LEAD Hampton Roads awarding regional cooperation and progress

The LEAD Hampton Roads Class of 2009 is awarding a "First Citizen" and an "Outstanding Organization" for their contributions to regional cooperation and progress. Nomination Deadline: May 7, 2009

Click on links below to make your nomination online:
First Citizen Nomination
Outstanding Organization Nomination

From the LEAD Hampton Roads Class of 2009:
How can Hampton Roads function as a commercial, educational and cultural region that thrives as a single entity? Can we maximize the use of our facilities and infrastructure to function in concert? Are we able to overcome our differences and commit to a common destiny, or will we merely identify problems and fail to effect change? Will we end up as a disparate collection of communities competing with each other rather than working together to achieve common goals?

Our objective is to salute civic and business leaders who promote progress toward regional growth; to foster effective regional leadership and initiate discussions on the most effective means of achieving cooperation between government and business; and to enhance the inter-regional cooperation of Hampton Roads.

Our hope is that this will result in a better place to live, work, and play.

Hampton Roads Chamber is on the move

The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce celebrates its 25th anniversary as a regional organization this year. Its roots go back as far as 1801 when the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce was founded.

The Chamber is moving this fall into one centralized location at 500 East Main Street in downtown Norfolk.

“We were overwhelmed with the positive response we received to our request for proposals,” said Chamber Chair and Hampton Roads Partnership Board member Bob Boyd (BB&T). “The Chamber leadership had many options to look at, and we are confident that the selected location will be a great fit for the Chamber and our membership.”

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About the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce
The Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce is a vigorous advocate for the economic success of its more than 2,400 member businesses, which employ more than a quarter million men and women in southeastern Virginia. The Chamber promotes Hampton Roads’ healthy business climate through economic development, public policy initiatives, services and benefits to members. The Chamber is dedicated to creating economic opportunity and enhancing the quality of life in Hampton Roads.

Marketing in Tough Times

The 2008 Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce (HRCC) Annual Meeting luncheon was held Tuesday, December 9th at the Chesapeake Conference Center.

Kristen Cavallo, Sr. VP of Business Development for The Martin Agency headquartered in Richmond VA served as keynote and spoke on “Marketing in Tough Times.” The S&P is down, media spending is down, and it’s difficult to prove that current advertising is even working. Cavallo encourages looking at the bad economy as an opportunity to build brand equity because competitors are shrinking their exposures. “Your share of voice increases by default,” says Cavallo.

Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Businesses stand to gain more as media is cheaper. Studies show an average of more than 250% in post-recession sales for those companies who increase their ad spending during recessions. Conversely, it will cost 4 to 5 times more in ad spending to regain that lost customer post-recession.

Cavallo offered ways to do this effectively and positively during a recession:

1. Become an ally, “walk the talk” with new offerings that address the current situation
2. Find joy in the everyday by selling everyday products in not-so-everyday ways; don’t remind people that times are bad
3. Redefine aspirations, such as saving is the “new expensive,” refocus values to the “new normal,” promote via social networks, YouTube, contests
4. Play brand "jump ball" by stealing market share in other relevant areas; apply entertainment’s successful strategies to your marketing (example: yesterday’s Gilligan’s Island versus today’s LOST)

Maintaining SOV (Share of Value) is important and easier to do. During down economic times, you can reach more people more than ever because competitors aren’t. Cavallo suggests: take advantage of confusion, understand elasticity, protect your brand equity, shift emphasis and infiltrate conversations using “BUZZ,” i.e. getting people to talk about you in positive ways. In confusing times, people talk more to each other, hence social networking is more important than ever to businesses.

All of this is applicable to B2B (business to business) marketers as well. B2B audiences are more targeted; it is easier for marketers to know where they are and target them better, focusing in core customers.

HRP Board member and Regional President of BB&T, Robert Boyd was handed a huge gavel as 2009 Chair of HRCC, “to match his management style,” according to Grigsby Scifres, outgoing HRCC Chair, who ended with his view of the 2009 challenges facing the HRCC Board: Transportation and Sustainable Resources.

When did Navy philosophy change to dispersal from consolidation?

by C. Grigsby Scifres

Recently, the United States Navy released a Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the homeporting of additional ships, including a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, at the Mayport Naval Station in Mayport, Florida. This EIS indicates that the preferred alternative is to homeport a nuclear carrier in Mayport, Florida. If implemented, this recommendation poses a serious economic threat to Hampton Roads.

If a nuclear carrier is moved to Mayport, Florida, then the job losses in Hampton Roads will exceed 11,000 and the annual economic loss will exceed $650 million (some estimates take this up to $1 billion annually).

Our Commonwealth’s federal, state and municipal elected officials will have an early opportunity to work together as one to fight against the regional loss of an aircraft carrier to Mayport. Virginia’s Senators and Representatives need to vigorously debate their colleagues on the merits of Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter’s announced preference for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Mayport, Florida. Governor Kaine should utilize his relationship with the Obama administration to counter the influence wielded by Florida with the Bush administration.

Among the questions that should surface in the debate are:

• how does the required $500+ million infrastructure expenditure measure up against other Navy budget priorities, particularly in the face of the economic challenges facing our government and the nation;
  
  
• how does shifting an aircraft carrier to Mayport reduce security demands on the fleet;
  
  
• why did the maintenance inspections of the conventional aircraft carrier JFK (formerly homeported in Mayport) fare poorly;
  
  
• what is the quality of the public school system in Mayport;
  
  
• when did the Navy change its philosophy to dispersal from consolidation;
  
  
• how much will the entire move actually cost;
  
  
• how rare is it that several aircraft carriers are in port at the same time;
  
  
• what will be the impact on moving thousands of people and housing a crew in geographic limbo for five years; and
  
  
• is it good policy to impose the hardships on Navy families that will come when a Mayport-based nuclear carrier and crew has to come back to Hampton Roads for major overhauls (Mayport lacks the capability to perform such overhauls on a nuclear carrier) lasting 6-12 months at a time?

The announced preference to create a second East Coast homeport for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Mayport, Florida is not supported by operational necessity, nor is it grounded in economic realities. The Navy identified $4.6 billion in unfunded budget requirements in FY2009 for important infrastructure improvements to facilities such as the four public shipyards and Naval Station Norfolk. The taxpayers of these United States cannot afford unnecessary redundancy in facilities or personnel.

A recent headline in the Jacksonville newspaper read “Our Ship Has Come In.” The obvious target is the soon to be commissioned USS GHW Bush CVN-77.

We can not discount the enormity of the impact that this “political” decision will have on our lives in Hampton Roads and on the lives of the men and women who serve our country in the greatest Navy in the world. In many ways, this political decision (not based on economic or military strategic imperatives) is being imposed on the backs of sailors and their families.

We must now have faith in our elected leadership to arrive at a decision that puts the interest of the Nation first and best supports our sailors and the mission of the United States Navy.


C. Grigsby Scifres is a partner in the law firm of Williams Mullen and Chair of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. A version of this article appeared as an Op-Ed in the Daily Press and the Virginian-Pilot.