The Reinvention of Hampton Roads

Scene one, take 999.

That is the best way to describe the latest regional initiative: Reinvent Hampton Roads, an invention born of the well-meaning and well-endowed Hampton Roads Community Foundation, a regional non-profit whose missionary zeal to transform our poorly performing region into a much better performing metropolitan area has gained adherents and acolytes.

Gather together the leading starlets, start a discussion, meet on a regular basis, perhaps invite a moderator to the table, examine the strengths and weaknesses of the region, write and publish a report and stage an event.

Reinvent Hampton Roads is all that described above and more not less; but in its attempt to bring cohesion to the fractious politics and economy of the region, it may despair. For provincialism is the new normal of the region and regionalism is a dead word, an inert action and an intellectual exercise in futility.

 What Reinvent Hampton Roads lacks in provincialism, it gains in regionalism. That's a plus. And yet its regionalism must deal with the parochialism of the region. And that is the difficulty.

But give the group its due for an attempt to cohere the region.

If it takes another retake to get the people and policies off their collective backsides and accomplish something, anything, I applaud it. And they should take a bow, if only for the gesture.

Reinvent Hampton Roads has ambitious goals. They are threefold: creating great jobs; helping businesses and entrepreneurs thrive; and diversifying the region's economy.

Sensible enough: all of us want the same thing though some of us prefer something to nothing and in the region something is gradually eroding into nothing. Jobs are hardly overabundant, the business climate is stagnant and the economy rests on one shaky pillar: the government.

Phase one of this enterprise is finished. Phase two, taking action, is about to launch. What will happen post-launch will be noted later.

The action will take place Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, starting at 7:30am. More information can be found here, here and here.

The panelists include:

Deborah M. DiCroce, President and CEO of the Hampton Roads Community Foundation;

Paul O. Hirschbiel Jr., Vice President and CFO of The Memory Center;

Matt Mulherin, Corporate Vice President of Huntington Ingalls Industries/President of Newport News Shipbuilding;

Doug Smith, Virginia Beach Deputy City Manager;

John O. “Dubby” Wynne,Chairman of Hampton Roads Community Foundation, retired President and CEO of Landmark Communications Inc.

The themes of the conference are threefold: Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth. The tag line: A blueprint for building an economy to take us into the future.

The initiative is meant to inject some adrenalin into an otherwise anemic economy and an complacent if not lethargic population. But to accomplish something on a grand scale, a regional scale, everyone – every city, every politician and every civil servant – must jump on board.

Disruption is the key. Might it be accomplished? It could, if given the chance. 

Reinvent Hampton Roads is a start.