Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) has announced the agenda for its annual “Governor’s Conference,” more recently known as GOVCON.

The two-day event at the Chattanooga Convention Center begins at 11:30 a.m. September 18 with the Commissioner’s Luncheon featuring a conversation that Stuart McWhorter will have with Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp. The focus will be on economic development project wins, the role the county plays in job creation in Southeast Tennessee, and the mayors’ continued efforts to provide workforce opportunities for area high school students to feed into the talent pipeline of the future.

There are three panels that will jumpstart the first of two afternoon sessions.

• One will be focused on foreign direct investment in the Volunteer State with a panel discussion that features five TNECD Directors of Business Development from various parts of the globe. Karel Abboud, TNECD Global Director of Foreign Direct Investment and Trade, will moderate the discussion.
• Another, moderated by McMinn County Mayor John Gentry, will spotlight ways that more rural counties have leveraged dedicated funding to create wins for their communities.
• The last of the Session 1 panels will be focused on the $5.3 million fund under the “Rural Brownfields Investment Act” to begin remediation efforts for 175 known brownfield sites in Tennessee.

There are three panels during the second afternoon session on September 18:

• One is focused on the federally funded initiative that will provide close to $1 billion for broadband deployment in underserved areas of the state;
• A second is on the TNGo initiative that is designed to make Tennessee the #1 destination for mobility R&D investment in the Southeast; and
• The final one is on strategies for communities to identify their unique music scene, the key stakeholders in the region, and the steps needed to ensure their community is taking advantage of this key economic driver.

The first day concludes with a reception.

Programming for September 19 begins with a general session, moderated by Commissioner McWhorter, that is focused on HTL University, a rural partnership that is designed to strategically respond to student interests and industry needs. It is a regional collaboration among school systems in the West Tennessee counties of Haywood, Tipton, and Lauderdale.

There will also be three mid-morning panels on the second day. They will focus on (1) entrepreneurship and small businesses; (2) childcare as an economic development tool; and (3) Chattanooga’s initiatives around quantum computing.

GOVCON wraps up with the Governor’s Luncheon.

To register, click here.

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