On October 24, 2023, over 750 people gathered at the Nashville Renaissance Hotel to celebrate 176 years of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and its role in creating economic prosperity by facilitating community leadership. If you missed our 2023 Annual Celebration or want to relive the event, check out our highlights below.
Spirit of the Region Award
Spirit of the Region Honorees are chosen based on business excellence and advancing prosperity on behalf of Middle Tennessee. This year’s award recipient was BNA Nashville International Airport because of their contributions as an economic driver to the region and the community. Over the 2023 fiscal year, BNA served a total of 21.9 million passengers—an 18.7% increase from its record-breaking 2022 year. BNA’s recent expansion projects have created over 2,000 jobs, injected hundreds of millions into the local economy, and set the stage for Nashville to become a pivotal connection point between the two coasts.
Pictured: Ralph Schulz presenting BNA President and CEO Doug Kreulen and team with the 2023 Spirit of the Region Award
Collaboration in the Age of AI
The Annual Celebration also included an immersive AI and ML learning interactive experience. Darvis Inc. is an AI technology development and deployment leader in technology. Darvis Inc. is a virtual mapping application that combines AI, computer vision, and data management to solve complex problems and inefficiencies. Jan Schlueter, co-founder and COO, provided the audience with a visual demonstration of how AI technologies are being developed and deployed around the world.
Annual Celebration also featured several AI and ML technology companies during the networking period. Couture Technologies, an AI-powered virtual try-on apparel solution company, and the Wond’ry, Vanderbilt’s state-of-the-art virtual reality labs, workshops, training opportunities, and programs, provided demonstrations to the crowd. Darvis Inc. was also present during the networking period.
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Chamber Highlights
Over the past year, the Chamber welcomed 316 new members and 19 new Partnership 2030 investors. Between July 2022 and June 2023, nearly 26 businesses relocated to or expanded in Middle Tennessee, creating more than 5,456 new jobs and $4.7 billion in capital investment.
Partnership 2030 completed a successful second year of its five-year regional economic development plan. Focusing on three interconnected strategic drivers: job growth, education, and talent development, and quality of place and livability. The strategy also identifies two strategic foundations that support each driver and are critical to the success of this plan: regional collaboration and deep prosperity.
Annual Report
You can read more about Nashville’s success, the Spirit of the Region Award honoree, the Chamber’s members and investors, and more about the Chamber’s 176 years of history in this year’s interactive annual report HERE.
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