketing, events, business development and membership, kind of seeing the well-roundedness of the community work. I felt like now I want to be on the advocacy side, now I want to lead the team,” Key said. “The organization is potentially looking for something new, someone with new ideas, with a fresh face, a drive for entrepreneurship. Kind of the core of what the future looks like is spending time talking to all these various stakeholders to find out what is it that they need … finding out if tourism is going to stay a focus for the city, if they need assistance, where we can partner. I think it’s really finding that middle ground … Advocacy is really the future of this chamber.”

Key explained that his definition of advocacy in a chamber context was “connectivity with our elected officials … letting people know what’s going on, educating people on policy, and then also representing them at city council meetings, representing them with associations.”

“I’m always a numbers guy. I think economics is the backbone of any good policy,” Key said. “I definitely want to accumulate as much data as we can when we make decisions and kind of being a partner in relaying some of that business information to the representatives.”

“Economic prosperity — if I could pick two words, that really summed up my goal here,” Key continued. “I want the business owners that are here to thrive because it’s the wellbeing of their family. It’s their standard of living, hopefully rising with time … Economics are kind of coming into that conversation around families, child care, health care. It’s all tied together. So while we’ll stay in our lane and focus on business, I’m hoping that by doing our part, that we’re feeding back into growth in all areas.”

Key said that economic considerations will also shape his thinking on the vexed question of short-term rentals.

“I kind of come back to economics with all things,” Key said. “There’s two sides to it, healthy competition, but again it’s awareness and education, but you still can’t control behavior. We can’t stop it. I would more so encourage those folks that are owning short-term rentals in town to actually participate with the chamber. That way we could have those conversations … We don’t want to see neighborhoods be swallowed up by short-term rentals, we want to preserve the community, yes, of course. In Tempe there were shortterm rentals and it worked out.”

“In any free market, usually more competition is better for the consumer,” Key added.

He was optimistic about Sedona’s economic prospects for the coming year.

“I think a lot of growth,” Key said. “Every area of challenge presents an opportunity … I think bringing a new, renewed spirit of entrepreneurship and finding out, you know, I want the chamber to be a problem-solver. When people are trying to grow in scale and they’re encountering challenges, I want us to be a partner in that. I think with that deliberate assistance in growth that we can achieve — and it has to be an all-ships-rising-on-high-tides, it can’t be just one or two businesses growing.”

Key is taking over a chamber that frequently gets blamed by residents for creating or exacerbating tourism in Sedona.

“Anybody who would blame the chamber, I would invite them to sit where you’re sitting now and share their story,” Key said. “It’s easy to critique, but I’d invite anybody who’s critiquing to maybe provide an idea or solution as well. Ideas based on the same context that they’re using to critique, the same mindset of, they want what’s best for Sedona, so do I. Let’s chat.”

He also indicated his support for the chamber’s Uptown Visitor Center.

“I think it’s a beautiful thing,” Key said, commenting that he had previously made use of the visitor center himself as a tourist in Sedona. “The volunteers are very knowledgeable, educated, they care about the community … it’s a great location, it’s a great way for the city and the chamber to still partner on tourism. It’s a great centerpiece to our visitors.”

An Arizona native who received his business degree from Arizona State University, Key is now living in West Sedona.

“I really want folks to see me on the weekends and see me in the coffee shops in the mornings, see me in the evenings maybe enjoying some of the arts and culture and entertainment,” Key noted.

In a new twist for a Sedona chamber head, one appropriate for a city animated by the arts, Key also has a professional background in the music industry. Starting as a violinist, he later took up the guitar and played in the Tempe-based rock band Never Let This Go from 2013 through 2017, after which he worked as the tour manager for the metal group Ded. He still writes music, although he’s not currently planning to start performing again.

“Musicians and bands, they really are small businesses. A service we’re offering across the board to any small business, I would invite artists to take part in that,” Key said. “It’s a niche business, as with all communities that are smaller … but I think it’s that much more exciting to find the smaller communities within the larger community. Just interested in seeing who’s been here a long time, who’s authentic and local to this area, who’s kind of built that culture from within.”

“What I’ve learned is that music is like international language to me,” Key continued. “It’s the language we all speak and appreciate. Having traveled around the world and back through music, what I appreciate is the culture behind it.”

In another change, Key indicated that youth outreach is an emerging theme in his thinking.

“I want to actually dive in and kind of learn from those who have lived these careers and decided to end them here, because I think there’s potential to close that loop, is to really encourage and mentor the youth coming out of the community,” Key said with regard to Sedona’s aging population — at 32, he is just over half the median age in Sedona — 58.7. “That’s one of my goals. Leverage those successful careers and that knowledge and wisdom and bring it back to some of the youth that’s passing through the high school.”

“I hope more young people get involved in voting,” Key added. “That’s kind of where sometimes the chamber services can concurrently serve the community. Education, broadly, on ballot initiatives, for example.”

“We want the business community to have more of a voice,” Key observed. “The value of the chamber is really the people in the chamber.”