Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 8, 1994 TAG: 9409080055
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The conference, to be held Oct. 27 at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel, will be sponsored by 44 chambers of commerce representing businesses in an area bordered by Virginia's western and southern lines and extending from Lexington to Lynchburg and Halifax.
The session will not be a seminar, said Bud Oakey, vice president of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and director of the conference. The day will be spent in a series of workshops at which small-business operators will seek consensus on such issues as education, health care, innovation and technology, taxation, exporting, procurement and environmental regulations.
The day will begin with registration at 7 a.m., followed by a breakfast at which U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., will speak.
Participants will gather from their workshops again for a luncheon at which Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, will be the speaker. Oakey pointed out that Payne was a small-business man, having built the Wintergreen resort from scratch.
The meeting will conclude with a "wrap-up session" and cocktail reception at 7 p.m.
Oakey forecasts that 450 to 500 will attend the regional conference. Cynthia M. Shelor of John T. Morgan Roofing and Sheet Metal Co. in Roanoke will be chairwoman.
Organizers hope to recruit 120 to 160 local participants to form a bus cavalcade to the Virginia State White House Conference on Small Business, which will be held Dec. 6 at the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach. Recommendations from the Western Virginia regional conference will be presented there as well.
The state conference will draw recommendations for delegates to take to the national conference.
The Virginia meeting also will elect 26 delegates and 26 alternates to represent the state at the national meeting.
Oakey said organizers hope that six to 10 of the elected delegates will come from Western Virginia.
The White House conference will be held June 11-15, 1995, in Washington, where the agenda of policy issues will be submitted to President Clinton and Congress.
Oakey said 62 percent of the recommendations developed at the last White House conference in 1986 were enacted.
The federal government defines a small business as an enterprise with fewer than 500 employees. At the conference, however, the typical delegate represents a small business with 100 or fewer workers.
Shelor, the chairwoman, said the conference will give operators of small businesses a chance to make a difference.
Interested business persons can contact their local chamber of commerce or call the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce at (703) 983-0700. The fee for the Western regional conference is $55 until Oct. 1 and $75 after then. Delegates to the state and national conferences must pay their own expenses.
by CNB