Shumaker Chamber University: Built for the Storm presented by Matt Cremers
In Sarasota, storm preparation is no longer a seasonal ritual performed only when a named system appears on the horizon.
By Edit Sarasota Staff
In Sarasota, storm preparation is no longer a seasonal ritual performed only when a named system appears on the horizon. It is part of the civic vocabulary: a question of how homes are built, how businesses reopen, how neighborhoods protect one another and how a coastal community plans for a future in which extreme weather is increasingly difficult to treat as an exception.
That conversation takes center stage at Shumaker Chamber University: Built for the Storm, presented by Matt Cremers. The program arrives at a particularly useful moment for Sarasota, where growth and climate resilience are unfolding side by side. New construction, redevelopment and the preservation of older neighborhoods all raise the same essential question: What does it mean to build not merely for today’s conditions, but for the realities that may define the decades ahead?
The subject is practical, but its implications are broad. Storm-ready design touches everything from infrastructure and insurance to business continuity and public safety. For local entrepreneurs and civic leaders, resilience can mean safeguarding a storefront, a workforce or a supply chain. For homeowners, it may involve decisions about materials, elevation, drainage and backup power. And for the broader community, it is a matter of reducing vulnerability before the next emergency makes those weaknesses visible.
Shumaker Chamber University reflects the Greater Sarasota business community’s interest in pairing conversation with useful knowledge. Its programming offers a setting where professional expertise meets the concerns of a region navigating rapid change. With Cremers leading the presentation, “Built for the Storm” promises to frame preparedness as more than a response to disaster—a form of long-range stewardship.
That perspective feels especially resonant in Sarasota, where the Gulf is both a defining presence and an unpredictable neighbor. The city’s character has always been shaped by its relationship to water, weather and place. Building wisely, then, is not simply a technical challenge; it is part of the work of protecting the qualities that make the community worth building in at all.
Shumaker Chamber University: Built for the Storm takes place Wednesday, September 30, 2026. The event’s venue and attendance details should be confirmed through the organizers as the date approaches.