The Chamber of Commerce of Southwest Indiana has a longstanding reputation for working with all appropriate partners within our economic region to drive progress.  It wasn't until 2005, however, that this philosophy became formally referred to as "regionalism".  In 2005, a delegation of leaders from our region visited Nashville, Tennessee.  Nashville had just been named "America's Hottest City" for economic development by Expansion Management Magazine, and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  The visit was both exhilarating as well as a bit intimidating.  Exhilarating because we had an opportunity to experience why Expansion Management Magazine was so high on the region.  A bit intimidating because we recognized that we needed to significantly improve our "game" if we were going to compete with the best of the best.  Given that we were in Nashville because we planned to compete with the best of the best, change was in the wind.  

The purpose of this is not to sing Nashville's praises, although the community is certainly worthy of its share of accolades.  The purpose is to explain that the progress that has taken place in our region since we first launched our Inter-City Leadership Visits, and our region's leadership decided to compete at the highest levels of performance from a global perspective, are remarkable.  Southwest Indiana has emerged as a progressive, dynamic, outstanding location to start or expand business operations.  Our people are industrious.  Our schools are excellent.  Our universities and colleges are outstanding.  Our community is safe, civil, and affordable.  Our downtown is in the middle of a most impressive transformation, led by a brand new, state-of-the-art arena.  We are perfectly suited for logistics and distribution facilities, being located within one day's drive of 70% of the population of the United States and Canada, and enjoying outstanding air and water ports.  In short, we improved our game in a big way.  And that comment about being a bit intimidated?  Forget it.  We lost that a long time ago.