Greater East Dallas Chamber of Commerce CEO Megan Dennen at East Dallas Middle Ground. Photography by Amani Sodiq.
Krystal Choate may be fairly new to the East Dallas community, but she’s already invested in helping our female neighbors succeed.
The FASTSIGNS East Dallas business development manager came from Florida, where she took pride in being involved with the local chamber of commerce. Now that she’s in our neck of the woods, Choate has connected with the Greater East Dallas Chamber and helped start the Women’s Collective.
“One of the things that I’m super passionate about is helping other women in business,” Choate said. “Not just in the sense of like, ‘How can I sell you a sign?’ but more so in the sense of, ‘What do you need?’ Maybe I know something that you don’t know, or maybe (Chamber CEO) Megan (Dennen) knows how to do something that I don’t know how to do.”
The collective’s inaugural event will revolve around fashion, crafting a unique personal brand and what your style communicates about you. Own the Room: Building Your Signature Style and Professional Brand will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 11 at East Dallas Vintage. (The event itself also honors the goal of supporting women by being held at and promoting a woman-owned local business.)
“We’ll actually have a stylist there talking about how to pull different pieces together to really create your own personal style,” Dennen said. “One thing that this group is really passionate about is that no matter what your business is, your brand and how you represent yourself should stay true to who you are. You might be in this business today, and then six months from now, you’re in a new business, but your personal brand goes with you whatever business you’re in. You still are you.”
More events in this series on building a personal brand are expected to be held next year.
“As we go into 2027, we’ll figure out frequency and need because the chamber is all about meeting our members where they are and how much support they need,” Dennen said. “So, if they need more support or less support, we’ll mimic what the committee and our members need.”
Events hosted by the collective will be open to all kinds of professional women. This includes those who aren’t chamber members, but there will be encouragement to join.
“We all feel very strongly that by joining a chamber, you can help move your business forward professionally and personally,” Dennen said.
In the long run, Choate wants the collective to be not just for networking but also growth. She even has big dreams of planning a related three-day conference with inspirational speakers in the coming years.
“It’s a place where women can build meaningful relationships, where they can strengthen their personal and professional brands, learn from one another, and create opportunities for each other,” she said. “When women come together with purpose, we don’t just build stronger businesses. We actually build a strong community, and that’s what the goal is, to create a community of women that will support each other in everything we do.”
“Own the Room” is free to attend, but register beforehand here.
