Town Hall meeting about Free Enterprise sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce - January 26, 2010

This meeting was held at the SALT Block auditorium on January 26, 2010. Approximately 350 people showed up to the Rally that lasted from 8:15am until 10:00am. Below are recording that I placed on Youtube that you can listen to by pressing the links. This was a very interesting meeting, in which many pertinent current topic were discussed.

This meeting was held at the SALT Block auditorium on January 26, 2010. Approximately 350 people showed up to the Rally that lasted from 8:15am until 10:00am. Below are recording that I placed on Youtube that you can listen to by pressing the links. This was a very interesting meeting, in which many pertinent current topic were discussed.

“Planning for Extraordinary Change”

Our economic stability has been challenged!

The Hickory Metro area had the 2nd largest unemployment increase in the country in 2009. We are the highest unemployed Metro area in North Carolina. 35,000 job losses, since 2000 in Hickory Metro, 18,000 in Catawba County alone.

Metro area manufacturing employment was 56% in 2000, now it’s 29% with projections to lose another 10% in the next 10 years.

$450 million dollar decrease in retail sales from 08’ – 09’

Educational attainment levels of our citizenry in the Hickory Metro area are some of the lowest in the country

Do we have a plan for economic stability again? Are you ready for change and what it might bring? Is there a collaborative effort in Catawba County that can make this happen?

The moment you hand power over to people… You get an explosion of curiosity, innovation and effort. You discover benefits that you couldn’t have imagined in advance…We must look deep, focus on things that move and change… And never ask the usual questions. We must transform this economy and society…

And develop suggested changes that will help the county prepare for a different kind of economic era. If we do not accept or embrace this new economy. We will continue to rearrange the deck chairs. And wonder why enough jobs are not being created

“A willingness to depart from the familiar has distinct survival value.”
Peter Drucker.

Then what is our Economic Stability Plan for Catawba County?
1. Jobs at all levels
2. “Greater Hickory Area” Branding and Marketing
3. Education and Workforce Preparedness

Our local economy will only get better based on our ability to attract, cultivate and retain “knowledge workers”

Are we preparing our students for 21st Century job skills? Is business sending a loud and clear message to our young people that dropping out of school is not an option in Catawba County if you want to find a quality job?

Are we creating a community mind set that life-long learning is a course of study in which we are always enrolled. Higher educational opportunities here in Catawba County are greater than most Metro areas our size in the country. How can we help Appalachian State University, Lenoir Rhyne University, CVCC and the NC Center for Engineering Technologies fill up their classrooms, by adding more non-degree, degree and graduate degree programs.

How do we connect and partner with the most envied and successful research campus in North America, the Centennial Campus at NC State University. What can we learn from putting world-class researchers and corporate and institutional partners together in close proximity? so we can prepare for our own Millennial Campus of ASU?

What connections/referrals can our new Manufacturing Solutions Center develop with the Centennial Campus in Raleigh? for new business growth and expansion of existing companies

How do we recruit, market and brand our area and its quality of life as a destination point for new residents, tourists, convention business, sporting events, furniture shopping, new businesses? How do we grow our population base?

How do we market and brand Highway 321 as North Carolina’s Data Center Corridor? Did you know that Catawba County received 42% of all the economic development investment announced in the state of North Carolina in 2009?

Do we have the investment dollars committed for new infrastructure to keep that momentum going? Small business will create more jobs than any other business sector in America. What are we doing to recruit and retain these entrepreneurs in Catawba County?

Are we ready for action?

It will require harder truth telling than our leaders are used to… And possible experimentation right up to the very edge of collapse. It will involve moments, even of useful panic! But it also means understanding that our policies, dreams and ideas
can be combined to release new and unexpected power.

It’s not unthinkable that we too can grasp, from what seems a very dangerous and unstable world around us, a more prosperous, stable and better future. With the understanding that to get things we’ve never had we’ve got to do things we’ve never done

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Drucker.

Danny Hearn opens the Town hall on Free Enterprise


David Chavern of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Part 1)


David Chavern of the United States Chamber of Commerce (Part 2)


Scott Millar of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation (Part 1)


Scott Millar of the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation (Part 2)


Congressman Patrick McHenry presentation to the town hall(Part 1)


Congressman Patrick McHenry's presentation to the town hall (Part 2)


My (Thom Shell) question about conflicts of interest with Goldman Sachs
and JP Morgan-Chase

Steve Ivester and Jay Adams ask questions - Ivester is concerned about the fact that the Chamber of commerce aided the cause of Scott Brown in Massachusetts with commercials they ran on the weekend before the election. Adams posed a question about whether the Republicans had changed since 2005.


Question about the fact that we still need to see reform of healthcare - At the end of the day, this legislation that no one likes has not passed, but we still need to see healthcare reform of costs and coverage.