Four Young Strategists Innovating in the Marketing and Event Spheres in Our Region
By: Emily Mook / Photo above: Part of the LRBA team (including Regitz, second from left, and Ramstead, second from right) at their 143rd annual meeting in February 2026. / Photo by Jonathan Mitchell with Simply Branding.
Throughout the Greater Lynchburg region, marketing and event professionals create and innovate brand identities, connect their businesses with audiences, and balance research, storytelling, and relationship building with impressive finesse. An ever-changing market demands versatility and adaptability from professionals in these fields, but effective brand building within such a market also requires internal and external consistency—no matter how many new chapters get added, they must all coexist harmoniously within the same book.
The Greater Lynchburg region boasts a myriad of skilled storytellers who strike this ideal balance between change and constancy, and four local young strategists in particular are doing so on another level: Kayla Boone and Foster Garrett from the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce (BACC), and Mercedies Ramstead and Hayden Regitz from the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance (LRBA).
Because chambers of commerce (such as BACC) and combined chambers of commerce and economic development organizations (such as LRBA) must promote both the brands of their members and their own brands, their marketing and event strategists must strike an even more delicate and elusive balance. These professionals are tasked with maintaining consistency while simultaneously innovating their own brands and with ensuring that the ways in which they promote the brands of their members satisfy those members and align seamlessly with their own brand stories. That’s a book that needs ample shelf space.
Boone, Garrett, Ramstead, and Regitz represent the best of a bold new wave of chamber and business alliance strategists who welcome this multifaceted challenge with open arms, open minds, and boundless energy and enthusiasm. Read on to learn more about their individual professional backgrounds, the synergy they’ve established within their respective organizations, their top marketing and event strategies and initiatives, and their favorite aspects of their careers.
Professional Backgrounds
BACC is composed of a staff of two: President and CEO Kayla Boone and Director of Marketing & Events Foster Garrett.
Boone, who is originally from Halifax, began working at BACC in November 2021 in Garrett’s current position and was promoted to president about a year later—at the tender age of 22.
Her marketing background took shape during her time as a college student studying communications at Virginia Tech. After completing marketing internships, running a women’s health and fitness organization in Blacksburg, and graduating from VT a year early, she moved to Bedford and began working at BACC. When the previous BACC president left about eight months after Boone began, the interim president soon advised the board to promote Boone to president rather than open up a search for candidates. They took that advice, and Boone has served as president since December 2022.
Garrett’s journey to BACC marked a homecoming. She was born in Bedford and developed an early passion for journalism and visual arts. After doing yearbook in school and working as a reporter for Bedford Bulletin, she went on to pursue a degree in media studies at the University of Virginia. While at UVA, she worked for a student news magazine, did some PR work, and ultimately got hired by UVA’s dining company as their graphic designer. She then went on to complete an internship at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service and to work at the Virginia Employment Commission before being hired by Boone as director of marketing and events at BACC in February 2023.
LRBA’s team consists of 14 individuals, and among them are Director of Events Mercedies Ramstead and Director of Marketing and Communications Hayden Regitz.
Ramstead came to LRBA with a bachelor’s in communication science from Arizona State University and a background in radio, PA announcing, and news. She had also managed a Starbucks, a position that entailed extensive planning and work on large marketing and event campaigns. Seeking a position with a broader community impact, she applied for the director of events position at LRBA in January 2023 and was hired that September.
Regitz earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in strategic communication from Liberty University and held an event marketing specialist position at Techtronic Industries and a marketing manager position at Amthor International before seeing LRBA’s job posting for a director of communications and marketing in August 2024. He applied, interviewed, got the job, and started working that same month.
Establishing Synergy
Because Boone and Garrett operate as a team of two at BACC, synergy between the duo is critical. Luckily, the two quickly hit it off and discovered that their shared goals and values and complementary personalities and skillsets made them an ideal team.
“We have very different personalities, but we have very similar values and we both work really hard,” Garrett noted.
The fact that the duo began working in their current positions at around the same time and had to essentially rebuild BACC from the ground up together has further strengthened their bond.
“Since we’ve had so much change and so many updates since we’ve been working together, I think that has really made us a good pair,” said Boone.
“It takes a lot of trust in your other half to be able to keep things running.”
At LRBA, engagements of all sizes are successful thanks to a seamless collaborative process led by Ramstead and Regitz.
“Mercedies is the behind-the-scenes [person] leading up to the event and I am (literally sometimes) behind the scenes during the event,” Regitz remarked. “We collaborate together leading up to the event for what is needed, such as programs or slideshow presentations. Music, print materials, AV, and presentations all fall into my bucket, but we collaborate with our whole team to get each task completed leading up to the event.”
Top Strategies and Initiatives
BACC’s marketing and event strategies and initiatives reflect a balance between innovation and consistency. While Boone and Garrett’s rebuilding efforts have resulted in an exciting lineup of modern and intentional programs, they have also led to a more simple and streamlined approach to branding.
“Chambers tend to be an old-fashioned concept, and a lot of people these days don’t know what they do, but we have built up a chamber that has so much potential for community, camaraderie, and helping people face the modern challenges of the world as it is today,” Garrett stated.
“You have to change what you’re doing so that you can face the challenges and help others grow as well.”
Two of BACC’s standout programs that foster communication and collaboration are their “S.M.A.R.T. Networking” events and “Not Just Buildings” podcasts.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for “Seeking Mutual Advancement with Resources and Topics,” and each two-hour meeting allows for networking opportunities while also offering educational panel discussions featuring speakers who are experts in that session’s particular topic. Boone and Garrett take feedback directly from BACC members when selecting topics, and past topics have included staffing (specifically recruitment and retention), grant writing, budgeting, and marketing.
“I love ‘S.M.A.R.T. Networking’ because it is connecting people in ways that go beyond shaking someone’s hand and introducing yourself,” said Garrett. “It’s helping people with professional development.”
“Not Just Buildings,” BACC’s weekly podcast, is produced by Media Squatch owner Woody Watts and features conversations between Garrett and BACC members who want to share more about their businesses. Chamber members are able to appear on the podcast once per calendar year, and interviews are scheduled by quarter—and those slots fill up quickly.
In addition to increasing exposure to a wider audience, the podcast gives the BACC team more in-depth insight about a particular business.
“The podcast enables us to learn so much more about you, and we’re then able to refer people to you,” Boone noted.
As Boone and Garrett innovate with these and other initiatives, they maximize efficiency and retain brand recognition by keeping marketing materials for each initiative visually consistent. For instance, Boone said that “now that our branding has been updated for a while, people recognize our specific job fair colors on our social media, where we have a lot going on,” adding that “that’s why we have specific event branding under the umbrella of Chamber branding.”
Because LRBA serves more than 800 member organizations, Ramstead and Regitz have found that authenticity and intentionality are key when it comes to creating marketing and engagement endeavors that strike a universal chord with members while also spotlighting them individually.
As Ramstead remarked, working at LRBA “requires balancing the needs of diverse stakeholders, aligning events with economic development goals, and ensuring each initiative delivers real value—not just event attendance.” She added that her “event philosophy is rooted in authenticity and intentionality” and that she leads “by asking why at every level: Why does this event exist? Why does it matter and why would someone attend? This gives clarity in every decision.”
Weekly “Member Monday” posts on social media highlight individual members, and consistent Alliance staff presence at ribbon cuttings—which are also shared on LRBA’s social media pages—ensure visibility for members and showcase LRBA’s emphasis on presence and support.
These notions of presence and support take center stage at the many networking gatherings LRBA offers.
“We focus on providing formal and informal opportunities to grow, connect, and build in the Lynchburg region, from an informal ‘Eat & Meet’ at Mellow Mushroom or an ‘Alliance After Hours’ at The Water Dog to more formal events such as an ‘Energy Summit’ or ‘Business at Breakfast’ event at the Alliance,” said Regitz.
A sense of collaboration and companionship that transcends business-focused interaction also derives from special engagements centered around physical activities. Ramstead is particularly fond of the outdoor programs that accompany the summer season.
“I love this time of year!” she exclaimed.
“We have a lot of engaging outdoor events like pickleball, ‘Fairways to Success’ (a women’s beginner golf series), and ‘The Briefcase Open Golf Classic.’
We always have a lot of great initiatives happening.”
At every turn, Ramstead and Regitz work in tandem (alongsie the entire LRBA team) to balance purpose and presence, education and engagement, and large-scale strategic planning with keen attention to detail.
“I’ve learned the importance of balancing big-picture thinking with detailed execution,” stated Ramstead. “Having both the team’s vision and the capacity to act on it has been key to growing this role and elevating its impact.”
Favorite Aspects
Although it is clear that Boone, Garrett, Ramstead, and Regitz each possess distinct strengths and interests that make them uniquely suited to their respective positions, their responses when asked about their favorite aspects of their careers all point to an abiding investment in and love for our local communities and the people who comprise them.
“I love organizational governance and structure and the behind-the-scenes powering the ship,” Boone remarked. “I’m good at that, it’s what I like to do, and I have been able to do it with pretty much complete control here. I’ve also been able to meet so many people here, and it’s so nice to see businesses that are taking advantage of their local resources and becoming better for it.”
“The reason that we do what we do is to advance our community: to make it more prosperous, to connect people with each other and facilitate conversations, and to help businesses grow and be more visible,” said Garrett. “It feels really good to be able to do that here, where I’m from and where my people are. It’s really rewarding to be able to impact my community and to be so connected to it.”
“I get to build something professionally that pours directly into my community,” noted Ramstead. “In this region, there are so many people doing meaningful and intentional work every single day—and I get to be a part of that.
The more I invest here, the more connected I feel. It’s a community where people genuinely care, and that makes the work matter more.”
“I truly value and love the relationships that I have made and continue to make meeting new people at Alliance engagements,” Regitz commented. “I enjoy helping individuals get connected with other members of the Alliance in their various needs.”
When it comes to these four young brand builders, both their individual futures and the futures of their respective organizations are bright. As they continue to astutely author dynamic yet reliable marketing and event stories that amplify the voices of both their respective organizations and the individual businesses those organizations represent, they help make the Greater Lynchburg region’s economic ecosystem story one for the books.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce and the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance (including membership details and calendars of events), find them on a multitude of online platforms!
Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce
Website: bedfordareachamber.com
Facebook: Search “Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce”
LinkedIn: Search “Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce”
Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance
Website: lynchburgregion.org
Facebook: Search “Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance”
Instagram: @lyhregion
LinkedIn: Search “Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance”
