ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP | Thursday April 23rd

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP | Thursday April 23 | 630p-8p

Pat Hickman | CEO, Happy State Bank

At.... the Chase Building 9th Floor Conf. Room | Appetizers provided

Please RSVP HERE by Friday April 17th.

There is no cost or donation required, but you can donate here to help cover costs and save toward our local micro-loan project fund, for a tax-deductible investment.

Notes From Brad Martin's Forum on local Economy...

• Amarillo construction is up - i.e. the airport contract had one bidder because all other builders were busy
• Sales tax is up 6.3 %
• Amarillo has planned for growth and it's paying off. AEDC has been the major player in this planning.
• In 1968 the air force base left along with all their spending - those were ugly days for Amarillo
• In 1985 all our industries were down at the same time - ugly days again
• Since 1990 things got amazing - it didn't take a genius to grow a business
• Primary industries vs Consumable Industries. Primary Ind. imports money; Consumable industry consumes within it's own local economy
• The bucket analogy - the bucket has money in it, but the bucket has a hole in it. The hole is caused by recurring pmt's to outside entities like non-local ins premiums, mortgages, taxes, etc.
• The AEDC has been recruiting businesses to Amarillo since 1989 and is obsessed with the question: Who is Amarillo good for/ who is good for Amarillo? They can't/don't go after everybody. AEDC targets include: Manufacturing, aviation, business and financial services, food technology, transportation.
• What is a primary industry looking for? Land, welcoming environment, building, available employees, access to raw materials and transportation, quality of life, educational institutions, training programs , wind energy tech program
• The CenterPoint, north of town, not many people know about it or it's local impact - Ben E Keith, Pacific Cheese...have operations there
• It's all about incentive - there is tons of competition for primary industries through tax abatements, state incentives, city incentives. These are not giveaways, they are not investments or capitalization, they are incentives and offer strong returns.
• Infrastructure issues - getting water and sewer and power to people is expensive
• As a community we have to overcome the"anti-everything people" - secrecy is not about deception or hiding because AEDC simply doesn't always know all the issues due to dealing with site consultants instead of the companies directly - the companies are the ones who hide the info because of competition issues, etc
• AEDC is proud of Bell, Hilmar, Pacific, Blue Cross Blue Shield, WT downtown, and more. These have been tremendous results to the area.
• AEDC puts on the enterprise challenge - i.e. Air-ups - a companty that makes inflatable barriors for paint gun facilities was a past winner.
• Bill Fruth - a consultant AEDC uses - google for more info
• In summary, there is no doubt a National Economic Crisis. Recessions happen. But Amarillo is doing great relative to the rest of the nation/ world. There are some pockets in our economy hurting, but we are strong on the whole.
• A little humore: Brad said he know some folks who watched so much fox news that when they moved their TV you could see the fox logo burned into the screen. Be careful how much negative info you listen to. There are lots of opportunities.