In This Issue
Celebrating Successes at Annual Business Reception
2005 Year in Review - Marketing Opportunity in the Gateway Region
- We've Gone Live
- StarTek Brings 500 New Jobs to Petersburg
- Virginia's Economic Development Director Visits Region
Data Center
Learn how to build a customized report about the Gateway Region.
April 13 , 2006
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the first edition of the Gateway Region's quarterly e-newsletter "Access Is Everything." At Virginia's Gateway Region, we know how important it is for you to have the latest news, facts and figures for your business, and we want this newsletter to be a key source for that information. With that in mind, we hope you will enjoy the first issue and will contact us if you have any ideas as to how we can better serve you.
Celebrating Successes at Annual Business Reception
Virginia’s Gateway Region Economic Development Organization (VGR) is taking regional marketing efforts to new heights. At the organization’s annual business reception, held April 6, 2006, at the Petersburg Country Club, the area’s most prominent business leaders and governmental officials were on hand to celebrate the regional economic development organization’s successes.
2005 Year in Review
Jobs and Investment are the name of the game in the Virginia’s Gateway Region. During the past year alone, the region has added 2,400 new jobs and more than $115 million in new capital investment to strengthen and diversify the region’s economic base.
Marketing Opportunity in the Gateway Region
Virginia’s Gateway Region was one of 15 communities awarded a $10,000 grant as part of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s Virginia’s Opportunity Regions (VOR) FY 06 marketing program. The program’s mission is to increase the number of business prospects to communities of Virginia that have certain levels of fiscal stress or unemployment. The VOR Marketing Grant program provides funds for these localities to build marketing capacity.
“VEDP is always looking for ways to assist localities with their recruitment efforts,” said Jeff Anderson, VEDP Executive Director. “The Virginia’s Opportunity Regions marketing program provides distressed communities a unique opportunity to execute marketing initiatives and thus increase their flow of business prospects.”
We've Gone Live
Since the January launch of the Gateway Region's redesigned and revamped website, the average number of daily hits has more than doubled.
"The functionality of the website gives the Region a leg-up on competition for new companies, while providing local business with key data," Virginia's Gateway Region President Charles E. Townes, Sr., said. "The site's design is cutting edge with the Region's latest news, an interactive site location center and the capacity to build customized reports."
StarTek Brings 500 New Jobs to Petersburg
StarTek, Inc., a leading provider of business process outsourcing services, recently opened a customer care facility in the City of Petersburg. The new facility will include up to 500 positions providing service primarily to clients in the telecommunications industry.
Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, StarTek, Inc. provides services from 17 operating facilities located across Colorado, Virginia, Illinois, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming and Canada.
Fact Facts: Did you know?
Virginia's Gateway Region includes the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Petersburg, and Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Prince George, Surry and Sussex Counties.
Virginia's Economic Development Director Visits Region
The new executive director of the Commonwealth's economic development agency kicked off 2006 by getting to know Virginia’s Gateway Region. On January 4, 2006, Jeffrey M. Anderson, Executive
Director of Virginia's Economic Development Partnership
(VEDP), toured Virginia's Gateway Region and spoke at a
luncheon welcoming him to the Region.
