It was standing room only under the 360-degree screens of The Domes in San Jose on June 29 as the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce gathered hundreds of community leaders for its Legends & SV Champions: Annual Awards & Celebration.

Among the luminaries honored on stage were Santa Clara Vice Mayor Albert Gonzalez, Santa Clara City Council Member Kevin Park, State Assembly Member (D26) Patrick Ahrens, Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, Milpitas Mayor Carmen Montano and representatives of the Turkish and Colombian consulates.

Event sponsors and partners included Rotary District 5170, Santa Clara, and Rotary’s newest affiliate club, Rotary Silicon Valley Leadership.

The event was the first large gathering at The Domes, the immersive dome in downtown San Jose that opened to the public just ten days earlier. Chamber CEO Harbir Bhatia thanked the venue’s operators and VTA  — which helped the Chamber get use of the venue — for the “sneak preview” of the site.

Santa Clara businesses and civic leaders were spotlighted at the event.

Santa Clara’s Idyll Times Wines was named Woman-Owned Business of the Year, recognized for its contributions to the city’s local economy. Method 42, a Santa Clara event design and production company, was recognized as Ambassador of the Year. Santa Clara restaurant Jalsa received the Business of the Year award. The owners accepted the honor by thanking their staff, diners and the chamber for their support.

The evening’s most emotional moment came when Miles Barber, longtime publisher of the Santa Clara Weekly, received the Chamber’s Lifetime Legacy Award for decades of contributions to local journalism and community engagement.

Barber received a standing ovation as he took the stage.

Sutter Health received the Leader of the Year award in recognition of its partnership with Santa Clara University to launch a new medical school and its investment in a new hospital in Santa Clara.

Incoming board chair Ravinder Lal also paid tribute to former chamber president, the late Joe Siecinski, recalling that about six years ago, Siecinski was part of a core group — alongside Bhatia and others — who established a vision for the chamber, when the organization was “kind of in eclipse.” That vision was that “business does not stop” at city lines.

Lal emphasized unity among the chamber’s member cities heading into its next chapter, telling the audience, “We are stronger together as a business community,” regardless of city boundaries.

Park reinforced that message. After telling a joke about which city is the “heart” of Silicon Valley — “Everyone knows Silicon Valley has no heart” — gave a serious answer to that question. “The heart of Silicon Valley is all the businesses that come here.”

In closing, Bhatia echoed that message, noting that without thriving local businesses, cities and counties lose the funding base for essential services.

Additional Awards

The chamber recognized many other honorees over the course of the evening, including:

Young Entrepreneur of the Year: Michelle Wu, recognized for her leadership through the Santa Clara Schools Foundation fellowship program and community projects, including a district-wide farm-to-table dinner.

Silicon Valley Business of the Year: UPS Store and Selectiva Systems, a San Jose-based technology firm specializing in cloud, ERP and digital transformation solutions.

Member of the Year: Alice Village was honored for her leadership and service on the chamber board.

Games Award: Presented to community leaders — including several former professional soccer players and youth sports advocates — for supporting Silicon Valley’s hosting of Super Bowl LX and the 2026 World Cup.

Inclusion Leader of the Year: Silicon Valley Community Media.

Youth awards recognized several student leaders, one for developing an AI-powered tool to support English-language learners and another for helping bring 19 new traffic-safety signals to a San Jose neighborhood.

Carolyn Schuk can be reached at carolyn@santaclaraweekly.com.