Emeryville Commerce Connection: It's Not What You Know, But Who You Know
Emeryville is one of the most eclectic square miles in the Bay Area. Cultivated meat companies and ice cream shops. Biotech labs and boutique hotels. Artists, lawyers, city planners, and cannabis retailers. All of them operating within a few blocks of each other. Most of them never meeting.
That was the reality for nearly a decade.
Seth King, Mary Lou Thiercof, Christa Williams and Mathias Lemos Castillo at the May 2026 Emeryville Connexions event hosted by Hyatt House (featured on the @emeryvilleconnexions instagram)
In 2015, when the Emeryville Chamber of Commerce dissolved, something subtle but significant disappeared. The deals and the work kept going. But the room where people bumped into each other — the table where a restaurant owner might overhear a conversation that changed their business, where two strangers figured out they could help each other — that room went away.
Mary Lou Thiercof knew what that silence cost. A communications professional who had served as chamber president in Solana Beach and as board member of the Emeryville Chamber for seven years, she had seen firsthand what happens when a business community actually talks to each other. She also understood what was quietly draining away when the
Chamber closed its door.
So, in 2018, when the City's Economic Development Advisory Committee launched BizNexus, a series of informal networking events, Thiercof showed up. She helped tend those early gatherings, and she watched something take root. A few people meeting for drinks became a group. A group became a community. And in March 2024, the Emeryville Commerce Connection officially launched as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit.
Now there is a room again.
Once a month, ECC hosts Emeryville Connexions at a rotating lineup of venues across Emeryville. Flores Cocina & Bar at Bay St. Trader Vic's on the marina. Townhouse Emeryville. The Public Market. Tipsy Putt. The location changes every time. The purpose holds steady: get people in the same room.
And the room itself is something to see.Foods, building the nation's first large-scale cultivated meat facility, alongside maker Double Rainbow Ice Cream. Sutter Health and a boutique physical therapy practice. IKEA and a two- person law firm. Three hotels, a sculptor, a cultural district, and a dessert restaurant - JARS by person law firm. Three hotels, a sculptor, a cultural district, and dessert restaurant - JARS by Fabio Viviani. These are businesses that would not naturally cross paths. Once a month, they do.
That crossover is the whole point.
Board Chair Christa Williams, Marketing Manager for Bay Street Emeryville through CenterCal Properties, said it plainly at a recent event: keeping Emeryville healthy and vibrant takes people who are willing to be in the room together.
Mary Lou Thiercof has been making sure that room exists. And every month, more of Emeryville walks through the door.
If you have a business in the City of Emeryville and you're looking for your people, Emeryville Commerce Connection is here.
Learn More and join this amazing community at emeryvillecommerceconnection.com →
