Greater Raleigh Chamber Blog

Giuliani Shares "7 Lessons for My Younger Self"
If you had a chance to speak to your younger self as you were just starting out in the professional world, what would you say? Ashley Holmes recaps Chamber CEO Tim Giuliani’s recent presentation to the Young Professionals Network.

NC Adds 6,900 Jobs
The North Carolina economy added 6,900 payroll jobs from November to December, and the state's unemployment rate dipped slightly.

Raleigh is 3rd Great City for Tech Grads
The Research Triangle area boasts a fast-paced tech scene, bursting with intellectual as well financial capital, but Raleigh stands out as a great city for young people to make the transition from college to working life.

Event Explores Disruptive Technology
Two panels of experts discussed disruptive technology and the impact it will have on businesses at our event last week. Here's a quick recap.

Raleigh Among Best for Funding Outside Silicon Valley
Want to get your startup funded but not into living in the Bay Area? This study examines "The Best of The Rest" cities to start up or invest in startups.

NC Sports Hall of Fame Announces Inductees
Rod Brind'Amour, Eric "Sleepy" Floyd, David Fox, James "Rabbit" Fulghum, Antawn Jamison, Haywood Jeffires, Freddy Johnson, Ray Price and Susan Yow are the 2016 inductees to the NC Sports Hall of Fame. They'll be honored on May 6.

Comment on Draft BikeRaleigh Plan
The BikeRaleigh Plan Update draft is finished, and the project team needs your feedback to ensure it hits the mark.

7 Ways to Improve Your Website Homepage
Your website is your virtual place of business----you want it to be neat, clean, attractive, inviting, and professional looking

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Three companies announced relocations or expansions during the month of December, according to the most recent report from Wake County Economic Development. That brings the total number of announcements between January and December 2015 to 106. Those companies will bring 4,628 jobs and $445 million dollars.

Here's a recap of the action in December:

Homewood Suites by Hilton | Cary | Hospitality | New
A Cary hotel development and management company is purchasing a 2.6-acre site overlooking Interstate 40 at Crossroads Boulevard in Cary with plans to build a new six-story Homewood Suites by Hilton in 2016. Construction is expected to start in spring 2016 with the hotel opening projected for summer 2017.

Mohu | Raleigh | Software/IT | Expanding
Mohu, makers of the Leaf antenna, has unveiled BeBox, a portable audio system that, according to execs, rivals what’s being offered at Sonos and Bose. As the product suite grows, so does Mohu’s workforce. The company, which recently added a second shift to its Raleigh team, has about 100 employees. One year ago, it had 55. The company is headquartered in north Raleigh.

Trophy Brewing Company | Raleigh | Brewery | Expanding
Trophy Brewing Co. opened its production brewery and taproom on Maywood Avenue near the State Farmers Market on the south side of downtown Raleigh. The taproom will have 12 beers on draft, counter pressure filled growlers, a cask engine, and occasional bottle releases. The production brewery features a 20-barrel, three-vessel brewing system. Additionally, the location will start with enough fermentation and conditioning tanks to handle up to 240 barrels (7,440 gallons) of beer at any one time before packaging or kegging. The location will start with distribution to a limited number of restaurants and bars initially, and then expand as it grows.

The Wake County Economic Development Recap is produced monthly. The next edition will hit in mid-February. Make sure you stay up to date on all the latest news and more by subscribing here.

 
















By Ashley P. Holmes  
Marketing Task Force, Young Professionals Network
Associate, Vandeventer Black LLP

If you had a chance to speak to your younger self as you were just starting out in the professional world, what would you say?  What advice would you give?

Chamber CEO Tim Giuliani considered this hypothetical last week in a talk before the Chamber’s Young Professionals Network.  YPN—or #RaleighYPN, as it’s known on social media—is one of the Chamber’s most successful groups, and it enjoys a large and active membership. A benefit of YPN membership is free attendance at the group’s “Learning from Leaders” forums, which are educational panels held every other month to provide YPN members opportunities to learn from and engage with accomplished business professionals.

At the Jan. 21 installment of the Learning from Leaders series, Giuliani presented “7 Lessons For My Younger Self,” in which the he discussed lessons he had learned from his experiences as a young professional.  

Giuliani’s seven lessons are:

#1: You can change the world
#2: Perseverance and passion: the difference between good and great leaders
#3: Get ahead to stay on top
#4: Focus on the important, not always the urgent
#5: Choose your mentors wisely
#6: The whole cloth approach to professional development
#7: Great leaders learn from failures

In his talk, Giuliani emphasized that the best leaders are those who operate with healthy amounts of passion and perseverance. Noting that they already had the opportunity to lead in their communities, Giuliani advised YPN members to seek out and observe excellent leaders rather than rely on academic definitions of leadership. 

Giuliani stressed the importance of finding balance early in one’s career, as we generally face increasing responsibilities in our professional and personal lives as we age and the young professional who has already established healthy habits and routines can typically handle this uptick in responsibilities better than the young professional who never takes the time to establish work-life balance.  Giuliani—who took over the reins of the Raleigh Chamber at the age of 33—also urged YPN members to remember that, even though they are young, competence is an effective weapon to counter the negative “millennial” stereotypes older workers might hold against younger professionals.  

Giuliani made several book recommendations during his presentation as well, including “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership” by John Maxwell and “The Fifth Discipline” by Peter Senge.

The reception to Giuliani’s presentation was extremely positive among YPN members, as evidenced by the discussion on Twitter during the presentation and the fact that #RaleighYPN trended on Twitter during Giuliani’s speech.

The full text of Giuliani’s speech can be found here. Visit YPN’s Facebook page to learn more about the group.  

TL;DR

Raleigh Ranks High on "Future-ready" List
Raleigh is No. 6 on a list of "America's most future-ready cities" presented at a summit hosted by Harvard University and sponsored by Dell.

Employer Tax Filing Deadlines
Tax-reporting responsibilities for employers have expanded, and the deadlines for some filings have or will be changed. Here's what you need to know.

Business Support of the Arts Award Winners Announced
The arts have a direct impact on our economic growth and success. That's why the Chamber is proud to partner with the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County to present the annual Business Support of the Arts Awards.”

WAKE Up and Read Book Drive Kicks Off Jan. 30
The Wake County Public School System will kick off the 2016 WAKE Up and Read Book Drive at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30! The goal of the campaign is to collect 110,000 books for children across Wake County.

Triangle Office Spaces Get Creative
In the intense competition to attract and retain top talent, some U.S. employers are getting creative with some of their workplaces in an effort to allure the talent workforce they want. Check out some of the cool spaces in the Triangle.

Wake County Companies Provide Valuable Resources
Over the last few months, members of the Wake County Economic Development team visited two important sites: Martin Marietta's Raleigh-Durham Quarry and the Harris Nuclear Plant. Here's a quick recap of the experiences.

Triangle Honors Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Events around the Triangle honored King and his dream Monday. The day kicked off at 7 a.m. at the 36th annual Triangle Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, of which the Chamber was a proud sponsor.

One-day Notary Public Classes
The Chamber, in partnership with Wake Technical Community College, offers notary public classes throughout the year. The next class is Jan. 26.

12 Easy Phrases to Improve Your Leadership
At the heart of great leadership is a desire to serve others, to empower them, and foster their success. Here are 12 phrases that every leader should be saying.

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By Emily Atkinson
Vice President, Government Affairs
Greater Raleigh Chamber

Wednesday's event on "Disruptive Technology and the Future of Business" featured great discussions from two impressive panels. We heard from:

• Mary-Ann Baldwin, Raleigh City Council
• Ryan Beckland, Validic
• Matthew Davis, NCRIoT
• Dr. Marc Hoit, NC State University
• Adam Klein, American Underground
• Larry Steffan, NCRIoT, and
• Thomas Vass, Private Capital Markets.

The panelists discussed how to foster innovation and creativity and how to prepare the workforce for the dynamic world of technology. They gave examples of how disruptive technologies are impacting our lives and changing the face of business. A takeaway was that in order to further promote the Triangle as a top city for technology, it's critical that we create and nurture partnerships between academic, public, and private institutions.

Another example of how technology is significantly impacting employees and businesses is in the world of healthcare. We'll explore the newest issues in the industry and discuss how businesses can navigate this ever-evolving environment at a special forum on Feb. 25. Learn more and register here.

We hope yesterday's program serves as the beginning of this important conversation, and we encourage everyone to continue to work with community and business leaders to support and promote disruptive technologies in our region.

The arts have a direct impact on our economic growth and success. That's why the Chamber is proud to partner with the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County to present the annual Business Support of the Arts Awards. These awards recognize outstanding contributions to the arts in our area by businesses, organizations and individuals.
 
Congratulations to the following winners!

Large Business: Golden Corral
Golden Corral has supported Raleigh Little Theatre, its nominator, for years both monetarily and with corporate representatives seated on its board. Golden Corral currently sponsors Raleigh Little Theatre’s Youth Education Program, which touches the lives of thousands of young people each year. Golden Corral’s emphasis on children and families runs throughout all its philanthropic endeavors, and Wake County is the better for it.
 
Small Business: Jerry’s Artarama
Tom Dowd at Jerry’s Artarama is there, unseen, with all the small, but vital pieces of support it takes to make art exhibits across Wake County happen. For example, Jerry’s Artarama loans the easels and awards the prizes for the 4th Congressional District’s High School Art Competition/Exhibit. They also frame the winning entry, which goes on display in Washington, D.C.
 
Arts Education: Marshall Butler   
Marshall Butler has led the choral wing of the arts at Sanderson High School in Raleigh for years. He has been named Sanderson’s teacher of the year, received the North Carolina Music Educators Association’s high school choral director of the year award and been recognized by the North Carolina Symphony. There are numerous young people who have gone on to college to major in music because of this one man’s inspiration and strength in teaching. Our community is the richer for him.
 
Individual/ Foundation: John William Pope Foundation
Investments by the Pope Foundation in the arts in this community over the past 25 years total over $1.9 million and include North Carolina Theatre, Carolina Ballet, North Carolina Symphony, North Carolina Opera, Performance Edge, The Raleigh Fine Arts Society and North Carolina Museum of Art’s “School Bus Scholarship Fund.” The Foundation’s support allows the North Carolina Theatre, for example, to provide tickets to clients of the Salvation Army, Raleigh Rescue Mission and Step-Up Ministries.

Learn more about the United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County here.

Hiring Edges Up
U.S. employers advertised slightly more jobs in November as overall hiring edged up and more Americans quit their jobs in signs of a healthier environment for workers.

2016 Economic Forecast Resources
The 2016 Economic Forecast gave great insight into what we can expect this year. View presentations, photos, and publications from the event here, and check out this blog from Wake County Economic Development.

Claire Shipman Headlines Women's Leadership Conference
Join hundreds of professional women at this half-day educational and networking conference which features a keynote from Claire Shipman. Shipman is co-author of two New York Times bestsellers: "The Confidence Code: The Art and Science of Self-Assurance-and What Women Need to Know" and "Womenomics: Work Less, Achieve More, Live Better."

Triangle Entrepreneurs: Share your Thoughts
The Q1 2016 Quarterly Outlook of Triangle Entrepreneurs survey is now live. The five-minute survey is put on by the NC State Poole College of Management.

Work Starts on New Downtown Hotel
Summit Hospitality Group, Ltd. officially broke ground on the new Residence Inn Raleigh Downtown on Thursday. The 10-story hotel will feature 175 hotel guest rooms, a rooftop bar, and street-level restaurant and retail spaces.

Now Hiring: Graphic Designer
Come work with us! The Chamber is accepting applications for a full-time graphic designer.

Tourism Taxes Post Record November Numbers
Wake County hotel occupancy tax collections posted the best November on record, totaling $1,854,031, up 11.2 percent in November 2015 over November 2014. Wake County prepared food and beverage tax collections also posted the best November on record, totaling $2,062,088.

7 Websites to Help You Keep Your New Year's Resolutions
Only a tiny percentage of people keep their resolutions. Technology can help you beat the odds.

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Audience members at the 2016 Economic Forecast last week showed optimism for what 2016 holds. As part of the event, attendees participated in a live poll to gauge their thoughts about the new year.

When asked if they were more or less optimistic about the Triangle’s business environment in regards to the latest increase to interest rates, 59 percent of those polled responded “about the same” and 30 percent replied “more optimistic.” Only 8 percent of those surveyed said they were “much less optimistic” or “less optimistic.
 
Of the 164 attendees who responded to the second question about how they expect their business’s growth to be effected, 56 anticipated it to increase 3 to 5 percent and 33 said business should grow by more than 10 percent. Thirteen people expected business to stay the same, and just two foresaw a decrease.
 
Go here to see the full poll results—including the answers to two other questions.
 
Are you expectations in line with the audience’s? What do you foresee regarding your business in 2016? Let us know in the comments.

New Generation Steps Up to Lead the Triangle
A new generation of community leaders is making its presence felt in the Triangle. "There is an evolution taking place out there in leadership circles," said Harvey Schmitt, who retired in 2015 after leading the Chamber for 21 years.

Community Support Propels Banner Year for RDU
Mike Landguth, president and CEO of the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority, recaps progress made in 2015-including new air service destinations and a rise in passenger counts.

5 Big Entrepreneurial Developments in 2015
There was considerable good news for emerging entrepreneurial hubs around the country. Joan Siefert Rose, president at Council for Entrepreneurial Development, gives a recap of the Triangle's impressive year as a rapidly growing startup hub.

Get Informed on Connect NC Campaign
The full Connect NC campaign website is live! We encourage you to visit the site, sign up as a volunteer, and share the site with friends. Read a recap of the kickoff event here.

UNC System President-elect Visits Triangle
Margaret Spellings, president-elect of the University of North Carolina system, met with business and community leaders in the Triangle on Dec. 18. Spellings is touring North Carolina to learn more about our state and the UNC system and build relationships with key leaders before she officially takes office on March 1. Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009.

State of Arts and Culture in Wake County
On Jan. 13, the United Arts Council will present the sixth annual State of Arts and Culture in Wake County. The Chamber is proud to join the Arts Council on the Business Support of the Arts Awards, which recognize Wake County residents and companies who are significant supporters of the arts.

Economic Development Recap
Find out about new and expanding companies, updates from Wake County municipalities, and more in the recent Wake County Economic Development Recap.

Deadline Approaching for Small Business Week Awards
The deadline to apply for the U.S. Small Business Administration's Small Business Week Awards is at 3 p.m. Monday, Jan. 11. National Small Business Week has been recognizing the special impact made by outstanding entrepreneurs and small business owners since 1963.

10 Tech Trends to Expect in 2016
Design and innovation consultancy Fjord tapped more than 750 of its experts in 19 studios around the world to amass its annual trends compilation.

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The Triangle’s economy is expected to outpace the growth of the nation’s economy in 2016.
 
That was the consensus of two noted economists at today’s Economic Forecast. Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Jay Bryson, global economist for Wells Fargo Securities, took the stage in front of 700 business, elected, and community leaders for one of the Chamber’s most popular events.

We’ll dive deeper into the economists’ presentations in further blog posts, but here are some of the morning’s highlights.

Jay Bryson, global economist, Wells Fargo Securities
Employment in North Carolina is growing in line with the national rate, while the Triangle has been outpacing it. This is nothing new for our region—the Triangle has generally grown faster than the national economy over the past decade.

Jeffrey Lacker, president, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond
The broad takeaway is that even though interest rates are likely to be lower than usual for the next few years, monetary policy is still highly accommodative right now. Interest rate increases within the range envisioned by FOMC participants would be relatively slow by historic standards, and would still leave policy in an accommodative stance. Such increases should be viewed as a sign of the strength of the U.S. economy—which is good news.

Learn More
Both economists’ full presentations, along with video of the event, are available here. You can go here to view a social media recap.