Each year, the Charlotte Chamber's investor-level members (Board of Advisors and up) are invited to attend a planning retreat with the incoming chair. Information and feedback from the retreat goes into development of the annual Program of Work. Below are audio files of key sessions as well as PDFs of PowerPoint decks where available.

Download a PDF of the full retreat agenda here.

1. Welcome and the State of the Chamber (audio)
2. Creating Sustainable Communities in an Era of Economic Uncertainty (audio)
   keynote address by Dr. James Johnson, William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
3. Diversification of the Charlotte Economy panel discussion (audio)
4. Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship panel discussion (audio)
5. Program of Work status reports (audio)
6. State of Charlotte’s Economic Development (audio)
7. Breakout Session reports (audio)
   Political Capital: What public policy initiatives should the Charlotte Chamber undertake to advance the competitiveness of the Charlotte Region in the national and global marketplace?
   Physical Capital: What new initiatives should the Charlotte Chamber undertake to creatively address our transit/transportation needs, especially given new funding realities?
   Financial Capital: How can BusinessFirst be improved/expanded to positively impact Charlotte’s ability to retain businesses and help them grow?
   Human Capital: How can the Charlotte Chamber help grow, support and engage/retain an educated workforce?
   Cultural Capital: How do we make Charlotte the most inclusive business community in the country?
   Social Capital: How does the Charlotte Chamber connect all members, providing access to new markets, decision-makers and peer groups?
8. Governor Perdue’s response to the retreat and Q&A (audio)

The audio above is also collected in the 2010 Planning Retreat podcast channel for convenient download to iTunes or other service. The 2009 retreat information is available here.