Welcome to the Inter-City Visit Reunion!

Welcome to DSI!

Zach Ward, DSI Comedy

It’s been about three months…

On September 21-23, about 100 of us traveled to Greenville, SC and Athens, GA for the 2014 Inter-City Visit!

Orange Co & Clarke Co.Clarke Co. Orange County

Population 121,265 140,352

Square Miles 119.2 397.96

Persons/Sq. Mile 979.1 336.2

Housing Units 51,259 56,093Median value of owner-occupied homes

$161,100 $272,900

Retail Sales/Capita $14,711 $9,583

University Size Undergrad: 26,278Graduate: 8,258

Undergrad: 18,370Graduate: 8,197

Resources from #ICV2014

You have access to the Dropbox folder…

bit.ly/2014ICV

…Including links to press from the trip

bit.ly/1DDl7yq

Review an archive of tweets through Storify

Storify.com/CarolinaChamber

Review presentations on SlideShare

slideshare.net/CarolinaChamber

Post-Visit Survey• Received 30 responses

• Asked what was “fantastic” and “frustrating” about logistics, events, and content.

• Received praise, feedback on how to do it better, takeaways, & commitments

What did people say about Greenville?“Greenville was the most valuable part of the trip.”

“So stoked about Greenville”

“Downtown Greenville is amazing”

“Greenville is a great spot for lunch but no comparisons. The town owned a lot of land to leverage their vision.”

People liked…• Networking

• Time to meet with counterparts

• Lunch/time on their own

• “Listening to one another”

• “Learning new perspectives”

• “Really like ‘our’ people serving as moderators- VERY nice touch!!!”

People wanted…

• More time overall

• More unstructured time

• Opportunity to see local entertainment

• More diversity in speakers/Athens leadership

• An opportunity to bike

Excerpts

“Next time, for a couple of selected sessions, I'd like to see a dialogue between a host person and a counterpart from Chapel Hill. I think understanding why things may be different would be very enlightening.”

“Also greatly appreciated having time to discuss a myriad of matters with peers, whom we don't have the time or oppty to in daily life.”

“Watching the town leaders who don't work together back home, be so friendly and engaging on the trip. #cognitivedissonance”

Theme: Bold Leadership

• “The importance of having a long term vision coupled with consistent, bold leadership.”

• “But, we need to be unafraid to seize an opportunity and move forward. Be Bold”

• “We need to act.”

Theme: Collaboration

• “How in both cities they took risks and engaged in constructive collaboration.”

• “County-City Cooperation”

• “We are doing some good things, but there were some great happenings in Athens that could be beneficial for Chapel Hill. It amazed me how they came together and joined the governments, getting so many people to agree on something for greater good of everyone.”

Theme: Planning/Development• “We have to simplify and streamline our planning process -

perhaps not to the degree Athens has, but what we have is so far from what they have, it's laughable. We must do better, and we must do it soon.”

• “Let's continue to remove the entitlement barriers and start encouraging redevelopment/development to our downtowns. Rosemary Street is the key.....plus creating some additional cross streets, pedestrian ways”

• “Having a clear set of development expectations and then allowing developers to meet those expectations generally got these communities projects they were happy with and got developers' projects complete in an efficient and reasonable amount of time.”

Theme: Planning/Development• “Developers are our allies.”

• “Invest$$ in infrastructure and follow thru on plans.”• “speed.Agree on the rules and move on!!”

• “the mentality of ‘concierge’ service offered by the planning department to the developers. i love the idea that greenville assists development by providing the parking.”

• “From Greenville: Angle parking is possible, people.”

Theme: Poverty

• “We need to work together, look within for opportunities, not ignore poverty and racism.”

• “Social enterprises of the Economic Justice Coalition and the coming together of multiple stakeholders to address poverty.”

• "We gotta work on poverty.”

Theme: Vision• Setting a vision and sticking to it.

• The importance of having a long term vision coupled with consistent, bold leadership.

• Change is possible if there is a vision.

• Greenville: long term vision and commitment to that vision is critical.

More Excerpts• “There are easy things that we can do now to

make out towns better and more attractive.”

• “We need to find the balance that works best for us.”

• “Economic development and Education are the most important factors in a thriving community.”

• “Change can be good”

Looking at ourselves…

“The most important take-away for our community was the opportunity to look at Athens and take a step back and look at ourselves and our community. What would Athens visitors see were they to look at our community through their eyes? What are the racial and economic consequences of the wealth and access divide in our community?”

Discussion

Aaron NelsonPresident & CEO

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce

Commitments

Thank you for attending the reunion!

GO HEELS!