National Summits and Special Events

Below (from left to right): Director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Thom Mason, Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander and George Dials, Executive Vice President of B&W Technical Services Group in Oak Ridge at the 2007 National Summit.

One of the primary ways the Tennessee Valley Corridor, Inc., advances ongoing collaboration and cooperation among key Corridor institutions, organizations, businesses and elected leaders is through the Corridor’s annual National Summit.

The upcoming 2012 TVC National Summit in Somerset, Ky. will be the 27th in a series of regular economic development Summits the Corridor has organized to help strategically link the technology-rich Tennessee Valley Corridor – from North Alabama through East Tennessee into Southwest Virginia, Western North Carolina and Southern and Eastern Kentucky.

Under the leadership of the Corridor’s ten Congressmen and a Corridor-wide board of leading business, government, education and economic development leaders, these regular Summits have become the region’s best vehicle to convene, inform and mobilize top leaders on issues of importance to advancing federal missions and to leveraging those federal missions and the Corridor’s research institutions for new regional job creation.

Featured speakers at past Summits have included: current U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander, Bob Corker, Jeff Sessions and Jim DeMint; Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam; Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal; current Congressmen Hal Rogers, Jimmy Duncan, Rick Boucher, Heath Shuler, Phil Roe, Robert Aderholt, Chuck Fleischmann, Scott DesJarlais and Mo Brooks; U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood; FedEx founder and chairman Fred Smith; former Volkswagen of America President and CEO Stefan Jacoby; Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Tom Kilgore; former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; former U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman; U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George W. Casey, Jr.; former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge; former U.S. Secretary of Energy Hazel O'Leary; former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Frederico Pena; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce David Sampson; former NASA administrators Dan Goldin and Mike Griffin; Under Secretary of Energy Dr. Kristina Johnson; former U.S. Senators Bill Frist and Fred Thompson; former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, former Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher, former Tennessee Governors Phil Bredesen and Don Sundquist; former Congressmen Zach Wamp, Lincoln Davis, Rick Boucher, Parker Griffith, Bart Gordon, Gresham Barrett, Bob Inglis, David Davis, Van Hilleary and Bud Cramer; and dozens of other national and regional leaders.

In between these National Summits, the Corridor also organizes or supports subject-specific conferences, meetings and seminars in support of the Corridor’s core initiatives. Recent events have focused on:

New Industrialism and Reindustrialization
Homeland Security and Community Preparedness
Workforce Training
Venture Capital

Below: Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL) at the 2010 Fall Partnership Event in Huntsville, Alabama.

Below: Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Michael Chertoff, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security talk over dinner at the 2005 National Summit in Washington, D.C.

Below: One of the University of Tennessee System booths at the 2007 Kingsport Summit.

Below: The 2005 D.C. Summit opening reception at the National Building Museum.

Below: Congressman Mo Brooks (R-AL) at the 2010 Fall Partnership Event in Huntsville, Alabama.	Below: Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Michael Chertoff, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security talk over dinner at the 2005 National Summit in Washington, D.C.

Below: One of the University of Tennessee System booths at the 2007 Kingsport Summit.	Below: The 2005 D.C. Summit opening reception at the National Building Museum.