RALEIGH – The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce hosted its Annual Leadership Conference Tuesday and Wednesday at Hotel Ballast in Wilmington. Leaders from across NC gathered to discuss innovation that will shape the future of the Triangle region.

In an exclusive interview with WRAL Techwire, Billie Redmond, Trademark Properties founder and past Chair of the Chamber, reflected on her biggest takeaways from the two-day conference.

Importance of Infrastructure for a Growing Region

Redmond, who founded the commercial real estate company Trademark Properties in the Triangle in 1984 and received the prestigious Triangle Commercial Real Estate Women Impact Award in 2009, told me that she walked away from the event reflecting on the importance of infrastructure to development in the Triangle.

Billie Redmond, past Chair of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and founder of Trademark Properties

“A lot of times in those conferences, what you do get is some historical context,” Redmond told WRAL TechWire. “Like, they mentioned our water supply system. Well, that came from leadership, planning, and investment from 30 to 40 years ago.”

Redmond, who commented that she’s been to “at least 25” of the Chamber’s leadership conferences, also shared that focusing on infrastructure is a “critical” way we can support our area’s growth.

Here’s what Redmond posted on X (formerly Twitter) during the event:

“We are now in a critical stage of needing to be very much looking ahead to our water supply, which touches every facet of our lives, right? Clean water in particular,” Redmond said after the event. “And our energy capacity, energy cost, is so critical. We love all of our accolades, and the job growth we have, and the people that are coming here with those businesses—is there roadway and transit capacity, water and sewer capacity, and energy grid capacity? From a real estate perspective, those things are absolutely critical.”

She shared that it was helpful to hear from both public and private entities about what’s being done.

“I was very pleased to hear from some of our municipal staff, and some of our major corporations,” said Redmond. “Like today, in the infrastructure, Duke Energy was represented, the Turnpike Authority was represented, so you have people who are working in those areas every single day.”

The conference discussion included an opportunity for Redmond and other leaders to hear about the city and county plans for infrastructure improvements.

“To hear someone from Wake County who’s responsible for water resources talking about their 50-year water plan—it was reassuring to know they have a plan,” said Redmond. “I think about my children and my grandchildren, and how I want our community to not just grow, but to maintain such a strong quality of life.”

The importance of public-private partnerships—especially for education

Redmond is a past chair of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, where she served an unprecedented extended term, and a past co-chair of the Wake County Citizens Facility Advisory Committee, which evaluated the Wake County capital improvement program and implementation strategies.

She shared that one of the most important things that a conference like this one can offer is the chance for the public and private sectors to talk about ideas together.

“I do think that it does help for people to be able to ask questions of, sort of, the experts in our community, whether they’re from the public sector or the private sector, or the nonprofit sector,” said Redmond. “They learned so much at the conferences in an easier and really inclusive way.”

She also shared that many sessions included public, private, and nonprofit perspectives—and that she believes this is especially important for discussions about our education systems.

“Really two of our sessions sort of focused on education, talent, workforce development, and you know, that is very much a public-private partnership,” said Redmond. “In my time in the community, I watched—our elected officials and municipalities staff and private businesses forged some of the early public-private partnerships around, you know, parks or school sites or things that were a benefit for the community but also were beneficial for a business entity.”

Redmond, who served on the Governor and General Assembly-appointed Education & Workforce Innovation Commission, said that she believes public-private conversations about education are “crucial.”

“At the end of the day, the question is, what are we doing to prepare the workforce of the future?” said Redmond. “And I’d say, for those of us who are older, remember—they will be taking care of us. So let’s make sure they’re prepared.”

 

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article referenced a “2050 plan” from the City of Raleigh. The plan presented at the conference was the “One Water Plan” shared by Nancy Daly, Wake County’s Water Resources Manager.