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Monday and Tuesday of this week found me in the beautiful city of Wilmington for the?Raleigh Chamber?Annual Leadership Conference. I could not have imagined a better group of business peers to have shared this event with. One of my favorite comments of the program was during a Q&A session towards the end of our first day from a new Triangle resident who has lived in quite a few similarly sized metro areas. He proudly shared that nowhere in his travels has he been part of a community of business people who care more about all the important topics we covered: Economic Development, Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Talent & Workforce Development, Public Policy, Transit, and Affordable Housing. It’s a fact we know as locals, but it’s always nice to hear it from others who discover it firsthand after moving here.

Each topic was discussed with a moderator and panel of relevant experts, then audience questions and participation. Hard questions were asked. Difficult yet hopeful and enthusiastic answers were discussed. These are the important topics that need to be talked about to ensure we can keep the same quality of life in our city, county, and state (or hopefully even better).?

Someone asked me why the conference was held in Wilmington (and is usually in Pinehurst) instead of in Raleigh. If you’ve ever been on a board retreat, you know that a lot more discussions happen outside of conference hours – at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and over drinks. Connecting with other Triangle business leaders, making new contacts, and having more conversations are part of the way our community grows stronger, solves issues, and develops new ideas. I couldn’t be prouder to be here and a huge Thank You to our very amazing Raleigh Chamber for hosting this great event.

My takeaways centered around education, transit, entrepreneurship, housing, and our workforce, with many of these topics overlapping.?

Education

We need to make sure our level of education in Wake County (as well as the entire Triangle and the State of NC) continues to improve. Our kids are indeed our future, and we need to ensure they are well-educated and taken care of in our school system. Governor Jim Hunt helped to create one of the best public school systems in the country in order to attract top talent to the newly developed RTP area. And it worked. We’ve slipped since then. A lot. And we need to make sure our teachers, principals, and assistants are paid accordingly to keep them from leaving the industry (or the state) for better-paying jobs.

Transit

Surprisingly, we have one of the lowest (or the lowest!) congestion rates for a metro area of our size in the country. But it won’t stay that way if we don’t plan accordingly for the future. Commuter rail on existing tracks is imperative. Bus Rapid Transit along those corridors and elsewhere is not only imperative but coming! We’ll have all our planned BRT lines in place within a decade. Having over 50 miles of fast, efficient, and, hopefully, free transit lines will be amazing for local transit.?

Entrepreneurship

The Triangle is home to a huge number of entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. We need to make sure we have education, information, mentors, resources, and more readily available and help promote and celebrate the work our local entrepreneurs are doing. More groups and events like Innovate Raleigh need to happen. More networking, introductions, and inclusion of everyone who wishes to start a business, regardless of age, race, sex, or socioeconomic status. Let’s make sure all feel welcome here.

Housing!?

Being involved in the residential and commercial real estate industries, I see firsthand how crazy prices have become. There are no more “starter homes” for those who want to join the ranks of homeowners. Prices have skyrocketed due to the pandemic, the lack of new homes being built, and the number of people moving here. Supply and demand set the price, and our demand far, far exceeds our supply. The new affordable housing bond will help, but it’s merely a short-term band-aid on a bigger issue. We need to continue to fund and build low-income and affordable housing for our workforce, for younger (and older) generations who cannot afford the currently available homes. This goes for rental properties as well as for home purchasing. We simply need a LOT more housing here at all price points, but especially in the affordable housing section. This is an issue we need to discuss more, and immediately.

Workforce & Talent

This segues into the last topic I want to mention, which is our workforce and talent pipeline. Yes, we need a steady stream of talent for life sciences, pharma, tech, legal, C-suite executives, and the like. But not everyone moving here will work for Google and garner a $187,000 salary. Waiters and waitresses, drivers, laborers, construction workers, and many of our new workforce employees will need housing that fits their budget. Even our first responders and police force cannot afford to live in the city in which they work due to their current salaries and the price of nearby housing. We need to make sure we are attracting new talent at every level and ensuring they all have viable and available housing options. Right now, we simply do not.

All these problems are addressable if we work together. Some will take longer. Some will require a lot of work and necessitate public/private partnerships (or at the very least, private prodding of government). The community leaders present at this conference have it in their power to work on big ideas to solve these issues, to select and elect officials who will address problems, and to push the massive boulders ahead of us to the top of the hill. We’re off to a good start, so let’s make sure we continue in the right direction together.

My one and only suggestion to make this event even better would be to have it recorded so even more people could see and hear the conversations that transpired. The video could serve as not only an economic development piece for our region (i.e., let’s show off our innovative, thoughtful, and caring Raleigh/Triangle leadership) but also as an educational/informational piece for students (and anyone else) to learn more about how issues get tackled, ideas are born, and things get done. Perhaps the Chamber could work with local university video production classes to produce the videos via class projects for real-world experience (hello:?Wake Technical Community College?Media Production,?North Carolina State University?Film Studies Program,?Shaw University?Department of Mass Communications,?Saint Augustine’s University?Department of Film and Interactive Media,?Meredith College?Digital Communications Department Certificate Program,?William Peace University?Communications Department). Not only will they pick up experience out in the field, but they will be able to attend events they normally wouldn’t be able to, meet some of our community’s brightest leaders, and possibly end up with a mentor or two. Win-win-win for all involved!

Huge shout-outs to all our panelists, moderators, speakers, and sponsors who made this a truly enlightening, productive, and worthwhile conference.?

Regional Economic Development panel

- Adrienne Cole (moderator / President and CEO, Raleigh Chamber)

- Michael Haley (Executive Director, Wake County Economic Development)

- Ryan Regan (Vice President of Economic Development, Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce)

- Melissa Smith (Vice President Business Recruitment & Development, Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC))

Innovation and Entrepreneurship panel

- Jason Widen (moderator / Founding Partner, Raleigh Founded)

- Derrick Minor (Associate Director Technology, Vaco Raleigh)

- William McGuire (Founder and Head of Disruption, Incolo)

- Clark Rinehart (Interim Executive Director, Innovate Raleigh)

- Anita Watkins (Director, Rex Strategic Innovations, Rex Health Ventures/UNC REX Healthcare)

Talent & Workforce Development panel

- Michael Haley (moderator / Executive Director, Wake County Economic Development)

- Shelley Read Curran (Assistant Town Manager, Town of Cary)

- Amanda Hutchinson, PHR (Senior Manager Talent Acquisition, S&ME)

- Dr. Scott Ralls (President, Wake Technical Community College)

- Thomas J. White (Director of Economic Development, North Carolina State University)

Leadership panel

- Adrienne Cole (President and CEO, Raleigh Chamber)

- Kevin Howell (Raleigh Chamber Board Chair/Vice Chancellor for External Affairs, Partnerships, and Economic Development, North Carolina State University)

Public Policy panel

- Becki Gray (Senior Vice President, The John Locke Foundation)

- Rob Schofield (Director, NC Policy Watch)

Regional Transit

- Joe Milazzo II (Executive Director, Regional Transportation Alliance)

Housing & Affordability

- Asa Fleming (moderator, Allen Tate Realtors)

- Paul Kane (Executive Vice President and CEO, Home Builders Association of Raleigh - Wake County)

- Yolanda Winstead (President and CEO, DHIC Inc.)

- Yvette Holmes (CEO, Southeast Raleigh Promise, Inc.)

- Lee Branscome (Vice President Corporate Services, Allen Tate Realtors)

My takeaways centered around education, transit, entrepreneurship, housing, and our workforce, with many of these topics overlapping.?

Education

We need to make sure our level of education in Wake County (as well as the entire Triangle and the State of NC as well) continues to improve. Our kids are indeed our future and we need to ensure they are well-educated and taken care of in our school system. Governor Jim Hunt helped to create one of the best public school systems in the country in order to attract top talent to the newly developed RTP area. And it worked. We’ve slipped since then. A lot. And we need to make sure our teachers, principals, and assistants are paid accordingly to keep them from leaving the industry (or the state) for better-paying jobs.?

Transit

Surprisingly, we have one of the lowest (or the lowest!) congestion rates for a metro area of our size in the country. But it won’t stay that way if we don’t plan accordingly for the future. Commuter rail on existing tracks is imperative. Bus Rapid Transit along those corridors and elsewhere is not only imperative but coming! We’ll have all our planned BRT lines in place within a decade. Having over 50 miles of fast, efficient, and hopefully, free transit lines will be amazing for local transit.?

Entrepreneurship

The Triangle is home to a huge number of entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses. We need to make sure we have education, information, mentors, resources, and more readily available, and help promote and celebrate the work our local entrepreneurs are doing. More groups and events like Innovate Raleigh need to happen. More networking, introductions, and inclusion of everyone who wishes to start a business, regardless of age, race, sex, socioeconomic status. Let’s make sure all feel welcome here.

Housing!?

Being involved in the residential and commercial real estate industries, I see firsthand how crazy prices have become. There are no more “starter homes” for those who want to join the ranks of homeowners. Prices have skyrocketed due to the pandemic, the lack of new homes being built, the number of people moving here. Supply and demand set the price and our demand far, far exceeds our supply. The new affordable housing bond will help but it’s merely a short-term band-aid on a bigger issue. We need to continue to fund and build low-income and affordable housing for our workforce, for younger (and older) generations who cannot afford the currently available homes. This goes for rental properties as well as for home purchasing. We simply need a LOT more housing here at all price points, but especially in the affordable housing section. This is an issue we need to discuss more and immediately.

This segues into the last topic I want to mention, which is our workforce and talent pipeline. Yes, we need a steady stream of talent for life sciences, pharma, tech, legal, C-suite executives, and the like. But not everyone moving here will work for Google and garner a $187,000 salary. Waiters and waitresses, drivers, laborers, construction workers, and many of our new workforce employees will need housing that fits their budget. Even our first responders and police force cannot afford to live in the city in which they work, due to their current salaries and the price of nearby housing. We need to make sure we are attracting new talent at every level and ensuring they all have viable and available housing options. Right now, we simply do not.?

All these problems are addressable if we work together. Some will take longer. Some will require a lot of work and necessitate public/private partnerships (or at the very least, private prodding of government). The community leaders present at this conference have it in their power to work on big ideas to solve these issues, to select and elect officials who will address problems, and to push the massive boulders ahead of us to the top of the hill. We’re off to a good start, so let’s make sure we continue in the right direction, together.

My one and only suggestion to make this event even better would be to have it recorded, so even more people could see and hear the conversations that transpired during the last two days. The video could serve as not only an economic development piece for our region (i.e., let’s show off our innovative, thoughtful, and caring Raleigh/Triangle leadership) but also as an educational/informational piece for students (and anyone else) to learn more about how issues get tackled, ideas are born, and things get done. Perhaps the Chamber could work with local university video production classes to produce the videos via class projects for real-world experience (hello: Wake Technical Community College Media Production, North Carolina State University Film Studies Program, Shaw University Department of Mass Communications, Saint Augustine’s University Department of Film and Interactive Media, Meredith College Digital Communications Department Certificate Program, William Peace University Communications Department). Not only will they pick up experience out in the field, but they will be able to attend events they normally wouldn’t be able to, meet some of our community’s brightest leaders, and possibly might end up with a mentor or two. Win-win-win for all involved!?

It was great to see so many friends, colleagues, and other business leaders at this event and I look forward to having many more conversions with you in the coming years.

Ashton Mae Smith (she/her)

Vickie Adamson