ERIC SMITH | The Daily News
The Greater Memphis Chamber will give prospective businesses and national trade publications the proverbial star treatment next week when it hosts the Red Carpet Tour.
Set for June 8-10, the event is designed to showcase the economic advantages that Memphis can offer – from inexpensive commercial real estate to a logistics-laden work force, from the world’s busiest cargo airport to robust rail, road and river infrastructure.
The chamber’s team has invited companies, site selectors and journalists from around the country to Memphis for the Red Carpet Tour, which this year has attracted 11 site consultants, three members of the site selection media plus local reporters.
The event most recently was held in 2006 and 2009 but hasn’t been a regular annual occurrence.
Mark Herbison, senior vice president of economic development for the chamber, said that will change.
In the past the chamber held the tours based on the organization’s resources, but with the new MemphisED (economic development) program and some additional resources, Herbison said, the chamber hopes to host one each spring.
“Our plan, starting last year, was to do one every year,” he said. “It’s going to be an annual event.”
The Red Carpet Tour is designed to be just that – a first-class, behind-the-scenes look at the city’s assets. That means visiting the FedEx Super Hub as well as intermodal facilities like the CN-CSX Intermodal Gateway-Memphis, bioscience companies and Memphis International Airport.
“I can’t tell you the impact it has on these consultants when we’re able to bring them here and show them what we have to offer instead of them reading about it on a website,” Herbison said. “When they can go out and see our airport and see our rail facilities and see our port on the river and see our Pidgeon Industrial Park, there’s not a lot of cities that have the kind of things to offer that we do. It’s a real positive thing for Memphis and it generates a lot of activity for Memphis.”
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr., who will have lunch one day with the visitors and speak to them about the Memphis advantages, said these types of tours help lure businesses to the city.
Wharton said it’s “critical” to get companies’ site decision makers to Memphis to see firsthand what the city has to offer in everything from transportation and distribution capabilities, to financial relationships and qualified work force.
“We need some ‘affirmative action’ there simply because we have not marketed ourselves as aggressively as we should,” Wharton said. “I won’t say there’s a negative perception of what we are, there’s just a lack of knowledge. There’s a void. Once people see it, they go crazy. They’re shocked at the quality that we have here in so many respects.”
The purpose of this event and others, Wharton noted, is for Memphians alone to tell the Memphis story.
“If we don’t tell it, who else will?” he said. “If others tell it, it’s going to be negative. We’re the only ones who can give a true story, a true picture of what we have to offer here. Competition is stiff. Our competitors are selling their virtues and their strengths every day through social media, through personal calls, through trade conferences.
“We’ve been pretty well missing in action, and we’ve got to take some affirmative action to catch up. That’s what we’re doing.”
Another aspect is a panel discussion, featuring players in the city’s chief industry sectors like manufacturing, logistics, bioscience and commercial real estate.
The tour closes Thursday with a visit to the St. Jude Classic golf tournament at TPC Southwind.
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