Tom Silvestri, chair of the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce, talked about what was learned during chamber-sponsored InterCity visits the last two years at last Thursday’s Hanover Business Council breakfast at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland.

In 2009, the three-day trip was to North Carolina to look at and learn from community leaders in Raleigh-Durham. Last year, the chamber visited Austin, Texas.

“There are a lot of similarities between the two destinations and Central Virginia,” Silvestri said. “They are, as is Richmond, state capitals. They are also education centers with major universities.”

He noted that Duke University in Durham and the University of Texas in Austin were major education and technology centers that influenced growth in their areas.

“They have over 50,000 students at the University of Texas,” he said. “Don’t you think that influences a lot of things around Austin?”

For the Richmond area, the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University, among the many educational institutions in the area, influence growth.

Silvestri, president and publisher of The Richmond Times-Dispatch, pointed out that, while the chamber sponsors InterCity visits to examine what other localities are doing, other cities look at Richmond and send their groups here because “they see what we are doing and like what we are doing.”

The development of Shockoe Bottom was given as an example of an area other cities like to visit and study.

He said changes often take time, patience and commitment.

“In Austin, they started putting together their growth plan in 1996,” Silvestri said. “Back then, a lot of people watched the television show Austin City Limits, but there wasn’t a lot known about the area beyond that. Now with the growth of the music industry, the University of Texas and the River Walk, among other things, Austin is a place business leaders want to visit to find out how they did it.”

As for the Raleigh-Durham trip, Silvestri noted that one person in the group saw an opportunity and acted on it.

“We had a lawyer on the Raleigh-Durham trip who saw a need and responded by opening an office in Raleigh,” he said.

Owen Matthews, chair of the Hanover Business Council, was on the Austin trip and talked about an idea he brought back.

“We have to continue to have passion for our region, be proud of what we have and explore ways to develop it,” he said. “In Austin, I was impressed at how small, unknown bands were allowed to rise to prominence. I’d like to see in Richmond, maybe right here in Hanover, a festival that brings a lot of the small bands in the area together. It would give them exposure and give people a chance to hear their music.”

“InterCity visits allow us to learn from other regions. They allow us to study the accomplishments of others and figure out how to make our own area better,” Silvestri said. “If you are good, you want to be great. If you are great, you want to stay great. We might learn something on one of these trips that lets us tweak something we are doing and make it better.”

Jim Fields/The Local
Chris Leonard, Nan Stewart and Dave Creasy were among those in attendance at the Hanover Business Council breakfast Thursday. The business council is part of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.