Register now for the State Chamber/AIA Washington Fly-In,May 10-12, 2022.

Agenda 

(Click here to download and print the Event Program.)

TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2022            

5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.    Chiefs’ Of Staff Reception

The AC Hotel Washington DC Capitol Hill Navy Yard

8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.    Small Group Suppers

Small Groups will be gathering and departing for supper from the Chiefs’ Reception.  Please contact the State Chamber if you’d like help coordinating your supper arrangements.

 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022      

8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  National Economic Outlook + Arkansas Federal Delegation Briefings

United States Capitol Visitor Center Room 268, Washington, DC.

Please Plan to Arrive at the U.S. Capitol Visitors’ Center by 8:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m.           U.S. Chamber of Commerce Briefing:
Mr. Neil Bradley, Executive Vice President, Chief Policy Officer, and Head of Strategic Advocacy

10:30 a.m.         Roundtable with Arkansas’s U.S. Senate Delegation

11:30 a.m.         Roundtable with Arkansas’s U.S. House of Representatives Delegation

12:45 p.m.         Lunch on your own

1:45 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.    Meetings On Your Own

6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.    Arkansas State Chamber & State Society Congressional Reception
101 Constitution Building, 101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC

8:00 p.m.            Arkansas Congressional Reception After Party
Charlie Palmer Steakhouse, 101 Constitution Building, 101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC

 

THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2022

8:00 a.m.            Arkansas Leadership Breakfast

Program To Be Announced Soon

We would like to thank and recognize the various sponsors for this year’s Washington Fly-In:

Presenting Sponsor: Saracen Casino

Gold Sponsor – Central Moloney, Cox Communications, Aerojet Rocketdyne, ArCare, Southwest Power Pool, Garver and Entergy

Silver Sponsor –First Community Bank, Flywheel Energy, International Paper, Little Rock Regional Chamber, McGriff Insurance, Nucor, AT&T, Arkansas Electric Cooperative

If your company or organization is interested in sponsoring the Washington Fly-In, or for more information on sponsorship levels, contact Bill Watson at 501-802-1740 or bwatson@arkansasstatechamber.com .

Leadership Arkansas Class XV will hold its final session — Planning, Leadership & Graduation – Thursday and Friday, May 20-21 in Little Rock.

Classmates will pull on their proverbial gowns and parade through the streets. But before they do, this now cohesive unit will examine the miles they’ve traveled and make plans for the future. Joined by eleven years of alumni, the class will take their places in a long line of graduates and become a part of this accomplished group. Highlighting the series of events will be some of Arkansas’s most accomplished leaders.

The session is sponsored by CenterPoint Energy and Tyson Foods, Inc.

The Underwriting Sponsor for the 2020-2021 Leadership Arkansas program is The Citizens Bank of Batesville.  The Presenting Sponsor is ARcare. Statewide Program Sponsors are Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, Farm Credit Services of Arkansas, Nucor Steel Arkansas, Southwest Power Pool, and Walmart.

For more information on Leadership Arkansas, contact Toni Lindsey at tlindsey@arkansasstatechamber.com or 479-409-4389.

If your  company or organization is interested in sponsoring Leadership Arkansas Class XVI, contact Bill Watson at bwatson@arkansasstatechamber.com or 501-802-1740.

Leadership Arkansas Class XV will hold their Regional Development Session April 21-23 in Northwest Arkansas.

From healthcare to poultry production, and transportation to retail sales, Northwest Arkansas continues to be one of the fastest-growing and most progressive areas of the U.S. Class members will examine the impact a relative handful of entrepreneurial pioneers have had not just within our state but nationally. They will also see how those who have followed have pooled the collective resources to continue their legacy.

The session is sponsored by Cox Communications, Gerdau Special Steel,  Tyson Foods, Inc. and Washington Regional Medical Center.

The Underwriting Sponsor for the 2020-2021 Leadership Arkansas program is The Citizens Bank of Batesville.  The Presenting Sponsor is ARcare. Statewide Program Sponsors are Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, Farm Credit Services of Arkansas, Nucor Steel Arkansas, Southwest Power Pool, and Walmart.

If your  company or organization is interested in sponsoring a Leadership Arkansas session, contact Bill Watson at bwatson@arkansasstatechamber.com or 501-802-1740.

 

LITTLE ROCK – Governor Asa Hutchinson has added former Pea Ridge School District Superintendent Rick Neal to serve on his staff as director of Workforce, Education, and Data Transformation. Mr. Neal will coordinate the Arkansas Ready for Life initiative, a program to connect employees and employers. Neal previously worked for the State Chamber/AIA as Education to Employee Director. “Ready for Life combines a trove of information that will allow employers and job seekers to more easily find each other,” Governor Hutchinson said. “During Rick’s time as a principal and superintendent at Pea Ridge, the school district thrived. He is an energetic administrator with the creativity to help mold Ready for Life into an effective program that will strengthen our workforce, which makes Arkansas a better place for everyone.” Ready for Life will improve access to information that is available about the state’s talent pool, and it will link employers with job hunters. Governor Hutchinson allocated $14.7 million in federal Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Funds in support of Ready for Life. The initiative is a partnership with the Arkansas Chamber of Commerce; the Arkansas Economic Development Commission; the Division of Workforce Services; K-12; the Departments of Human Services, Corrections, and Agriculture; and Institutions of Higher Education. Mr. Neal’s responsibilities will include coordination and data analysis of educational institutions, state agencies, and business and industry; development of the Ready for Life learning management system; and building partnerships among state agencies, business and industry, and educators. Mr. Neal has worked in public education for the past 36 years. He was principal of Pea Ridge High School for seven years, and in July 2012, he became superintendent of the Pea Ridge district. He was also middle school principal at Berryville Middle School in the Berryville School District. Mr. Neal earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education, a master’s degree in education administration, and an education specialist degree, all from the University of Arkansas. His career in education began at Siloam Springs Junior High School, where he was a social studies teacher and basketball coach. He and his wife, Sheila, have been married for 36 years. They have two sons, Heath, 35, and Cody, 31, and two grandchildren. Rick Neal’s photograph is HERE.

by I.C. Murrell | February 28, 2021, Pine Bluff Commercial

For Little Rock construction executive Jill Floyd, learning about the different industry sectors that network in Arkansas is crucial to gaining perspective on how the state operates.

Leadership Arkansas gives the director of community outreach for CDI Contractors the opportunity to glean that knowledge.

Floyd said she was excited “to go out and explore the different areas around the state, understand what their issues are, the challenges are, and what things they’re doing well, quite frankly, and building a network of folks I can lean on and also help as we all progress in our careers in service to the state.”

Floyd is one of 31 members in Leadership Arkansas’ 15th class who toured Pine Bluff from Wednesday through Friday and took a course on highway management in a city that provides a corridor to almost every spot in the state. Ryan Watley, CEO of Go Forward Pine Bluff, who graduated from last year’s class, said this is the first time Leadership Arkansas has come to the city.

“It’s very important to understand the region that Arkansas is, how each corner of the state contributes to the overall economy, and how the issues that are in southeast Arkansas are different from those that may be in northwest Arkansas, and so they begin to develop a sentiment for that,” Watley said. “In their track, whether they’re public leaders or financial leaders or whatever, they understand how the state network is.”

The Arkansas Department of Transportation is a key component of the curriculum. ADOT Deputy Director Randy Ort and state transportation commissioners, including Chairman Robert Moore of Arkansas City, educated the business leaders on their place in government and challenged the class to prioritize needs for the system through a group exercise.

“We have all these needs identified, which is a big number, but have this much available,” Ort said. “That’s the big challenge for the commission: How do you prioritize the projects? You’ve got $1,000 worth of needs but only $500; how are you going to prioritize?

“What we’ve done is give them $10 million worth of projects and given them a $750 million budget to spend, so they’re putting together a plan on how they’re going to spend that money. Are they going to spend it on bridges? Are they going to spend more on high-priority corridors? Are they going to take care of system preservation? It’s a very interesting exercise.”

Leadership Arkansas, founded by the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Arkansas, takes business leaders from across the state and helps them take a comprehensive view of the economic and political challenges Arkansas faces. Nearly 800 people have graduated from the program.

The 2020-21 group first met in September in Fairfield Bay and has since met in Jonesboro to study agriculture and outdoor life, the Little Rock area in December to learn about government and military life, and El Dorado and southwest Arkansas in January to examine natural resources, defense and industrial development.

They’ll meet again next month in Hot Springs to learn about tourism, history and revitalization and head to Northwest Arkansas in April to examine regional development before graduation May 21 in Little Rock.

Watley said the visit gives Pine Bluff a chance to roll out the red carpet to a diverse group of Arkansas business leaders.

“They can go back and empower them to be able to converse in a positive manner about the things going on in Pine Bluff,” Watley said. “So far they’ve been impressed, by and large, by the way Go Forward Pine Bluff is working in the community, our private-public partnerships and the progress we’ve made in a short amount of time. They also understand our challenges. So we’re talking about, with those leaders, the things we hope to address.”

Floyd said business leaders in Central Arkansas tend to be more “inwardly focused” on their region because it’s the most populated area. She said she hopes to take the information from Leadership Arkansas to help her continue leading in her field.

“As a woman in construction, it’s continuing to provide opportunities for other women and other minorities to come into the space, to make sure the space itself is more diverse and welcoming, and that we’re also, quite frankly, moving into future technologies that will help us move forward,” Floyd said. “Also, introducing the space to people who don’t necessarily see it as a career path.”