Charlie Kettle, left, the Chamber’s vice chair for economic development, moderates a panel with Madison Mayor Paul Finley, Madison County Commission Chairman Mike Gillespie and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle.

Attendees at the Chamber’s Annual Economic Development Summit were presented with the new Economic Growth Report.

Julius Weyman, regional executive for the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, was the featured speaker at the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County’s 2009 Economic Development Summit, presented by Verizon Wireless. Weyman said that while most of Alabama had catching up with the rest of the country in terms of the recession, the Huntsville/Madison County area continued to be a leader.

“I talk to a lot of groups in a lot of places and I Google the cities before I arrive to get some background. Have you ever Googled Huntsville? It’s fun. I don’t get to see the kinds of positive news that you get here very often. It goes on and on. Huntsville continues to be a bright spot for the state.” He also thanked Bobby Bradley and Tom Stanton, the Huntsville representatives who serve on the board of directors for the Federal Reserve Bank.

The Economic Development Summit is held for the Chamber’s HREGI Investors to announce the latest economic growth report. The 2009 Summit not only featured a keynote address from Julius Weyman of the Fed, but also included a first-ever for the event—a panel discussion with Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Madison Mayor Paul Finley and Madison County Commission Chairman Mike Gillespie.

The panel of civic leaders focused on the role teamwork and cooperation play in economic development as well as the explosion of growth attributed to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005 recommendations set to be completed in the next three years.

Gillespie discussed the importance of repeating the message of how important the community’s infrastructure needs are to the state delegation so they can effectively fight for more funding.

“When the 2005 BRAC is complete and all of the people and the jobs are filled, we will be sending an extra $40 million a year in tax money to the state. The issue really is that we are not getting enough money back to fund the infrastructure needs that we have. I urge all of you, please, to talk to your state delegation about this so they can help us take that message to Montgomery,” he said.

Battle, who recently opened the Green Cities Summit and announced a Council for Green Sustainability (Green 13), also said that Huntsville stood to benefit from the economic development opportunities associated with sustainable and renewable programs.

“We can work together toward green sustainable energy and focus on attracting green industries here,” Battle said. “And it just makes sense for this community. There is a huge opportunity in this for us.”

Mayor Finley said the community is focused on growth and accountability. “I said it last week – we are just blessed to be in this area. This community works well together. There used to be a city, a city and a county. And now it is one group. It is one voice – and this allows us all to maximize our assets.”

Chamber Chair Irma Tuder led off the event and said the business community and the leadership are primary reasons why the region has fared better than others over the past year.

“There are not many communities in the country that have done as well as ours during this recession. There are likely many reasons for this, but a few of them have to do with the leaders. Also – this community continues to feature an excellent blend of diverse and growing industries and an entrepreneurial spirit that truly is recession-proof. The key to much of this growth, of course, is technology – and our community continues to benefit from being in the technology business. We know that Huntsville/Madison County continues to lead the state in announced jobs. We have led this category in 16 of the last 19 years. That is sustained, measurable growth,” said Tuder said.

Chamber President/CEO Brian Hilson announced the 2009 Economic Growth Report. Some of the data in the report included the fact that since 2000 (and in 2008), the Huntsville metro continues to lead the state in employment growth; professional and business service employment, population growth; gross domestic product; average annual pay; labor force growth and employment growth. “We had over 150 economic development announcements last year and that is so significant. There are a lot of ways that you can measure a community’s economic growth, but the most obvious is job creation, and as Irma said we have led the state 16 of the past 19 and those years where we weren’t first, we were second.”

Hilson also said that the report is also done to illustrate how the metro is comparing to other technology-driven communities in the country, such as Austin and the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina. “And the report shows that we are meeting and exceeding these communities as well in several categories.”