It is serious this time.  Not just the Navy, but the Secretary of Defense have said they want to base a nuclear aircraft carrier in Jacksonville rather than Norfolk. Troubling to area economists and business and political leaders, the defense department’s stated desire to permanently base a flattop in Florida, rather than in Hampton Roads, could cost the region thousands of jobs and millions in lost income.

On Wednesday, March 17, from 7:45-9:00am at the Town Point Club, World Trade Center in downtown Norfolk, LEAD Hampton Roads will stage a provocative panel discussion on the subject, featuring civic leaders who are working to keep all east coast carriers in Norfolk.  Moderated by former TV talk show host Joel Rubin, the event, entitled “Anchors Away?” will feature the following guests:

• The Honorable Joe S. Frank, Mayor, City of Newport News
• RADM Fred Metz (Ret.), Blogger
• Greg Grootendorst, Chief Economist, Hampton Roads Planning District Commission
• C. Grigsby Scifres, Partner, Williams Mullen; Board Member, Hampton Roads Military & Federal Facilities Alliance and Past Regional Board Chair, Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce
• Jeanne S. Evans, Hampton Roads Representative, Office of Senator Jim Webb

If interested in attending, contact Amanda Gant at agant@hrccva.com.

LEAD Hampton Roads, a program of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce, is a 501-C3 leadership development program now entering its 22nd year of serving the region. The organization has over 1,200 graduates who actively provide bold leadership to more than 600 regional businesses, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies. LEAD Hampton Roads serves the 17 communities that comprise the greater Hampton Roads area.

The Hampton Roads region is a great place to live, work and visit. And, it’s only going to get better.

Donna Morris, Executive Vice President of the Hampton Roads Partnership, spoke with Gary McCollum, Sr. Vice President and General Manager of Cox Communications Virginia, on Cox Connections. The show will air during the entire month of March about Vision Hampton Roads. Watch the video online at the link above.

Hampton Roads has dealt with reductions in workforce within a number of firms, as has every corner of the nation during the Great Recession which began in 2007. In preparation for recovery, a group of regional organizations and community leaders collaborated to develop “Vision Hampton Roads,” a regional plan with a five year horizon. This “Vision” employs strategies and actions which leverage regional strengths to diversify and grow the economy, positioning Hampton Roads as an even more impactful leader in the global economy of today and tomorrow.

In economic development today, it’s important to address who and what is Hampton Roads as a region; who lives here and why; what is the region’s business identity; and how entrepreneurs, creativity and innovation are attracted. Regions that thrive in the “new economy” will be those cultivating innovation, truly educating their workforce, investing in infrastructure and creating quality places, like Hampton Roads.

“Vision” planning has placed Hampton Roads on a path to regional transformation by embedding a working process as we think, live and act regionally.

In 2009, Hampton Roads lost 6,000 jobs, a figure that economists at Old Dominion University believe will eventually be adjusted to 8,000 jobs. The regional economy continues to be buffered by federal and military spending, but how long does that last? And should we have all of our eggs in one “basket”? The president, the governor and many other politicians are touting their job-creation plans. But what are the jobs of the future economic recovery in Hampton Roads? How can companies take advantage of these new types of jobs?

Jobs in health care and services could replace construction and manufacturing jobs. But how do you train for these new job demands and who will do the training? If new industries such as clean energy emerge, what kind of jobs will they produce? Will the need for these new jobs change the mission of the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance and the goals of the municipal economic development departments?

On the morning of March 16th at Norfolk Waterside Marriott, a panel of those “in the know” will tackle these issues at the Cox and Inside Business Executive Discussion Series. Register here.

Panelists are:  Vinod Agarwal, PhD., Professor of Economics, Old Dominion University; Judy Begland, President and CEO, Opportunity Inc.; Deborah DiCroce, President, Tidewater Community College; Darryl Gosnell, President & CEO, Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance; and Rodney Jordan, Think Tank Director, Joe Jordan Foundation. Moderator is Cathy Lewis, Host/Executive Editor at WHRO.

On March 5, Inside Business published comments from each of the panelists.  Of particular interest were those from Rodney Jordan who is Director of Community Impact for One Economy Corp., a global nonprofit organization that uses innovative approaches to deliver technology and information to low-income people, as well as Think Tank Director of Joe Jordan Foundation.

Which industries are the best to generate jobs in Hampton Roads?

The question posed is rather broad and that in and of itself is a concern I’ve had so that I will seek to address it in my answer to the second question. For this answer, I will target jobs that provide sustainable or higher wages that leverage our existing assets or create an opportunity for new industries that build upon our workforce talents. To list some:

• Clean renewable energy jobs that give the port a competitive edge especially when it comes to manufacturing and shipping large components that defy ground transportation.
• Modeling and simulation.
• Biomedical and biomedical research.
• Advanced manufacturing.
• Information technology that continues to build upon our region’s importance to national defense, homeland security and related technologies and spinoffs.
• Health care and health care R&D, which leverages facilities such as Hampton University’s Proton Therapy Institute.

How do we get those jobs here?

In addressing this question, I would like to move a little beyond the traditions of regional cooperation, growing a skilled and educated emerging workforce, worker retraining, and economic development incentives. All of those are important and needed. In this instance, I want to also address regional equity and maximizing all the human and institutional assets in our community. I believe a start for attracting jobs to Hampton Roads while competing against other regions is to fully embrace the principles of regional equity and full Inclusion.

The Hampton Roads Partnership recently released its draft regional economic plan, Vision Hampton Roads. As I read the draft, the following statement captured my attention, “The racial and ethnic composition in Hampton Roads is significantly different from that of the nation. Hampton Roads has proportionately more African Americans than the nation and proportionately fewer persons in every other racial category.” I believe this composition provides Hampton Roads with a great competitive advantage if we fully embrace it in policy setting and leadership, business development and opportunity, and full discussion in our public conversations. When I served several years on the Southside’s workforce development board, I was often amazed at the lack of awareness of the significant contribution to our economy, research and employment base provided by institutions such as Hampton University and Norfolk State or the many businesses owned and/or operated by African Americans, 33 percent of our Hampton Roads population. One important way of growing jobs is increasing the numbers of African Americans involved with our regional leadership at the lead staff and policy-making levels and boldly tackling the disparities that still exist in contracting with historically underutilized private-sector firms. In our discussions of regional cooperation, we should strongly embrace regional equity.

Regional equity comprises three basic premises:

• Regional health depends on the health of all the region’s sectors – public, economic and civic.
• Central cities and declining suburbs cannot successfully confront the problems of concentrated poverty independently, that is, without a regional focus.
• A regional approach to equity supports rather than undermines the political power, social cohesion and sense of place of all residents of the region, but particularly those communities who have long been denied effective voice as a result of regional forces.

Jordan is leading One Economy’s efforts associated with Cisco System’s 21st Century Schools program – a $40 million investment by Cisco in Louisiana and Mississippi – whose primary goal is to improve and expand learning opportunities for students by integrating technology into classroom activities.

He is also a founding partner of MELANET LC, an Internet Web development, consulting and technology training firm. Jordan was a principal architect of the Hampton Roads Community Leaning Center Network, which created and supported community-based computer learning centers in under-served communities throughout Hampton Roads. Jordan received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Hampton Institute. He is chair of the Norfolk State University Science and Technology Academicians on the Road to Success Advisory Board; on the board of directors of the Old Dominion University Community Development Corporation; and a board member of the Hampton Roads Workforce Development Board. He was a member of the board of commissioners of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority from 2002 to 2009, where he held the position of vice chair, and immediate past vice chair of Hampton Roads Ventures, a community development investment firm. He is on the board of directors of The Joe Jordan Foundation and of the Urban League of Hampton Roads.

Wilson’s preschool and JCOC Oceanfront Head Start in Virginia Beach are the first early childhood programs in South Hampton Roads to earn a four-star rating under the Virginia Star Quality Initiative.

No facility in Virginia has earned five stars under the program, which is administered by the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation and the Virginia Office of Early Childhood Development.

“The quality rating system is really the Consumer Reports of child care,” said Lisa Howard, president and CEO of Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, the nonprofit that coordinates local participation in the program.

The first round of ratings were released last year. Parents can find ratings online at www.SmartBeginnings.org and related sites.

No facility in the state has received a rating less than two stars, but even a rating of one star means a facility is improving. Facilities in the initiative voluntarily open their doors to state-trained raters who assess interactions between teachers and children, and the quality of the learning environment and instruction.

The facilities also provide documents to the state verifying their teachers’ education, qualifications and training, as well as the staff-to-child ratio and the number of children in each class, said Katie Squibb, a quality coordinator at Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads.

Following those assessments, state-trained mentors help the facilities develop and implement improvement plans.

Smart Beginnings South Hampton Roads, which has been involved in the program since 2007, has recruited 78 facilities around the area to participate, Squibb said. To date, 19 of those have received ratings.

Smart Beginnings provides scholarships to teachers in the program to help them attain academic degrees and certificates in early childhood education, Squibb said.

Facilities can attain higher ratings based on the level of education of its staff. “Everything that we do is to help these centers get a higher rating,” Squibb said.

Simonsdale teacher Sandra Ratcliff is studying early childhood education at Tidewater Community College thanks to the program. “I’m extremely grateful for it because I would not be able to do it on my own,” she said.

by Cheryl Ross, The Virginian-Pilot

“With proper foresight, continuous planning and dynamic economic development, Hampton Roads will be recognized internationally as a region fueled by Innovation, Intellectual and Human Capital, Infrastructure and a Sense of Place.”

What started as just another economic development planning tool, one intended to aid local governments in decision-making and with accompanying federally mandated guidelines in order to qualify for federal grants, has become so much more.

While the “Vision” document does analyze regional and local economic conditions within Hampton Roads and identify projects, programs and initiatives that address economic development, this process was very different from past such economic development strategies.

Public participation was a key element. “We need more opportunities like this to voice our opinion for the future of Hampton Roads,” said one public commenter.

It was clear that economic development of today is much more far-reaching than what property is developed to become the next shopping center or housing development.

It’s important to address who and what is Hampton Roads as a region, who lives here and why, what our business identity is, how we attract entrepreneurs, creativity and innovation and what is new and different in today’s planning, to name a few. These common themes, labeled “Sense of Place,” emerged to be almost as important as the original goal of the process:  to achieve U.S. Dept. of Commerce Economic Development Administration’s Federal Economic Development District Designation.

After months and months of meetings involving a broad cross-section of our region’s communities and significant public input, the document is complete and now posted at http://VisionHamptonRoads.com.

But, this is just the beginning. The real work starts now.

Hampton Roads Partnership (“Vision” lead organization) President and CEO, Dana Dickens, is making the rounds of public meetings, governmental and organizational alike, delivering the message of alignment that is Hampton Road’s first comprehensive region-wide economic development strategy.

Click here for the Virginia Beach Council Meeting Video.

To make progress in each city or county of Hampton Roads, clear goals must be set and aligned regionally, public involvement must be considered and success must be measured, says Dickens.

At a recent City of Portsmouth planning retreat, Liz Povar, director of business development for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, said  “Teams that win play as partners,” adding that she knows that’s not always easy on the local level. If any theme also emerged during the Portsmouth retreat, it was the value of regional cooperation.

All citizen comments may be found in the Public Responsiveness Summary, added as Addenda #1 due to its length as it is longer than the document itself. Participants can see how their comments were integrated into the final plan.

Some especially poignant comments include:

“As you move forward with this activity, make certain you are seeing these visions through the eyes of the different generations, i.e., k-12, college age, new career starters, mature family builders, and retiring people. Each group’s vision is affected by their current life needs,” cautioned one resident.

“Vision Hampton Roads is a comprehensive, objective and very credible document. If it does in fact increase momentum to think and act regionally, its value – and impact – to the area’s economic vitality and quality of life will be tremendous,” added one respondent.

Overall, the strategy-creation experience in Hampton Roads has been about setting into motion an ongoing process that is embraced by our region. “Vision” planning has placed Hampton Roads on a path to regional transformation by embedding a working process in all that we do as we… think, live and act regionally.

A separate Executive Summary has been posted as well and includes a table of contents for the complete document. Specific task forces to implement the plan are in the development stages and volunteers are welcomed. Citizens of the region are encouraged to review “Vision Hampton Roads” and stake a claim to the component (or components) where you can help make a difference.

Volunteer at Contact@VisionHamptonRoads.com.

Guest Speakers are:

• Robert J. O’Neill, Jr. Executive Director, International City/County Management Association (ICMA), widely recognized for his “reinvention” of the government of Hampton as city manager from 1984 to 1997, and
• William Schneider, PhD, Author, scholar and former Senior Political Analyst for CNN. Schneider was born in Portsmouth and attended Woodrow Wilson High School. He is one of the country’s foremost political analysts, serving as CNN’s senior political analyst from 1990 to 2009. He is Hirst Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and Distinguished Senior Fellow and Resident Scholar at Third Way, a Washington think tank.

The event is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is required due to limited space.

FIELD[S] OF DREAMS. Though fields are literal, geographic spaces, they are nonetheless imbued with magic, mystery, wonder and possibility — the very elements of dreams. Norfolk and Old Dominion University will become this field, literally, as the 2010 ONFilm Festival celebrates the magic of the imagination.

The 4th Annual ONFilm Festival, a collaboration between Old Dominion University and the City of Norfolk, will be held March 24-27th at ODU.

The 2010 Career and Industry Day will be held on Saturday, March 27th at the University Theatre, between 46th & 47th on Hampton Boulevard. Parking is available in the garage between 45th & 46th. Schedule:

• Career Fair, 11am-2pm
• Filmmaking in Hampton Roads Panel hosted by Jeff Frizzell, 1-2pm
• Student Film Festival Screening, 2-4pm

The Career Fair is a great opportunity for companies to meet students, not only from ODU, but all the college and universities in Hampton Roads. If you are looking for full or part time employees, interns, or just some resumes to put in your pipeline, this is the place to be. Even if you do not have any current needs, please take the time to come out and support the coming film students from our community.

If interested in the 2010 ONFilm Festival Career and Industry Day,
please contact the Hampton Roads Film Commissioner, Jeff Frizzell at FilmOffice@HRP.org. The Film Office website is located at http://FilmHamptonRoads.com.

The new GI bill has helped spur an enrollment boom at Tidewater Community College, which has the nation’s second-highest number of students receiving benefits.

TCC is the only community college in the top five with 1,414 students enrolled last fall at its four campuses under the Post-9/11 GI bill according to a recent ranking by Inside Higher Education, an online source of college information.

Many of the top 25 schools are primarily online programs, such as Capella University, or schools in areas with a concentrated military population, such as San Diego Mesa College and Florida State College in Jacksonville.

Two other local schools ranked in the top 25: Old Dominion University, eighth, with 725 students, and ECPI College of Technology, which has two campuses in Hampton Roads, 18th, with 536 students. The chart and TCC used enrollment data as of Dec. 9.

The new GI Bill, championed by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., covers all tuition and fees for some recent veterans at public and some private schools. Often, benefits can be transferred to a spouse or child and can be used for books and housing. The program went into effect last year.

“A distinctive piece of Hampton Roads is the military presence, thus a distinctive piece of the community college for Hampton Roads should be military,” TCC President Debbie DiCroce said, “and we’ve embraced that for years.”

One appeal, she said, is that TCC offers programs that are familiar to those in the service. Compared with  other TCC students, those on the GI Bill are taking more career and technical programs such as in information systems technology. A higher percentage are on the transfer track, meaning they will move on to a four-year college.

TCC’s lower costs are attractive to all students, DiCroce said.

DiCroce said the school has striven to create a reputation of being military-friendly. Through partnerships with ODU and Norfolk State University, it offers Army and Navy ROTC programs, and its campuses often have served as a training center for the Navy.

excerpts from Denise Watson Batts at The Virginian-Pilot

The Small Business Administration and the Office of the Secretary of Defense sponsored a workshop on January 25^th and 26^th at the Renaissance Portsmouth Hotel for a recently announced Robotics Technology Cluster initiative.  Hampton Roads is one of three regions participating in the pilot initiative. Southeastern Michigan and Hawaii are the other two.  The Michigan cluster focuses on ground robotics, Hawaii’s on undersea robotics. The Hampton Roads cluster focuses on port and harbor security.

This cluster aligns with the strategic vision of the Hampton Roads Chapter of Autonomous and Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) professional group and the regional Robot Venture initiative sponsored by the Hampton Roads Military & Federal Facilities Alliance (HRMFFA).

Over 240 participants  heard key note talks from Congressmen Glenn Nye and Randy Forbes.  The workshop included several panel discussions on resources available to the small business and robotics communities both on a local and a national level.  Presenters represented the Department of Defense (DoD), the Small Business Administration, NASA, the Department of Homeland Security and other regional stakeholders.  After listening and questioning the presenters and panel members, attendees participated in group breakout sessions where ideas and strategies were gathered to identify port and harbor security focus requirements.

The six breakout topics covered: Comprehensive port and harbor security, emergency management, sensors fusion, alternative energy, manned and unmanned systems integration, and workforce development through a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics focused education approach.  Discussions were facilitated by subject matter experts in each topic area, and the majority of participants attended up to four different topic sessions over the two day workshop.  Feedback from the workshops will be used to create a framework of action for the robotics cluster going forward.

Presentations from the workshop are available on the Robot Venture website: www.robotventure.org/rvinformation.html. More information as the cluster activity progresses will be posted as well.

by Program Managers Bill Piersol, Robot Venture, and Andrew Sinclair, Hampton Roads Partnership; Photo credit:  U.S. Navy