Here’s a bit of trivia: This nation’s first Chamber of Commerce is older than the United States. New York City merchants who wanted to defuse growing tensions with Great Britain organized it in 1768.

Many founders, including that chamber’s first president, John Cruger, a former mayor of New York City, opposed the growing revolution, although others did not. 

In fact, Cruger’s nephew was one of the New York sponsors who “brought in an ambitious young business associate (Alexander Hamilton) from the West Indies,” chamber historian Chris Mead wrote in his 2014 book, “The Magicians of Main Street: America and its Chambers of Commerce, 1768-1945.”

But, Mead added, “The merchants’ aim was reform, not revolution.”  

And so it’s been for 250 years, although Mead makes it clear that the United States would not be the world power it is today without the leadership of chamber members.

One needs look no farther than Des Moines to find chamber fingerprints on virtually every civic and cultural accomplishment of the past century. From the Iowa State Fair to the Des Moines International Airport, chamber members were, and are, key players. 

Even the city’s size, shape and type of government were driven by chamber efforts. I wrote about it in the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce’s 125th anniversary book — “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants” — published by the Greater Des Moines Partnership in 2013.

This summer those same muscular shoulders will provide new visibility for Des Moines when more than 1,000 officials from around the country arrive for the 104th annual meeting of the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) July 17-20. 

The group last came to Des Moines in 1964 for its 50th annual meeting. 

Their return 54 years later coincides with the opening of a new downtown Hilton Hotel and will highlight the many amenities downtown has added in recent years, including the Principal Riverwalk, John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park and a vibrant East Village.   

The Greater Des Moines Partnership, which includes 23 area chambers of commerce, made a bid to host the ACCE’s 2018 meeting nearly three years ago and was selected from a list of four contenders.

“It’s a real honor for Des Moines,” said Jay Byers, chief executive of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, who noted that Des Moines is the smallest city to host the event in the past 10 years.

“It’s a unique opportunity for Des Moines to showcase itself to a select group of high-powered decision makers who might otherwise never come to Des Moines or Iowa,” Byers said. 

The timing of the event, July 17-20, fits snugly between two other mid-summer extravaganzas. Des Moines Performing Arts will wrap up a 19-day run of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” on Sunday, July 15, and RAGBRAI, Iowa’s annual seven-day bicycle party, rolls out Saturday, July 21.

While in Des Moines, chamber executives can explore some of the more unusual workspace amenities created by downtown employers, including the spacious new five-story enclosed atrium in Principal Financial Group’s 1930s Art Deco headquarters building at 711 High St. 

They will also want to see the new Krause Gateway Center, although it won’t be completed until October. The $151 million future home of Kum & Go convenience stores was designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano and features its own unusual bit of visual trivia.

“The block we are on just north of the Sculpture Park,” said Kyle Krause, “is where the downtown axis shifts from a slanted grid that parallel’s the Des Moines River, to a traditional north-south grid.”

As a result, he said, one roofline is 14 degrees off center, creating unusual visual opportunities that I’ll explore in more depth in a future column.