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Demand rises for unique meeting locations

Summary

  • Nearly half of North American planners now book unique venues.
  • Virginia sites like and draw events.
  • Venues increase marketing to meet rising demand.

As the owner of BizConnect , Laura Henderson is always looking for unique sites to hold workshops and networking coffees.

“I try to do events at interesting, fun places,” Henderson says. “That helps my organization and the [host] business. You get over 100 people in there, and probably 50% to 70% have never been there before.”

Interesting and fun could aptly describe BizConnect’s recent event at the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio, where a glass blowing demonstration enthralled guests. Several attendees signed up for future glass-blowing workshops at the newly renovated Norfolk gallery, and one business owner booked the studio for a team-building event.

Businesses choose Mountain Lake Lodge for to help participants think outside the box, says Vice President Lyndsi Hale. Photo by Natalee Waters

“I wanted to try something different, and I’m glad I did,” Henderson says.

She is one of a growing number of meeting planners who are bypassing large hotel chains, conference centers and other traditional venues for more distinctive locales like art galleries, music halls, restaurants, sports stadiums and arenas, historical sites and wineries. According to Cvent’s 2025 Planner Sourcing Report, 49% of North American event professionals are booking unique sites for their events, compared to 17% in 2023. Seeking to create memorable yet cost-efficient experiences that will impress guests, they are discovering that many non-traditional sites offer package deals, built-in activities and other amenities.

It’s all about creating “wow moments,” says Yvonne Butters, Cvent’s director of meetings and events. “They don’t want just ballrooms. They want experiences. There’s a strong desire to create something that people will take away with them.”

Live glass-blowing demonstrations fit that criteria, adds Colleen Higginbotham, the Chrysler’s deputy director for visitor experience. “People see art being made. That makes it a memorable event and provides a program that an event planner doesn’t have to come up with.”

Butters believes the trend toward unique meeting venues will continue: “As planners build out their annual event programs, they see a need to elevate the design and attendees’ experience,” she explains.

In response, many unique venues are increasing their advertising budgets to reach planners striving to elevate their meetings beyond PowerPoint presentations. Cvent notes a 24% increase in advertising spending for unique sites in North America from January to August compared with the same period in 2024. Venues such as wineries and restaurants have increased their advertising by 74%, while entertainment sites, like music halls, are spending 73% more on advertising.

Celeste BrShawn Garrison, the Chrysler’s special events manager, says the museum, which hosts about 30 corporate events annually, has increased marketing on social media and other digital sites. The Chrysler also holds after-hours tours for meeting planners.

“Folks can come in and form their image of what they’re looking to have at an event,” Garrison says.

Making memories

Surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains, Mountain Lake Lodge in Pembroke specializes in wow moments. Instead of morning mixers around a coffee urn, corporate retreat participants take walks along 22 miles of trails or do yoga and stretching exercises.

“It’s all about value and wellness,” says Lyndsi Hale, the lodge’s vice president of sales and operations. “They want to push their folks to think outside the box.”

A group of female corporate executives from around the country chose the lodge over sites in Cancun, Denver, New York City, San Francisco and Maine for their annual retreat in September. They stayed in cabins and cottages, dined from a farm-to-table menu, canoed and kayaked on the New River, unleashed their creativity during “paint and sip” sessions and assembled in meeting rooms bathed in natural light. “They said it was a more fruitful retreat because they were able to relax in a comfortable environment at a slower pace,” Hale says.

After several days breathing the fresh mountain air, she says there is a noticeable change in meeting participants: “When they leave, they look like a completely different person. Their shoulders are so much lower, and the tone of their voice is different.”

Large hotels still benefit from convention business, but planners are increasingly using unique spaces in tandem with those facilities, says Chuck Salem, CEO of Unique Venues, a website showcasing non-traditional sites in the U.S. and Canada for corporate meetings and events.

“Some planners need a convention center for their meetings but use off-site unique facilities for events away from the convention center,” he says. “That can build up a lot of excitement.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn led more planners to consider distinctive locations because of their affordability, he adds. “Universities with their large arenas and stadiums were the big winners because they had huge spaces where people could social distance,” Salem explains.

Unique Venues’ website includes colleges and universities, historical and cultural sites and sports arenas.

“A lot of these venues have a core mission other than events that generates revenues, or they’re nonprofits, so they’re not charging exorbitant rates,” Smith notes. “If a university opens its doors to events, what it’s really doing is helping to keep costs down for students. The core mission of museums is to cater to patrons, so the extra money helps keep museums fresh.”

While NASCAR is the main driver at the , corporate events — ranging from strategy sessions with less than two dozen attendees to gatherings in the thousands — are on the rise, says Lori Collier Waran, the raceway’s president.

That’s largely propelled by the post-pandemic push for companies to reunite their teams in meaningful activities, she adds.

“Businesses are eager to create shared experiences that inspire collaboration, innovation and culture building,” Waran says.

People attending meetings at the raceway can take behind-the-scenes NASCAR tours, ride in a pace car and stand on the finish line.

“These moments turn a standard corporate gathering into an immersive, one-of-a-kind experience that sparks creativity, camaraderie and lasting memories,” Waran says.

She adds that distinctive experiences combined with the raceway’s 80-year history keep the facility top of mind for meeting organizers. “We’re fortunate that word of mouth is one of our strongest drivers,” Waran says.

As Unique Venues’ Salem puts it, “That which is unique is inherently memorable.”

Future accountants have new path to certification

Summary

  • Starting in 2026, Virginia will no longer require 150 college hours for .
  • Candidates with bachelor’s degrees can become CPAs after two years of work and passing the exam.
  • The Virginia Society of CPAs pushed for the change to address staffing shortages.

Virginia will soon offer a new path to becoming a certified public accountant.

Beginning in 2026, prospective accountants will no longer be required to earn 150 hours of college credit to become licensed CPAs. People with bachelor’s degrees — having completed 120 hours, including required coursework — will be able to become CPAs after working in the field for two years and passing the certification exam.

The change was a big topic of conversation this summer, says Jasmine Tillery, a Hampton University junior who interned at the Richmond office of EY, the Big Four accounting firm also known as Ernst & Young.

“It makes it much easier on us to be recruited,” she says.

For now, Tillery’s plan is to work at an accounting firm after graduating and study for the certification exam. Some firms, Tillery notes, hand out a bonus for passing.

“I’d be able to be eligible for that sooner as well,” she says.

Contending with staffing shortages throughout the accounting industry, the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants (VSCPA) pushed mightily for Virginia to develop a route to licensure that didn’t require 150 hours.

“We basically drafted language, took it to the [Virginia] Board of Accountancy, gave them the opportunity to provide input into it and then found patrons and moved forward on it,” explains Emily Walker, the association’s vice president of advocacy and pipeline.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed the legislation in March, and it takes effect at the start of 2026.

Creating the new pathway, advocates hope, will lead to an increase in the number of college students going into accounting. That’s key since more than 300,000 accountants nationwide left the field between 2019 and 2022, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of accountants and auditors will grow 5% from 2024 to 2034. About 124,200 job openings are projected each year over the decade.

In Virginia, the number of new licenses issued has fallen about 34% since fiscal 2008, when 1,434 licenses were issued, to 940 in fiscal 2024, according to the .

Mandy Nevius, director at Glen Allen firm Keiter, calls the new pathway “a wonderful thing. I’ve been wanting it to happen for years.”

Getting young people interested in accounting is a tall order for several reasons. For one thing, many high schools no longer offer accounting classes, Nevius says. “People don’t even know about this career.”

And then there’s the no-fun image, she adds. Young people may picture accountants as humorless drones in windowless offices staring at spreadsheets. “The pocket protector, all those horrible stereotypes,” Nevius says.

In reality, though, accountants are professionals who can understand complex information and are skilled at explaining that data to clients. “They’re helping people,” she notes.

Even students who are open to the multitude of opportunities available in accounting still face financial hurdles, including the $1,200 cost of the CPA exam and prep courses that range from $2,000 to $5,000. Adding 30 extra credits on top of a bachelor’s degree was a bridge too far for some financially strapped students.

“There’s definitely a shortage of people coming into the profession,” confirms Melissa Sikes, a partner at the Glen Allen office of Brown Edwards, a Roanoke-based accounting firm that’s among the nation’s top 100 by net revenue.

With everyone desperate to prime the pipeline, VSCPA received little pushback to the idea of dropping the 150-credit requirement, Walker says.

Having a choice

When God created heaven and earth, accountants weren’t required to earn 150 credit hours.

In 1929, New York became the first state in the nation to require certified public accountants to earn a college degree. Other states followed.

Requirements changed again in the late 1980s after 84% of the voting members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants supported a plan to require new members to have 150 credit hours. States, including Virginia, began requiring the additional coursework. In 1999, the General Assembly passed a bill requiring that, starting in 2006, all CPAs would have to have 150 hours of college credits.

In 2008, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy explained the rationale for requiring 150 credit hours, citing factors for the change that included “the recognition of accounting as a profession at least as demanding as law, engineering and architecture.”

The idea, says Dawn Schwartz, assistant professor of accounting at Longwood University, was to make accountants more professional.

“They thought if they raised the credit hours that maybe people would get graduate degrees, and that means we would have more mature decision-makers,” she says.

Initially, Marc Lebow, assistant professor at Hampton University, supported Virginia’s addition of 30 hours. He thought getting additional coursework that examined “higher-level” accounting concepts would be good for students.

When he saw Virginia’s actual requirements, however, Lebow realized the extra credits didn’t have to be in accounting.

“It was just you had to have 150 hours,” says Gary Wallace, managing partner at Keiter. “The joke was always you could do basket weaving and still qualify.”

Today, Lebow supports the creation of a new pathway to becoming a CPA, but he notes that there may be a downside he hasn’t considered yet.

“When it was 120 going to 150, I only saw the good parts,” he says. “Coming from 150 back down to 120, I’m looking at the good parts.”

Would-be accountants still have choices. Those who earn a master’s degree or take 30 additional college credit hours are required to work only one year in accounting.

Everyone must still pass the CPA exam, though.

Carter Regitz earned his master’s degree in accounting from James Madison University two years ago. He then went to work as a senior accountant at Hantzmon Wiebel, a Charlottesville accounting firm.

He isn’t mad that Virginia accountants will soon be able to become CPAs with only a bachelor’s degree. For him, graduate school provided a deeper understanding of the profession; it was worth it.

A bonus: Regitz was able to take one of the four sections of the CPA exam while he was at JMU.

“That’s where doing the master’s was kind of nice, because you can start sitting and taking the exams,” he says.

As for Wallace, he believes earning a master’s degree from the University of Virginia served him well. “I got a master’s because I wanted to specialize in tax. For specialty-type services, I can see the benefits.”

Still, different paths suit others, Wallace notes. Accountants could learn the same things by working with a sharp professional.

When Sikes earned her certification in 2003, she wasn’t required to do the additional 30 credit hours.

She’s confident that those extra classes wouldn’t have made her a better accountant, because courses often focus on theory as opposed to practice, especially in auditing, Sikes says. “That’s done when you go out in the field,” she notes.

Another thing to consider: Just because an accountant opts to get their CPA after earning their bachelor’s degree doesn’t mean they’ll skip graduate school. Tillery plans to pursue a master’s in data analytics with a focus on to further her career.

At the end of the day, no matter what route professionals take to become CPAs, they have to have a solid understanding of the job, from auditing to taxation.

“People are still going to have to take that exam and pass it,” Sikes says.

Graduate programs in question

Roger Martin, senior associate dean for academic programs at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, thinks that the new pathway to becoming a CPA is a win for students overall and could be for universities as well.

More undergrads may sign up for U.Va.’s accounting program in the commerce school, Martin says, but the question is how the new standard would affect the master’s program. “I think every school I know is trying to figure out what the impact on their master’s program [will be].”

Longwood’s MBA program with an accounting focus, which launched last year, could be undersubscribed, Schwartz says: “It’s possible that that’s not going to be as successful as we thought it would be.”

Martin says the challenge for universities is showing students how they can benefit from accounting master’s degrees in addition to developing skills at work. U.Va., he adds, can make the case that master’s students develop professional skills before entering the industry.

“We have a leadership course,” Martin says. “We have a policy course that really is intended to get that technical accounting student out of the weeds of accounting, to get them to think about the role of accounting and their role as a professional and how they’re going to develop and excel quickly in their careers.”

As of now, the jury is still out on how Virginia’s new path to becoming a CPA will impact accounting master’s programs, but some Virginia professionals already see evidence that the change is drawing more students to the profession.

Keiter typically has between 30 and 35 interns a year, according to Nevius. Additionally, it hires between eight and 16 new graduates.

To make sure the firm can fill those slots, its employees attend events at about a dozen Virginia universities each year. From the visits Keiter employees have made already this fall, they’re confident the new path to becoming a CPA will help ease the staffing shortage.

“We have seen more entry-level students looking for jobs than we have in the past several years,” Nevius says.

Last year, Keiter recruiters saw between three and five students actively looking for jobs at the firm, and this year as of October, the firm has talked with about 30 students.

“I’m not going to say it’s huge, but it’s significant,” Nevius says.

Northern Virginia AI startups raise millions

This summer, investors poured money into -based offering solutions for data centers, the military and bias in AI.

In July, — incorporated in Washington, D.C., but with primary offices in — launched with $24.5 million in seed funding, and -based raised $24 million in a Series A round for its military logistics software. , based in , said in June that it completed the first closing of a planned $100 million raise.

Founded last year, Emerald AI offers a solution to a percolating problem in Virginia — energy consumption by data centers. Its Emerald Conductor software platform enables data centers to adjust and reduce their energy consumption during periods of peak grid demand, supporting grid stability while maintaining acceptable AI computing performance.

The company’s ultimate goal, says founder and CEO Varun Sivaram, is to help America win the AI race by freeing up the power needed to support innovation and also keeping energy sustainable and affordable for customers.

“Virginia is known as ‘Data Center Alley,’ and the state’s role in the future of AI in America will continue to grow,” Sivaram says.

Rune, which was founded in 2024, has raised more than $30 million in total since last year, says co-founder and CEO David Tuttle. Its TyrOS helps military logisticians keep track of resources to better predict future needs.

“Battlefield logistics are being tracked on laminated sheets of paper, or whiteboards or Excel spreadsheets in the best case. It’s very human-centric how these things are done,” he explains. “You can have the best fighting force in the world, but if we can’t get things in the right place at the right time in the right quantities that we need, that becomes the most useless military in the world.”

Funds will be used to add more staff. Rune currently has 26 employees and expects to double that within six months, Tuttle says.

Founded in 2021, Seekr, which said it generated more than $18 million in revenue last year, is in the middle of a $100 million funding round. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in June, the had raised $17.3 million in the round. Its SeekrFlow technology is designed to help enterprise and government customers create, tweak, deploy and keep track of trustworthy AI models in protected environments.

 

DOUG SMITH

Since 2019, Doug Smith has led the , a regional organization representing 15 municipalities and more than 100 private sector investors. Before that, he served as city manager for Norfolk and as deputy city manager in both Virginia Beach and Portsmouth. Smith also served on Portsmouth City Council.

Additionally, he is a past president and CEO of Kaufman & Canoles Consulting. Before beginning his career in public service and economic development, Smith worked at First Union National Bank of Virginia (now part of Wells Fargo), ultimately managing 31 branches in .

Guided by Smith, the Hampton Roads Alliance reported its best performance in 25 years, supporting 13 project announcements representing $625 million in capital investment and 2,860 new jobs. In 2024, the organization continued its momentum, supporting 13 project announcements encompassing $936 million in capital investment and over 1,000 new jobs.

A University of Virginia alumnus, Smith serves on the boards of the Hampton Roads Council, the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable and other regional organizations. He’s also a board member for the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore.

This year, Smith received the Hampton Roads Community Action Program’s Community Builders Award, adding to other he has received in recent years, like the Hampton Roads Workforce Council’s Workforce Innovation Award in 2021.

To the next generation of leaders, Smith says, “The sign of a good leader is not how many followers you have but how many leaders you create.”

Despite federal coal support, Southwest Virginia aims to diversify

Summary

  • U.S. and Virginia coal production continue to fall; metallurgical coal remains a valuable but limited market.
  • State and federal programs (, grants, proposed federal support) fund and energy projects.
  • Region eyes data centers, SMRs (small modular reactors) and clean-energy projects tied to transmission upgrades.

Mining was a family business for Mikey Elswick. His great-grandfathers, grandfather, father and uncle worked in the mines, and in his early 20s, Elswick went to work there, too, as a blaster, helping remove rock from the surface to gain access to the coal below.

Elswick, who lives in Buchanan County’s Big Rock area, enjoyed the work. With licenses in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia, he traveled throughout the region, eventually making about $27 an hour.

“It was great pay,” Elswick says. “It was good when it was good, but when it went bad, I mean, you didn’t know from week to week if you was going to get laid off and not have a job next week or not.”

Though Elswick never got laid off, the writing was on the wall. During his 15 years in the coal industry, he worked for three different companies. A decade ago, when his last employer, TECO Coal, in Hurley, announced it was going to sell to a Kentucky-based firm that planned to slash his pay by $4 an hour as well as his insurance benefits, he jumped at an opportunity to buy a pest control company, T&W Pest Control, that had been owned and operated by a previous coal miner.

The move was Elswick’s way of finding stability. He’s also been able to stay near family in Buchanan, where he continues to witness the effects of a volatile industry that has been in decline for decades, not just in but nationwide. A brother-in-law was among 72 workers laid off this year by Wellmore Energy Co., a metallurgical company and subsidiary of Tennessee-based United Coal, across several mining operations in Buchanan, Elswick says. And while his brother-in-law found work at another mining operation, others may face a hard time.

“Ten years ago, you could go to another company and get a job fairly easy,” Elswick says. “Now, there’s just not that many companies still left around here. If you do get laid off, it’s a little harder now to just run down the road and … get another job with another company.”

President Donald Trump during an April 8 executive order signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House. Trump is moving to expand coal mining, a bid to power energy-hungry data centers while seeking to revive a declining US industry. Photo by Andrew Thomas/NurPhoto via AP

Coal’s decline

In April, flanked by coal and energy workers wearing hard hats, President Donald Trump signed multiple executive orders aimed at reviving “beautiful clean coal.” Those orders allowed some coal-fired facilities that were scheduled for retirement to continue to make electricity, granted a two-year extension on federal regulations that would have reduced emissions from some toxins and also lifted barriers to coal mining on federal land.

The Trump administration followed up on that in late September, saying the federal government would open 13 million acres of federal lands for coal mining and provide $625 million to recommission or modernize coal-fired power plants. The moves come as Trump has vowed to reverse the years-long decline in the U.S. coal industry.

Coal is a reliable but polluting energy source that’s long been shrinking amid environmental regulations and competition from cheaper natural gas. Under Trump’s orders, the Energy Department has required fossil-fueled power plants in Michigan and Pennsylvania to keep operating past their retirement dates to meet rising U.S. power demand amid growth in data centers, and electric cars.

The Trump administration’s support for the coal industry has been received positively in the Southwest region, says Jonathan Belcher, executive director and general counsel of the Virginia Coalfield Economy Development Authority, which was established in 1988 by the state General Assembly to help diversify the region’s economy.

“They will help to ease some of the economic burden on the coal industry and hopefully help it to remain stable and continue for at least a few more years to come there,” Belcher says. “There’s still reserves of coal that are mineable in Virginia. … The question is, though, can it be done in an economical fashion, where the companies can still stay in business and make a profit?”

Coal was once king in Southwest Virginia, and the industry remains hugely important to the regional economically, with about a 9.9% total economic impact, according to an April report on the coal and natural gas industries prepared for VCEDA. Also, according to the report, the average coal industry salary in the region was $101,268 in 2024, more than twice the region’s annual salary of $45,926. But the industry has also felt the constraints of competition from other energy sources as well as environmental regulations and other factors.

U.S. coal production was at 578 million short tons in 2023, down from just over a million tons in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), which forecasts that production will continue to decline from 512 million short tons in 2024 to 483 million short tons in 2025.

Virginia’s coal mines produced 10 million short tons of coal in 2023, a figure that declined to 8.6 million short tons in 2024, according to the VCEDA report. Metallurgical, or “met” coal, which is used in the manufacturing of steel and for other uses, accounts for about 80% of coal mined in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Energy, and had an estimated market value of $1.7 billion in 2024.

Meanwhile, in 2023, according to EIA, just 2% of Virginia’s in-state electricity generation was coal-fueled, while natural gas accounted for 55%, nuclear power provided 32% and renewables (largely solar and biomass) contributed 12%. Virginia has two coal-fired energy production plants: Dominion Energy’s Clover Power Station in Halifax County and Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, also owned by Dominion, in Wise County. Each are allowed to operate until 2045.

While Trump’s executive orders may have a stabilizing effect on Virginia’s coal industry, they have had no noticeable effect so far, according to multiple observers, as well as the Virginia Department of Energy.

Michael Quillen, a former coal executive who once led Abingdon-based Alpha Natural Resources — now Bristol, Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources — chairs the Southwest Virginia Energy Research and Development Authority, which was created by the state to develop energy jobs in the region. production has increased about 6% nationally and mostly in states like Illinois and Wyoming, and he attributes that to economics, not Trump’s orders.

“It really goes back to the fundamentals that the natural gas price is up,” Quillen says. “So, when a power plant has the opportunity to either dispatch coal or dispatch natural gas, it’s going to go with whichever one’s the most economic.”

With such little energy in Virginia now produced by coal, any real boosts are more likely to be seen in the more lucrative met coal industry. And, while most met coal produced in Southwest Virginia is currently exported, with demand for steel rising amid Trump’s tariffs, his promises to bring back American manufacturing, and renewed emphasis on U.S. Navy shipbuilding, Virginia Department of Energy Director Glenn Davis says the state’s coal industry could benefit.

“I think the trend line … is leaning towards a significant increase in domestic steel production and usage, which inherently leads to an increase in the necessity of further or increased met coal production,” Davis says.

Going nuclear

In 1990, the coal industry represented 13.2% of the region’s workforce, employing a little less than 12,000 people. By 2024, the industry employed about 2,500 workers, representing just 2.4% of the region’s workforce, according to the VCEDA report.

Coal’s decline has left its scars on Southwest Virginia, which has seen its young adult population dwindle, according to a June report by the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. The region is on track to lose about 100,000 people by 2025.

Regional workforce and leaders are aware of this statistic and have been working to diversify the economy for decades. With power demand in the U.S. expected to double or triple by 2028 — a demand that could triple in Virginia as data centers continue to spread — some leaders see an opportunity to harness Southwest Virginia’s legacy to reclaim its spot as an energy juggernaut.

“Every amount of energy you can produce, going forward … for the foreseeable future … is going to be infinitely valuable. By doing energy in this region, you’re creating a valuable commodity that is going to continue for the foreseeable future,” says Will Clear, managing partner at Virginia Energy Strategies, an energy consultant for the nonprofit Energy DELTA Lab, launched in 2022 with a $975,000 grant from the federal Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) program.

Since funding began in 2017, the state has selected 50 projects totaling $74.4 million under AMLER, according to the state energy department. Twenty-five of those projects, totaling $31.9 million, have been authorized to proceed, meaning they have been fully vetted and received environmental permitting and approval of plans and specs. The projects range from ecotourism, improvements, industrial parks, energy-related projects and more. Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced a ninth funding round for the program in mid-September totaling $11 million.

The region’s terrain can make it challenging to attract data centers or other developments. Clear and Coalfield Strategies Managing Partner Will Payne, who is also a consultant for the DELTA Lab, have embarked on ambitious projects that include building a business case for data center developers to capitalize on water collected under former mine lands for their sites as well as trying to encourage development of projects on 65,000 acres of former coalfields, mostly in Wise County, that could span solar, nuclear and other sources of energy as well as water-cooled data centers. They hope to tie the projects to the power grid through the 25-mile extension of a transmission line — an evolving idea called WiseLink — that would originate in Dickenson County and tie into Appalachian Power.

While those projects could be years in the making, the region is moving forward with planning for an advanced nuclear reactor, also known as a or SMR. In July, Wise County received $197,500 in grants to build a roadmap to deploy one there. While Dominion’s North Anna Power Station in Louisa County is the most likely location for the first SMR to be built in Virginia, sometime in the early 2030s, Davis says Wise could see an SMR in the latter half of the next decade.

Duane Miller, executive director of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission, which covers the counties of Lee, Wise and Scott and the city of Norton, says the region recognizes the need to generate energy and would “fight tooth and nail” for an SMR.

“We’re focused on everything,” he says. “What can we do to continue what we’re known for in Southwest Virginia through coal? … Energy is our history.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Southwest Virginia at a glance

Known for its rural, mountainous landscapes and as the birthplace of American country and bluegrass music, Southwest Virginia includes Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Grayson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington and Wythe counties, as well as the cities of Bristol, Galax and Norton. While the region has long been associated with coal mining, in more recent years, it has focused on diversifying its economy with an emphasis on ecotourism, alternative energy projects and data centers. The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, Emory & Henry University and Mountain Empire, Wytheville and Southwest Virginia community colleges are also located in the region.

 

Population
361,110

 

Major attractions
The Appalachian Trail runs through  14 states, including the heart of the Southwest region and, each year, about 25,000 people turn out to celebrate the Appalachian Trail Days Festival in  Damascus. SWVA is also home to the  300-mile gospel, blues and bluegrass nmusic heritage trail The Crooked Road and Bristol’s Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol offers gaming, dining and a live concert venue. The Barter Theatre in Abingdon is the nation’s longest-running Actors’ Equity theater and offers live performances.

 

Dining
Burger Bar (Bristol)
American
The Tavern (Abingdon)
American
Graze on Main (Wytheville)
Southern
Cuz’s Uptown Barbecue (Tazewell County)
American and global

 

Top employers
  • Walmart
  • CGI
  • Lee, Russell, Scott, Tazewell and
  • Wise county school systems
  • Tempur-Sealy
  • Coronado Coal
  • Foundever
  • Food City
Notable hotels
The Bristol Hotel (Bristol)
65 rooms, 3,800 square feet of event space
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol  (Bristol)
303 rooms, 20,000 square feet  of event space
The Inn at Wise (Wise)
49 rooms, 5,000 square feet of event space
The Martha Washington Inn &  Spa (Abingdon)
63 rooms, 3,200 square feet  of event space
The Primland Resort (Meadows of Dan)
534 rooms, 12,149 square feet  of event space
The Sessions Hotel (Bristol)
70 rooms, 2,000 square feet  of event space
Western Front Hotel (St. Paul)
30 rooms, 2,000 square feet of  indoor and outdoor event space

VA1 Summit gives tourism pros chance to talk

Summary

The annual VA1 Governor’s Tourism Summit provides a space for folks in the industry to learn, network and share ideas.

“It’s a real ecosystem of everyone being under one roof — lots of hotels, restaurateurs, state and local officials,” says Rita McClenny, president and CEO of the Virginia Tourism Corp. (VTC).

It’s also more accessible for some organizations with smaller budgets than attending a national conference, McClenny notes. At VA1, industry professionals can hear about the latest innovations in tourism without buying a plane ticket to Vegas.

“We expect to sell out,” McClenny says of the event, which typically caters to about 500 guests.

A joint effort by the Virginia Restaurant, & Travel Association, a trade organization that advocates for its members; VTC, the state agency charged with promoting Virginia as a travel destination; and the Virginia Association of Destination Marketing Organizations, an association of independent destination organizations and supporting businesses, the summit runs Nov. 19 to 21. This year’s event will be held at ‘s Caesars Virginia, the 587,000-square-foot resort and casino that opened in late 2024. Each year, the moves to a different location, although it’s typically held in a larger city or locality.

“I think a lot of people, they don’t necessarily make it to Danville, so it’ll be good for them to see it,” says Eric Terry, ‘s president.

A popular topic of conversation at this year’s event, Terry expects, will be the drop in international tourism. In October, the U.S. Travel Association forecast that international travel will decline 6.3% this year, with Canadians driving the decrease and other countries’ rates remaining flat.

“It’s going to be critically important to see what [2026] looks like vis-à-vis the World Cup coming to America, and [the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution],” Terry says.

While there have been reports of international tourists detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Terry doesn’t expect Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration will keep international travelers from attending Virginia events celebrating U.S. independence next year, although Canada and European countries have issued travel warnings.

“I think a lot of that hysteria has gotten overblown a little bit,” Terry says. “Is it having some impact? Sure, but not nearly what the media is kind of portraying.”

VA1 attendees will also likely be sharing ideas about , he adds: “Everybody is trying to figure out how to work with AI.”

In addition to giving the state’s tourism leaders a chance to compare notes on issues facing their organizations, VA1 has numerous speakers scheduled who will discuss topics ranging from public relations strategies for communities that have suffered natural disasters to how to win first-time visitors.

Speaking at the summit for the first time will be Simon Jones, the Raleigh, North Carolina-based founder of NatureScapes, which helps draw visitors to nature destinations and improve sustainability at these sites. Jones also launched subsidiary TourismWORKS, which provides tools for destinations and tourism businesses to simplify their business processes.

At VA1, Jones will talk about how tourism leaders can build partnerships with farmers to create attractions that captivate visitors.

Farmers have different needs, he says. Some would welcome ideas about how to generate steady cash outside of their crops. Those farmers may be willing to go whole hog, doing things like hosting special dinners or building cabins to rent to tourists.

Others might have less time to invest but would be open to renting sites to campers or hunters.

The 2026 VA1 summit will be held at the Spotsylvania County waterpark that Kalahari Resorts & Conventions expects to open in November 2026, according to a VTC and VRLTA news release in June.

Beyond burnout: the case for workplaces where people thrive

In my last column, I wrote about the lesson of 996 culture, an overwork philosophy that destroys value. Now, the next question is obvious: What actually creates it? The answer isn’t complicated, but it does require courage. Sustainable business success comes from workplaces where people feel valued, fulfilled and empowered.

When employees feel their contributions matter, engagement rises. Recognition — done consistently and authentically — has outsized impact. It reinforces purpose, reduces attrition, and strengthens alignment between individual effort and organizational goals. Treating people like replaceable parts leads to disengagement. Treating them like essential partners creates loyalty.

People don’t want to just get paid. They want growth, challenge and meaning in their work. Fulfillment doesn’t require grand gestures; it comes from clarity of role, opportunities to learn, and visible pathways to progress. When employees believe their work connects to something bigger than a paycheck, they bring energy and creativity that no time clock can measure.

Micromanagement and fear extract effort. Empowerment multiplies it. Giving employees autonomy, trusting them with decisions, and equipping them with resources creates accountability and innovation. Empowered employees aren’t just compliant — they’re invested. They solve problems before they escalate and spot opportunities others miss.

Decades of organizational research show the same pattern: workplaces that invest in recognition, growth, and empowerment outperform those that rely on pressure and long hours. They adapt faster to change, recruit more effectively, and retain their best people longer. In today’s economy, talent isn’t just a line item — it’s the competitive edge.

Executives face a choice: chase the illusion of through overwork, or build durable systems where people thrive. The companies that win the next decade won’t be the ones squeezing extra hours. They’ll be the ones creating cultures of clarity, trust and shared purpose — where success is measured not just in revenue, but in resilience.

The future of work is not about grinding harder. It’s about working smarter, leading better, and building organizations where people can excel without sacrificing their health or humanity.

Want managers who maximize effectiveness with clarity, not fear? Let’s talk: [email protected]

Jaime Raul Zepeda is EVP, Principal Consultant for Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine, part of BridgeTower Media.

Wondering whether your organization is on the right path to win? Talk to us at Best Companies Group so we can analyze your organization’s health, your team dynamics, and your leadership’s effectiveness. We’ve helped over 10,000 companies understand and improve their workplace using data-driven strategies. Send me a note at [email protected].

Danville cracks down on River District parking  

Danville faced a problem, but it was a good kind of problem to have. Its downtown, once a landscape of former tobacco and textile buildings, had been so successfully revitalized that had become a headache.

“Timed parking was not being enforced,” says Alyssa Turner, interim executive director of the Association, a nonprofit dedicated to the revitalization of the city’s downtown, which was rebranded as the River District in 2015.

As a result, coveted spaces were being occupied for hours by employees of stores and restaurants, squeezing out would-be customers.

The local police department lacked the personnel to devote to the problem, according to City Manager Ken Larking, so city officials decided to work with a third party to monitor and enforce parking limits downtown. “It was not about making money but about changing behavior,” Larking says.

In June, , a South Carolina parking firm, began using a license plate reader mounted on a car to monitor about 1,500 on- and off-street spaces in the River District. Brandon Lauterbach, Pivot’s co-founder and executive vice president, says the occupancy data these sweeps generate will help the city evaluate whether and where it needs to expand timed parking, which now runs from Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“We are not there just to write tickets,” he says.

Initially, people who overstayed the limits on timed spaces found warnings under their windshield wipers, but citations soon followed, mostly for $25. Lauterbach says that revenue from tickets has been averaging between $250 to $300 a month.

Merchants like Cheryl Sutherland, owner of Main Street Art Collective, are happy about the new enforcement measures, although an initial time limit of one-hour parking on specific streets downtown proved unpopular. Sutherland started a successful petition to expand the limit to two hours to allow people more time to browse, shop and dine. “As far as [customer] traffic goes, it’s been a big deal,” she says about the new measures.

Enforcement on time-limited spaces is just one part of ‘s parking efforts downtown. The city also is building a 434-space garage estimated to cost between $18 million and $19 million to expand capacity, says Michael Adkins, the city’s chief financial officer.

“We’re not blazing any trails here in Danville,” Larking says about the changes, “just best practices.”

U.Va. Wise helps founders build community, confidence

Summary

  • U.Va. Wise is expanding its programs to boost regional innovation.
  • program helps local founders launch and grow businesses.
  • Leaders say supporting is key to revitalizing the post-coal economy.

Donna Price Henry, chancellor of the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, says she’s often heard her institution described as one of the state’s hidden gems. But she’s not thrilled with that image.

“I really don’t like the fact that we’re hidden,” she says of the university in the remote mountain reaches of . “A lot of the work that we’ve tried to do is to make sure that more people know about us.”

After a decline in enrollment starting in 2020, U.Va. Wise has stabilized its student count, says Henry. About 350 freshmen arrived this fall. An additional 65 students waitlisted at the U.Va. College of Arts and Sciences are also temporarily attending U.Va. Wise as part of the Year in Wise program, an initiative that allows students to start their classes at Wise before transferring to Charlottesville.

The growing underclass enrollment means space in U.Va. Wise dorms are filling up. Henry and other university officials say that means they must consider ways to develop new student housing, possibly through public-private partnerships. There’s hope that it could also help boost the town’s economy and create a livelier community.

In recent years, U.Va. Wise has also focused on expanding academic programs for in-demand industries and developing a stronger entrepreneurial culture on campus.

Supporting startups is one way to “help the region find its footing after the loss of the coal industry,” she says. “While we’re still mining coal, it’s not at the level that it was. We understand that we need to diversify the industry in the region and the , and so we want to support that.”

Last fall, U.Va. Wise received its largest single gift, $11.2 million, from The Bill Gatton Foundation. The money helped cap a $100 million milestone for a fundraising campaign that began quietly in 2013, culminating with additional support from U.Va.’s Bicentennial Scholars Fund last year.

While the money will help support academic scholarships, athletic facility renovations and other capital improvements for years to come, university leaders are also optimistic about recent grassroots efforts to reshape Southwest Virginia’s regional economy.

“We need the next big ideas [and] big companies to be started here if we really want to capitalize on the wealth generation that comes with that,” says Blake Salyer, the university’s ecosystem and innovation manager. “I’m biased, of course, but I’m going to always say startups are the best strategy you can have.”

Opening doors

The university hired Salyer, an alumnus who earned a business administration degree in 2015, to oversee the Hatch Accelerator and its new CO.STARTERS Core program.

As a student, Salyer proved his mettle by starting a mobile phone repair company specializing in hard-to-fix Apple products. “I took entrepreneurship courses, but we didn’t have as robust of an entrepreneurship program then,” he says. “I’m really glad to say that it’s grown tremendously.”

, the state economic development program, has financially supported five program cohorts at U.Va. Wise. About a dozen participants in each group meet in a mix of in-person and online sessions over a 10-week period. At the end, the founders compete in a pitch night with money on the line for the top three finishers.

Stephanie Strouth, founder of Anchoring Hope Counseling, won the $2,500 grand prize last summer but also attracted more capital the same night.

In her presentation, Strouth described how she planned to use the potential earnings to expand her offices in Wise. She says it was needed after serving more than 1,000 clients and growing to two additional locations in Abingdon and Pennington Gap since launching in 2020.

Strouth, a native of Coeburn, a nearby coal town, earned an undergraduate degree in at U.Va. Wise. In her third year, however, she felt called to a career in mental health counseling. After growing her practice for a few years, Strouth signed up for the CO.STARTERS program.

Strouth says she’s learned some new things through the program but also was reassured that her business instincts are sound. “You’re getting direct feedback from people who could potentially be your customers or clients,” she says. “It’s great to have that.”

The program has also opened doors.

“What I learned from these competitions, when you’re pitching these ideas, you never know who is going to be in that room listening,” Strouth says. “It was wild. At the end of the pitch battle, before I even knew that I won, I was approached by someone in the crowd that said, ‘Hey, we want to fund your office expansion.’”

Her company netted an additional $7,500 at the event. “At first, I didn’t want to believe it, because it was, you know, we’re just talking,” she says. “Then you get excited the moment you have the check in hand and you’re going to the bank.”

Strouth says she’s thinking about using the pitch competition prize money to certify another employee for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, a specialized treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Strouth and another certified clinician, she says, already have a full caseload, with additional patient referrals waiting.

Maple Tree Book Shop + Coffee House owner Caitie Cox learned about entrepreneurship through U.Va. Wise’s startups program, CO.STARTERS Core. Photo by Tim C. Cox

Business as family affair

Caitie Cox, a participant in the first CO.STARTERS cohort at U.Va. Wise, operates Maple Tree Book Shop + Coffee House in Gate City.

Cox and her husband, both William & Mary alums, lived in Colorado and Maryland before returning to the region in 2020 to be closer to their families. “We moved right next door to my parents, and this business has been a family operation,” Cox says. “My dad and mom and I are all here at some point almost every day.”

Her father, a retired medical doctor, encouraged her to think deeply about her next career move as they settled back into the community. Cox chose to open a used bookstore. In its early stages two years later, Maple Tree started with pop-up events at town festivals, selling books acquired from charity sales and the family’s own shelves.

“We got a really good response,” Cox says. “And from there, we spent several months trying to find a place that would be a good fit for us here in town.” She dreamed that the store would open on Jackson Street, to help revitalize the main corridor of their town along the Daniel Boone Trail.

Trying to start the business while participating in the U.Va. Wise startups program, she was able to apply lessons she learned about pivoting after a deal fell apart for a storefront.

“We started selling books online. That had not been our idea,” she says. “That came about through some of the discussions in the cohort, suggesting putting stuff online to sell before we actually had a physical store.”

Web sales and a few interim pop-up events bought time for Cox to eventually open her bookstore in a space formerly occupied by a bakery cafe, which allowed her dad to be involved behind the espresso machine. Cox also put her past experience working for a cake decorating company to work.

Cox’s two daughters are also fixtures at the store.

“My fourth grader loves to read. She’ll come into the shop after school, grab a book and plop down on one of the chairs and read until it’s time to go home,” she says. “Now my younger daughter, she’s just in second grade, she would much prefer to be in the kitchen with me. When she’s here, she’s usually my little shadow.”

As fun as it may sound, running a business is no cakewalk, though.

“It’s not always Hallmarkesque,” she says. However, amid the challenges of kitchen upkeep and managing inventory, she says, the family strives to make Maple Tree a cozy community hub.

In addition to storytelling hours, Christmas cookie classes and other cafe events, the bookstore also has “a kids’ room, with toys and puzzles and coloring sheets,” Cox says. “I never want families to feel like they have to buy something. I’d want them to feel like they can come and just be.”

Got game?

Wise has also attracted out-of-state talent who have adopted the community as their home.

Raised in Indiana, Molly Land fell in love with basketball watching Reggie Miller and the Pacers play their archrivals, the New York Knicks. She modeled her own game after the all-star shooting guard, and her parents told her she could be an even better athlete than her two brothers.

After playing for Shepherd University and helping lead the women’s basketball team at U.Va. Wise as an assistant coach for several years, Land started All My Friends Are Hoopers, a lifestyle and apparel brand that launched in 2023 along with a newsletter covering the WNBA.

In two years, she’s gained 6,000 subscribers and seen professional ballers wear her brand as they walk through arena hallways in runway-ready “tunnel fits.”

“We were in four WNBA locker rooms this summer. It’s the coolest,” Land says. “The kid in me, who went to the first ever Indiana Fever game, making clothes that WNBA players and coaches want to wear, I’m having the time of my life.”

In addition to growing up with sports, Land obtained a youthful appreciation for reading, writing and art. “My dad was super creative, like he taught me how to play the guitar at a young age,” she says. “I learned early that I love the ability to express myself through making anything.”

In college, she took communications and marketing classes. She saw how her knack for doodling translated into a natural inclination for making things on a computer. “You know how they say there are two wolves that live inside you? One is an Adobe nerd, and the other is a basketball nerd,” she says.

Despite having launched a previous company, selling athletic weighted vests and apparel under the brand name Backbone Supply Co., Land says she never felt so confident in her business ambitions. She signed up for the CO.STARTERS program after conferring with Salyer at The Nest, an off-campus office space designed to foster new business ventures.

She wanted to learn more about how she could connect her student athletes to more university programs outside of basketball, but the meeting also sparked her own entrepreneurial curiosity. Participating in the CO.STARTERS program, she felt her peers pulling her out of her shell. She started voicing her ideas out loud.

“I did not want to try to just do silly stuff and go viral. I wanted to really have a creative, artistic storytelling brand about women’s basketball,” she continued. “I felt like I could actually start telling that story, and maybe it could be something bigger than just a couple of T-shirts.”

Salyer says Land’s story demonstrates one of the main lessons for his students.

“If you love living here, you love being here, that’s not going to limit you from the potential to launch a really creative or innovative company,” he says. “The more we can push that message home, the better. And she’s a really good example of that.”

At a glance

Founded
Founded in 1954 under the umbrella of the University of Virginia as Clinch Valley College, the University of Virginia’s College at Wise (U.Va. Wise) was established to serve students living in Southwest Virginia. The public liberal arts college was started on a farm with two sandstone buildings and operated as a two-year college throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. The college began offering four-year degrees in 1966 and was officially renamed the University of Virginia’s College at Wise in 1999. Today, the campus encompasses 396 acres amid the scenic Appalachian Mountains, with more than 30 main buildings serving more than 2,300 students, just 60 minutes from the Tri-Cities of Tennessee and Virginia.

Enrollment*
Total: 2,130
Graduate: 70

Student profile*
Male-to-female enrollment ratio: 1:1.6
In-state students: 85%
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) students: 9%
Out-of-state students: 4% (outside ARC)
International students: 47 students from 24 countries

Academic programs*
U.Va. Wise has 34 majors and 41 minors, including a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree, an online business administration degree and a Master of Education (M.Ed.) degree in three concentrations. Fields of study include business and economics, visual and performing arts, natural sciences, communications, mathematics and computer science, social sciences, language and literature, history and philosophy, nursing, and education.

Faculty and staff*
U.Va. Wise has more than 100 full-time and 30 part-time faculty. Students and faculty are supported by 230 full-time and 30 part-time staff members.

Tuition, fees, housing and dining*
Virginia resident: $11,780 per year
Out-of-state resident: $28,010 per year
ARC/TAG** resident: $12,508 per year
Housing: $8,535 per year
Meal plans: $5,853 per year (commuter meal plans are also available)

*Fall 2025 numbers
**Students who live in Kentucky, Tennessee or the Appalachian Regional Commission’s service area

Virginia Intermont College campus owner modifies plans

Summary

The owner of the former Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, Virginia, is rethinking plans for the long-vacant campus after an architect’s inspection of the blighted property.

U.S. Magis International Education Center, led by Chinese entrepreneur Zhiting Zhang, intends to launch a four-year college with a business and possibly medical-related curriculum on part of the 37-acre site, rather than the originally announced Virginia Business College. Some buildings or other portions of the property might be repurposed for residential or commercial use, says attorney John E. Kieffer, who represents Magis.

“The next step will be to finalize the formulation of the college plan and put in an application to ,” he says. “They’re still working on that.”

Bristol has long tried to get Magis to improve and secure the property, where buildings have been deteriorating since Virginia Intermont’s closing in 2014. In December 2024, four of its oldest buildings were severely damaged in a massive fire, and in January, crews demolished the ruins.

On Sept. 19, the city delivered an ultimatum that the owner meet three demands within 15 days or face legal action. In short order, Magis retained a local architect to evaluate the buildings and hired a security firm to provide round-the-clock security. Kieffer said in late September he was still seeking a mowing contractor, the third requirement.

Says City Manager Randall Eads, “I feel like they’re trying to operate in accordance with what the city has asked them to do, and the city’s going to give them an opportunity to remedy the situation. If they fail to do so in a timely manner, the city will take legal action.”

Virginia Intermont closed in 2014 amid financial struggles. Zhang purchased the property for $3.3 million at a 2016 foreclosure sale and announced plans to reopen it as Virginia Business College. That effort faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the vacant buildings were repeatedly vandalized.

Following the 2024 fire, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation empowering Bristol to petition the court to seize and resell the site to a developer. Eads says that option would have been pursued if Magis had not met the city’s demands.

Magis is assessing what it will take to get the buildings ready for occupancy, Kieffer says. “I would think that some concrete decisions as to which buildings to renovate first would probably be made within six months.”