Planning for Economic Development

Tennessee state Rep. Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) and Lee Walker, president of The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change, met in Nashville in July 2006 and since then have had several telephone conference calls with community leadership to discuss an economic workforce development conference for the Memphis Regional Economic Development Council, which represents 51 counties in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

The conference already has the support of the regional chamber of commerce, corporate sponsors, two local universities, and local community leadership. A working analysis of the Memphis region has been partially funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Planning for the conference will take place in 2007, with the conference itself to be held in late 2007 or 2008. The conference program will be modeled on the two-and-a-half-day Booker T. Washington 150th Anniversary event held at Northwestern University in Chicago in June 2006, sponsored by The New Coalition for Economic and Social Change and The Heartland Institute.