Twenty years ago, artificial intelligence seemed like the stuff of sci-fi films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “The Matrix.” Today, it‘s so ubiquitous as to be virtually unremarkable and unnoticeable — integrated into everything from GPS traffic navigation apps on our phones to smart devices in our homes to security scanners at the airport.
In this issue, Virginia Business Associate Editor Courtney Mabeus explores how some of the commonwealth’s largest federal contractors and tech companies are developing this maturing technology for uses such as expediting medical diagnoses and providing real-time intelligence to troops on tomorrow’s battlefields. (See related story, “Artificial intelligence gets real”)
In a way not dissimilar to AI‘s journey, by 2042 the metaverse may be passé. But to the average business executive outside the tech realm, the concept can seem a bit bewildering here in 2022, even though it’s getting more and more press lately.
Part of the problem is that there doesn’t appear to be any consensus on the meaning of metaverse. Science fiction gives us an idealized concept of it as a three-dimensional virtual world that would replace the internet and social networks. Instead of shopping by scrolling through a page of images, for instance, you’d stroll through a virtual mall, examining 3D wares, trying on clothes or test-driving cars in VR.
Despite the fact that Facebook Inc. changed its name to Meta Platforms Inc., we’re still a long way from living in the Matrix. Facebook’s metaverse vision so far is a VR network called Horizon Worlds that requires a bulky headset and features legless, cartoonish avatars that look more like characters from “The Sims” than real people. Horizon Worlds is also similar to Second Life, a virtual network that launched in 2003. So far, Horizon Worlds’ numbers have been underwhelming, The Wall Street Journal reported, with fewer than 200,000 users as of mid-October — less than the population of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Additionally, it’s unlikely that current VR rigs, which can cause motion sickness and neck pain in some users, will become de rigueur in offices and homes — especially considering that Meta’s latest VR headset, the Quest Pro, debuted in October at $1,500 a pop.
That said, as remote work continues to grow, making it possible to employ workers from practically anywhere, the demand for virtual and augmented (or mixed) reality platforms and technologies will grow, and more companies and products will arise to meet those needs.
As with any tech, there will be winners and losers, and some will be more comfortable adopting it than others.
Today, we think of digital natives as younger millennials, Gen Zers and members of Generation Alpha, people who know only a hyperconnected world of the internet and smartphones. But the metaverse will speak to a slightly different skill set.
The people who will be most comfortable navigating 3D interfaces are likely to be video gamers. And before you dismiss that population as nerdy basement dwellers, consider that gaming is a $60 billion industry in the U.S. alone, with more than 215 million Americans actively playing video games, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Entertainment Software Association.
About 48% of gamers are women and girls now. And while most children play video games, more than 70% of all video gamers are over age 18. About 36% of gamers are between ages 18 and 34, and 26% are between ages 36 and 54. The numbers drop dramatically, however, among people ages 55 and older, who could stand to be left behind or at a considerable disadvantage in navigating a vastly different cyberworld than the one we know today. There’s plenty of time yet to deal with that problem, though.
I believe Web3 and future social media and work platforms may well feature 3D environments and mixed reality objects, but I think it’s also possible that the American innovators who will create the best of those haven’t yet joined the workforce.
Confident pronouncements from the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world aside, be skeptical of those who claim the ability to definitively predict the future of the metaverse. And be more so of those spouting empty buzzwords and asking you to invest your money in it.
Christina Fleming embarked upon a career in marketing with the goal of getting an executive MBA degree, but other commitments kept getting in the way.
She got married, had two children and moved up the corporate ladder for 26 years, rising to chief marketing officer at Blackboard Inc., a global education technology company that was based in Reston. In April, she launched her own company, Monarch Performance Marketing.
“It was just something that I kept putting off, but I always knew I wanted to do it,” Fleming says. “So, towards the end of last year, I made the decision to go ahead and pursue my MBA. I really felt it would be important and helpful to me as a business leader.”
She looked at executive MBA programs that were within driving distance of her Laurel, Maryland, home, taught in-person and could be completed in under two years. She chose the one at William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business and enrolled in fall 2021 as one of 13 students in her cohort. Now about halfway through the program, Fleming commutes every other weekend to Williamsburg for classes.
“I was learning every day in the moment and accumulating all sorts of skills [at work], but what the MBA has done is given me an opportunity to really step back and look at how all these aspects of business and the economy are connected,” she says. “It just provides this solid foundation in which I believe I can become a better leader.”
Executive education programs are designed for business professionals like Fleming who have managerial or executive- level experience and want to improve their knowledge and skills so they can advance in their careers. The classes help them stay on top of the latest industry trends, expand their networks and get real-world experience working on projects.
Seven Virginia public universities offer some form of executive education. Programs range from traditional MBA degree programs at W&M, George Mason University, James Madison University, the University of Virginia and Virginia Commonwealth University to shorter certificate programs offered at George Mason University and Virginia Tech. GMU offers customized programs for businesses and organizations, as do U.Va., Virginia Tech and Old Dominion University.
One of the prevailing trends is shorter and more convenient MBA programs, in response to student demand.
William & Mary has offered executive MBA degrees for more than 40 years. Three years ago, the school sought feedback from W&M’s prospective students and alumni — as well as from alumni of other executive education programs across the country and employers, says Ken White, associate dean of W&M’s MBA and executive programs.
What they heard was that students thought MBA programs took too long and that they wanted a certificate option that took less than two years. Respondents also wanted leadership coaching and the possibility of international business experience, White says.
Student feedback helped reshape W&M’s program, which is now 18 months long with eight-hour, in-person classes every other Friday and Saturday.
Global and national perspectives — provided most often by taking students to other countries and introducing them to corporate leaders — are increasingly important, too.
W&M students spend a short residency in Washington, D.C., and go abroad twice to study and meet with business leaders. This year, they’ll go to Greece and South Africa.
“That was another piece that we got in our research,” White says. “People were saying, ‘You know, we need to know a little bit more about the federal government and how it affects business.’ So, we have the two global immersions, and then we have a D.C. residency where the class goes up there for not quite a week.”
William & Mary isn’t alone in offering global travel opportunities to executive MBA students.
George Mason’s MBA Global Residency is a weeklong international study tour. Past residences have included Chile, China, Central Europe and Western Europe.
VCU’s program includes a roughly 10-day trip abroad, usually to partner universities in Central and South America or Europe. Naomi Boyd, VCU’s business school dean, says faculty look at who’s in a cohort, pick a location and build an agenda that can include projects and case studies.
As part of JMU‘s MBA program, students can take an optional 7- to 10-day trip abroad to countries such as China, Portugal, Argentina, Chile, Germany and Vietnam, making visits to companies like Hyundai Motor Co., Maersk or Rémy Martin.
Speeding up
Many of Virginia’s executive MBA programs offer an international travel component. In March, JMU students went to Portugal. Photo courtesy James Madison University
At the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, MBA students have two nonresidential executive MBA tracks: the executive and global executive programs. Both take 21 months and are hybrid, with in-person sessions held at Darden’s D.C. Metro space in Rosslyn. The other classes are offered remotely, including live online courses and self-paced activities.
Executive students participate in one international residency with the option of adding others, while global MBA students participate in four residencies outside the United States. These typically include a mix of company visits, talks with industry leaders, meetings with executives and cultural excursions. U.Va. also offers a full-time residential MBA program and a part-time MBA option with more scheduling flexibility.
Students in both U.Va. executive MBA programs also participate in two weeklong leadership residencies in Charlottesville on the Darden grounds.
VCU used to offer a two-year MBA program, but it has now shortened the time to get the degree to 17 months, with classes held on alternating weekends, Boyd says.
James Madison University’s College of Business offers an MBA with an executive leadership concentration over 28 months, a longer period than other universities, but it’s geared toward student accessibility. Most of the classes are held online, with in-person residencies that meet on a Saturday once every other month in Tysons. (JMU’s largest alumni populations are concentrated in the Richmond and D.C. areas.)
“It gives us somewhat of a regional tie for people interested in the program in the D.C. metro area, and then maybe some folks who have connections to the institution who live outside of there can still participate in our program,” says Michael Prior, the MBA program’s director of marketing.
Universities also have started offering even shorter options — typically for executives in pursuit of a certificate instead of a master’s degree.
The University of Richmond, a private university, offers a 14-week “mini-MBA” program, for example.
Executive MBA students at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business attend in-person sessions at Darden’s DC Metro space in Rosslyn. Photo courtesy Darden School of Business
U.Va. offers The Executive Program, a six-month, hybrid advanced management certificate program that costs about $43,950 — less than a third the cost of the Darden executive MBA tracks, which cost $172,000 to $183,800. Virtual sessions involve a business challenge project, and faculty consultation and one-to-one coaching are included.
George Mason’s School of Business offers a traditional MBA program with accelerated or part-time options, and the school also targets specific specialties, including data and analytics. GMU’s hybrid executive education courses run five weeks each, and students earn a badge of certification. Executive specialties include diversity, equity and inclusion; marketing; risk; and sustainability.
GMU also offers a two-day real estate analytics program, and its faculty can customize offerings for organizations on topics such as government contracting, data analytics and real estate.
Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business in the past has hosted cybersecurity risk series for executives and board members, with special focuses on entrepreneurship and integrated security in event management. Tech currently offers an executive data analytics certificate program.
Old Dominion University doesn’t offer an MBA specifically for executives, but its School of Continuing Education provides customized training for employers who don’t want to put employees “through a full-blown degree,” says Renee Felts, its assistant vice president for academic initiatives and continuing education.
Faculty can create a crash course on anything from soft skills to advances in cybersecurity. Classes can be taught in person, online or via a hybrid of the two. Fees depend on what’s created, and employers may pick up the tab.
“We feel like it’s a well-kept secret,” Felts says.
Executive education doesn’t come cheap, although the payoff can be career advancement and a bigger paycheck. Prices for these programs currently range from $995 for George Mason’s two-day real estate analytics course to $183,000 for U.Va.’s Global Executive MBA. Financial help is often available through the universities or an employer.
Caitlyn Read was associate director for communications at James Madison when she decided to apply for an executive MBA several years ago. She looked at several but says it made financial sense to enroll in JMU’s program since the university, as her employer, would pay for it.
“Our cohort was small, around 20 people. When it’s that small, you rely on each other for a lot. Some of my classmates are still mentors for career growth, some on how to navigate my career,” she says. “We still stay very close.”
Read graduated from JMU’s executive MBA program in 2018 and in 2020 became the university’s spokesperson and director of communications. She’s now its manager for state government relations.
Getting facetime
One important aspect of MBA programs that has remained the same is networking, even in the post-pandemic era.
A report released in May by UNICON, a global consortium of business-school-based executive education organizations, found that the pandemic opened people’s eyes to what could be accomplished in online MBA classes, but there’s still a strong preference for at least some in-person classes.
W&M’s executive MBA program, like those at other Virginia public universities, attracts students with anywhere from eight to 20 years of work experience who have C-suite ambitions. Others have started their own businesses or are preparing to do so, White says.
At the start of their education, students are paired with a certified leadership coach, whom they meet with regularly throughout the program, and they have access to executive partners — about 100 semiretired or retired executives who serve as additional advisers and mentors.
“The Executive Partners program is just a tremendous wealth of support and insight that we have at our fingertips anytime we want it,” Fleming says. “I can reach out to an executive within the marketing arena and learn from his or her experiences [and] have conversations. For example, we had one class where a group of executive partners came in and they did breakout discussions with us on a particular case. We spent time with them in small groups getting their perspective, and it was really exciting.”
VCU students are required to attend in person the first weekend of each month, then have the option of attending in person or online. During their summer semesters, they have the option to add a concentration in either corporate finance or health care management.
“One of the big benefits of the program is the networking,” Boyd says. “We feel it is really important to be integrated into their cohort.”
Although Fleming left Blackboard to start her own business before entering William & Mary’s MBA program, White notes that most of the university’s executive MBA students receive promotions or other career opportunities after earning their degrees.
“It’s very rare,” White says, “for someone to complete the program and have the same position at the end that they did in the beginning.”
What are the benefits of living and working in Southwest Virginia?
I love the mountain scenery, access to so many outdoor activities and most of all the sense of community you get in the smaller cities and towns.
How is the economy faring in your region?
The economy in Southwest Virginia is slowly recovering from the pandemic, with businesses opening back up and people starting to travel. As with anywhere, inflation, labor shortages and supply chain issues are making the recovery more difficult. Labor shortages are still a significant struggle, especially in the food and retail industries.
What local industry do you think has potential for growth?
Tourism has real potential to grow in Southwest Virginia, with enjoyable places to visit that are attractive and more affordable destinations.
What’s the biggest challenge to doing business in your area?
It can be difficult to attract new, younger talent for the workforce to Southwest Virginia, due to the more rural nature of the area.
Are housing costs a major issue in your region?
Housing costs have risen in the area, making it more difficult for people to be able to afford a home and there are fewer homes to choose from.
What are the major factors that have had the biggest impact on attracting business to your region?
State and local initiatives, as well as the constant efforts of local governments to lure business to the area and keep a steady pace of growth, have truly paid off.
What are the top obstacles to your region’s economic success?
The region’s economic success has continued to grow over the past decades, with the necessary infrastructure being added to attract new businesses. Labor shortages and an increased minimum wage can be difficult to sustain, especially for smaller businesses in the area.
HAMPTON ROADS
Greene. Photo by Mark Rhodes
Justin P. Greene, CPA
Chief Financial Officer | Liberty Live Church | Hampton
What are the benefits of living and working in Hampton Roads?
One of my favorite things about Hampton Roads is the significant part this region has played in U.S. history, plus having quick access to cities, beaches, rural areas.
How is the economy faring in your region?
Having all branches of the military, Newport News Shipbuilding, NASA and many other large organizations insulates our region from extreme economic swings. However, inflation impacts on wages, and operational costs are starting to be felt here like everywhere else.
What local industry/sector do you think has potential for growth?
The tech industry has tremendous potential for growth. There are many companies in our region developing advanced systems that are preparing us for the future.
What’s the biggest challenge to doing business in your area?
Finding and retaining staff is a major challenge. Housing affordability and achieving a certain standard of living can be challenging for young employees in our region.
Has your area recovered from the pandemic, and how is it faring with labor shortages?
While many organizations continue to have an abundance of work, labor shortages are an ongoing challenge affecting every industry.
Are housing costs a major issue in your region?
Housing continues to be a major issue. Even though home values are starting to adjust down somewhat, the recent increase in interest rates keeps affordability out of reach for many.
What are the top two factors that have had the biggest impact on attracting business to your region?
The region provides access to a large population with many resources, including so many colleges and universities to draw from for future staffing.
What are the top two obstacles to your region’s economic success?
Cost of living and availability of housing.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA
Helme. Photo by Stephen Gosling
Charles F. Helme III, CPA
Managing Principal | Thompson Greenspon | Fairfax
What are the benefits of living and working in Northern Virginia?
The large variety of things to do — cultural activities in D.C. and surrounding area, outdoor activities in mountains to the west, and beaches to the east
How is the economy faring in Northern Virginia?
Overall, very good; however many employers continue to be constrained by labor shortages. Supply chain issues have also affected certain areas of the economy.
What are the biggest challenges to doing business in your area?
High cost of housing and labor. People want to live here, creating demand for housing and putting upward pressure on housing costs. And the increase in interest rates is creating a pause for many buyers — having to either look for cheaper alternatives or save more to qualify for a mortgage.
Has your area recovered from the pandemic, and how is it faring with labor shortages?
We are coping with labor shortages. For businesses that have the ability, attracting remote workers from other areas has helped alleviate the excess labor demands, but not all businesses can do this. Supply chain issues seem to be getting better, but challenges remain.
What factors have had the biggest impact on attracting business to your region?
Continued growth of the economy in our region and higher per capita wealth. Larger companies from across the country want to penetrate our market, and even multinational companies have moved offices here to gain market share or to have a presence in the capital region.
CENTRAL VIRGINIA
Randall.Photo by Rick DeBerry
Melanie E. Randall, CPA
Treasurer | McKinney & Co. | Ashland
What are the benefits of living and working in Central Virginia?
The area has much to offer the business community, as well as the comforts of everyday life. You can find any niche to fit your personal and professional tastes. The region is home to major players in financial services, manufacturing, nonprofits and logistics.
How is the economy faring in your region?
The region is doing well right now. The unemployment rate is low and the housing market, though slowing down a bit, is still strong. I don’t know about other areas in the state, but the incentive packages the Central Virginia localities present to potential businesses have helped bring economic growth to the region.
What local industry/sector do you think has potential for growth? Biotechnology, manufacturing and logistics have great potential here. The last two years have added greater focus on the biotech industry and the need for more research. With current supply chain issues, now is the time to expand our manufacturing capabilities. Having Richmond Marine Terminal and interstates 95, 295, 85 and 64, this is a great location for distribution centers.
What’s the biggest challenge to doing business in your area?
Skilled labor
Has your region recovered from the pandemic, and how is it faring with labor shortages?
The region has recovered mostly. The exception would be restaurant and retail staff. Hopefully, they will rebound during the holiday season.
Are housing costs a major issue in your region?
Housing costs are rising, but it seems as if wages are beginning to increase, which helps.
What are the top two factors that have had the biggest impact on attracting business to your region?
Local economic incentives, such as tax rate reductions and bond financing, and a large workforce footprint
What are the top two obstacles to your region’s economic success?
The uncertainty of inflation and interest rate increases.
SHENANDOAH VALLEY
Rudolph-Wiseman . Photo by Norm Shafer
Angela L. Rudolph-Wiseman, CPA
Principal | Rutherford & Johnson PC | Winchester
How is the economy faring in the Shenandoah Valley?
The local economy is stable, although showing indications of potential slowdown. A large area employer tied to the construction industry recently announced layoffs in anticipation of a possible economic downturn. Agriculture, specifically the apple crop, is a big part of the Shenandoah Valley economy. The favorable weather and precipitation have made a good growing season.
What local industry has potential for growth?
Locally, the bioscience industry has growth potential. The Shenandoah Valley has ideal locations for manufacturing facilities.
Has your area recovered from the pandemic, and how is it faring with labor shortages?
Our area has continued recovery from the pandemic, but we aren’t quite there yet. Outdoor festivals and events have been booming this year, exceeding 2019 levels of dollars spent and attendance. Labor shortages are a very real thing, particularly for restaurants and service industries.
What’s the biggest challenge to doing business in your area?
Finding, hiring and retaining qualified talent. Inflation has made it particularly difficult to adequately compensate employees while trying to balance prices to end consumers.
Are housing costs a major issue in your region?
Absolutely. Median home sales prices are up 12.6% in 2022. The scarcity of properties for sale and the increase in interest rates have priced many home buyers out of the market.
What factors have had the biggest impact on attracting business to your region?
Despite local housing challenges, the cost of living is still approximately one-third lower than the D.C. metro area, making the Shenandoah Valley attractive to live in. The proximity to the larger cities allows for a lower-cost location and offers the convenience of international airports and other infrastructure within a short distance.
Virginia Tech‘s Apex Center for Entrepreneurs has received a $500,000 donation from Apex Systems co-founder Win Sheridan. A 1994 Tech graduate, Sheridan made the donation to help the Apex Center engage with student entrepreneurs through programming, networking and funding. Launched in 2014, the Apex Center is named in recognition of a $5 million commitment from Sheridan and fellow Virginia Tech alumni and Apex co-founders Brian Callaghan, Ted Hanson and Jeff Veatch. Based in Glen Allen, Apex Systems is a subsidiary of Henrico County Fortune 1000 information technology company ASGN Inc., which acquired Apex in 2012. Sheridan is now a director of ASGN Inc., and together it and Apex form one of the nation’s largest IT staffing services. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Bricks & Minifigs, an aftermarket, Lego-licensed retailer that will buy, sell and trade Lego sets, is coming to Henrico County. Husband-and-wife team Paul and Carrie Indelicato plan to open the 2,500-square-foot shop in December near West Broad Street and Cox Road. The brand opened its original store in 2010 as the first Lego reseller in the country. It has since expanded to include 51 stores across the U.S. and Canada. The Henrico location will be one of Virginia’s first two franchises; the company’s website does not say where in the state the other location will be. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
Enabled Intelligence Inc. is investing $1.4 million to expand its Falls Church headquarters, adding 117 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Sept. 21. The company provides data-labeling services to enable artificial intelligence operations. Its expansion will add more than 10,000 square feet of classified and unclassified office space to its location at 6400 Arlington Blvd. Founded in 2020, Enabled Intelligence works with multiple forms of data including satellite imagery, radar, text, speech, audio and video. The company creates training and testing data sets and builds AI technologies for defense, intelligence, law enforcement and other federal government missions including classified programs. (VirginiaBusiness.com)
Rivus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Charlottesville and focused on cardiometabolic health, recently completed a $132 million Series B financing round. The funding was led by Boston’s RA Capital Management with participation from Boston’s Bain Capital Life Sciences, Switzerland’s BB Biotech AG and existing investors Longitude Capital of Menlo Park, California, as well as Medicxi and RxCapital, both based in the U.K. The new investment brings Rivus’ lifetime funding to $167 million, according to Crunchbase. (Richmond Inno)
PEOPLE
Winchester-based Passage, a platform for creating and connecting metaverse experiences, announced Caleb Applegate as its CEO Sept. 28. Applegate will oversee the company’s go-to-market strategy, build strategic partnerships and define its product roadmap with support from new Passage Chief of Staff Bryana Kortendick. Applegate most recently served as chief operating officer of nonfungible token platform Enjin. He was also co-owner of Mineplex, a Minecraft gaming server, and moonlights as a filmmaker. Kortendick also joins from Enjin, where she served as vice president of operations and communications. (Passage news release)
Rosslyn-based Shift5, an operational technology data and cybersecurity company for planes, trains and tanks, named Robert Sison as the company’s first chief financial officer in early October. Sison held the same role at California-based BigPanda Inc. and helped that company grow to more than $1 billion in market capitalization. He’s also worked as vice president for finance for Washington-based Tanium Inc. and at California-based Electronic Arts, where he worked his way up to vice president of investor relations. In February, Shift5 said it raised $50 million in a Series B Funding round, which followed a $20 million
Series A round in fall 2021. (Shift5 news release; ARL Now)
Internships often help college students learn what they want to do as a profession by expanding their horizons, providing on-the-job experience or helping them change paths to follow a new passion.
For instance, an internship helped Virginia Commonwealth University student Oscar Kemp discover that his interest in domestic social work applied just as well to international policy. Another Ram, Kimesha Robinson, decided to switch her major from accounting to finance. And Chadwick Davilsaint kept doing what he loves — performing arts — but he got paid for it.
All three VCU undergrads were beneficiaries of the university’s new Internship Funding Program, which started this summer. A total of 51 students received up to $5,000 each to supplement unpaid or underpaid internships.
Oscar Kemp was a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow at the University of Michigan, with financial support from VCU’s Internship Funding Program. Photo by Caroline Martin
The university’s new funding program is vital, says Megan Hollis, VCU Career Services’ associate director of health sciences career advising. Although many students would benefit from internship experiences, often those who come from middle- to lower-income households cannot afford to take on nonpaying or low-paying internships.
“A lot of students have to make the choice between working a [paid] job and getting experience” via an internship, she says. “This way, they don’t have to work part time” to cover living expenses while interning and can concentrate on learning skills and networking opportunities.
Undergraduate college students who complete paid internships land higher-paying first jobs a year after graduation, according to research released in March by Strada Center for Education Consumer Insights.
In the past, when internships were rarely paid, only students with independent income or family wealth could participate, and although more interns receive pay now, access is uneven. Less than one-third of recent graduates participated in a paid internship, Strada reported, and “Black and Latino students, women, low-income and first-generation students are less likely to experience a paid internship.”
However, programs like VCU’s Internship Funding Program aim to increase access to internships with funding. More than 40% of the first group of VCU recipients are first-generation college students and almost half are eligible for financial need-based federal
Pell Grants.
Twenty-four percent of the VCU internship program participants received immediate offers of further employment, either full-time or part-time jobs or continued internships, Hollis notes.
Among the industries represented in the program’s internships this year were arts, biotech, business, engineering, education, financial services, health, government, law, manufacturing, retail, technology and transportation. For several students, the internships also provided international experience.
Broadening the scope
VCU’s Internship Funding Program helped Kimesha Robinson with living expenses and career support while she interned for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York. Photo courtesy Kimesha Robinson
A Danville native, Oscar Kemp is a first-generation college student who started out studying social work. This summer he was a Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) fellow at the University of Michigan’s Public Policy and International Affairs Junior Summer Institute.
“Being a Black student from a low-income community, my scope was limited,” Kemp says. He knew about social services jobs in the United States, but adds, “I didn’t know I could work for something like USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] in Africa.”
The institute gave Kemp and his colleagues extensive training in economics, statistics, health care policy and writing to prepare them for graduate school and for leadership roles in public service.
“I was meeting diplomats. We were crafting statements. We did a policy memo. They were trying to get us into the swing of things,” he says.
As part of the program, Kemp received a stipend, but VCU’s funding “closed the gap,” he says. “The internship program helped me get there and it helped me excel in that program.”
The chance to study at the University of Michigan had special meaning for Kemp, whose family has roots in nearby Detroit. “This has been my dream school ever since I was a child,” he says. “I had applied to the University of Michigan and was denied. This brings it full circle.”
Meanwhile, Leesburg resident Kimesha Robinson spent six weeks at JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s New York City offices as part of the investment bank’s Advancing Black Pathways Fellowship Program’s corporate and investment banking track.
The six-week program is designed to give students from underrepresented groups a pathway to opportunities in the financial sector. It focuses on building general business skills and exposes participants to various areas of the financial industry.
Although Robinson received a paid internship through JPMorgan, it wasn’t enough to cover her living expenses. “New York is super-expensive. It’s something I had no idea how to get help with,” she says.
Without additional help from VCU, she adds, “I don’t think I would have been able to go to JPMorgan. I was able to take advantage of opportunities. I was able to network. I got to meet a couple of vice presidents. I could stay late or come in and talk with those people,” she says, instead of perhaps having to take on a part-time job to make ends meet.
Also, Robinson says, she made a difference in others’ lives. “I got to work with a bank that helps disadvantaged groups in Mississippi and Arkansas. I helped them get clients who were usually targeted by payday lenders.”
The VCU program not only provided funding for living expenses but also gave “super-helpful” career support, according to Robinson. “They helped me navigate through the process” of applying for the internship and “they reached out to the company on my behalf” when a problem arose.
Back in Richmond, theatrical performance major Chadwick Davilsaint spent his summer as an intern at The Conciliation Lab, a social justice theater company that collaborated with VCU’s arts school.
He had the chance to help create an original script — titled “Whitesplaining” — based on research and interviews to explore whiteness through the lens of systems such as media, religion and education.
“It was very personal and emotional to be able to go through this process,” says Davilsaint, who also was a cast member in the September production. “My professor said it’s like birthing a child. It’s been a process of unlearning and looking at things from a new perspective.”
Davilsaint had been prepared to work for free at the nonprofit theater but says he was grateful to have the extra funding, which went toward housing, food and transportation.
“The internship helped me so much. I have no car; transportation is hard. I don’t have a good financial background,” he says. For students like him, he says, having the safety net of the Internship Funding Program “alleviates fear.”
Both sides benefit
As many workplaces tackle the issue of hiring a more diverse workforce, expanding access to internships makes a difference to employers, too.
Diana Villarreal, director of volunteers and community engagement for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Richmond, leads the nonprofit’s unpaid internship program, which is crucial to its support of families with critically sick children.
Villarreal typically works with five to eight interns per semester, and VCU’s Internship Funding Program has allowed some students to intern there who otherwise couldn’t afford to give their time, she says.
Megan Hollis, VCU Career Services’ associate director of health sciences career advising, says the Internship Funding Program helps students who can’t afford to take on nonpaying or low-paying internships. Hollis photo by Matthew R.O. Brown
One VCU student — Nejla Pašic — who applied for the summer term “blew us away in the interview,” Villareal says. “We had her come onto an internship role at a little higher level. She had the ability to take on more” at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.
Pašic — a health, physical education and exercise science major with a minor in psychology — spent time interacting with patients, parents and siblings and distributing coffee, snacks and toys. She also helped oversee the family sleep rooms, places that are reserved for caregivers of the critically injured or ill children.
Pašic says she benefited from the educational experience at RMHC. “At first, I was interested in a different career path, but now I want to stick with nonprofits. It’s really great.” She also appreciated the practical benefits of the funding from VCU. “It helped me with gas. Gas was very pricey this summer.”
The internships are a win-win for both RMHC, which benefits from the skills and enthusiasm of interns like Pašic, who gain valuable experience from the organization, Villarreal says. “We help them think through their area of study and connect them with other professionals. We want to provide great professional development and work experience that helps them decide the next steps they want to take.”
In addition, she says, “we also want the students to get a solid foundation of how a nonprofit operates, in case they choose to go into the nonprofit area.”
Next steps
Beyond administering VCU’s Internship Funding Program, Hollis also is tasked with evaluating applicants, sending out information, helping them negotiate the professional world and sometimes assisting them with budgeting.
Hollis used the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ career readiness survey, which examines teamwork, professionalism, self-development, communication and other measures to help students evaluate their own competencies.
“They rated themselves at the beginning and at the end. It pushed them to think critically about what experiences they had and where they want to go,” after the internship, she says.
The decision to launch internship funding at VCU, Hollis says, “came out of our strategic plan. We learned from peer institutions. We did benchmarking with a lot of schools. We tried to tailor it to best fit our students’ needs.”
Overall, “we got positive feedback” from the first round of funding, Hollis says. The program “did exactly what we wanted it to do. It relieved [financial and life] stress.”
Kemp is now back at VCU as a senior and is researching graduate schools.
His experience this summer “shifted my graduate program focus,” he says. “Prior to this program, I believe I would have gotten a graduate degree in social work. I didn’t realize there were other things, like international affairs.”
Now, he is asking himself, “‘How can I take my social work background into international affairs?’ I’m taking French and a minor in public management.” Also, Kemp plans to travel to Rwanda during winter break, a trip devoted to “peace, healing and conflict resolution.”
Davilsaint, a junior, plans to continue his acting training. But he’s also becoming more focused on the financial realities of the entertainment industry, which is notoriously hard to break into.
“From here I’m going to develop my financial intelligence. I have to take the initiative,” he says. “I’d like to leave college with an investor mindset, so I never give up my soul to another man or money.”
After Pašic’s successful internship with RMHC, Villarreal says the organization offered the senior a part-time position as family services coordinator. “She was such a wonderful presence. She was building relationships in a professional manner and reducing stress for families.”
Robinson, who has “a couple of semesters left” to complete, says her Wall Street internship “helped me refocus on what I wanted.” She’s switched her major from accounting, because “I found out finance has such a broader reach.”
And she’s going back to JPMorgan Chase next summer: “I just got a contract.”
Founded
VCU was founded in 1838 as the Medical College of Hampden-Sydney and was later renamed the Medical College of Virginia. In 1968, MCV merged with Richmond Professional Institute to form Virginia Commonwealth University.
Campus
VCU has two campuses in downtown Richmond covering a total of 168 acres. The Monroe Park Campus houses most undergraduate students and classes. VCU’s five health sciences schools and VCU Medical Center are located on the MCV campus.
Enrollment
Undergraduate: 21,717
Graduate: 5,695
In-state: 86%
International: 1,033
Employees: 23,200+*
Faculty
Full-time faculty: 2,441
Full-time university and
academic professionals: 3,006
Tuition and fees
In-state tuition and fees:
$15,642
Tuition and fees (out of state):
$37,588
Room and board and other fees:
$12,239
Average financial aid awarded
to full-time freshmen seeking
assistance: $18,887
Like the proverbial canary in the mineshaft, the state of the meetings and convention planning industry is a good barometer for predicting how well the economy is doing and what direction it is moving.
Despite the persistence of COVID-19 variants, the canary is still singing a happy tune — as are meeting and convention planners throughout Virginia who say they are pleased with what they are seeing.
“After three years of canceled and rescheduled meetings, organizations want face-to-face meetings, and demand is up,” says Christi Ruddy, manager of Covington Meetings and Events, a division of Richmond-based Covington Travel.
Steve Tewksbury, executive director of university events at William & Mary and president of the Virginia chapter of Meeting Professionals International, agrees with this assessment.
“In 2022, meetings seem to be booking with venues in the very short term, sometimes within weeks between a signed contract and the event,” he notes. “We’re [also] seeing meetings and conventions bookings rising well into 2023 and 2024.”
Ruddy and other colleagues in Virginia note that although prices for all meeting services — including airfare, hotel rooms and ground transportation — have risen with inflation rates, industry analysts and businesses report they are seeing a rise in bookings for 2023-24.
The Omni Homestead Resort, one of the state’s mainstays for large professional conventions, has seen improvement in long-term and short-term reservations, says John Hess, director of sales and marketing.
“We are very encouraged by the increase in leads and bookings for meetings and events,” he says. “While interest in 2024 and 2025 has grown considerably, we’ve also noticed an uptick in short-term group bookings.”
Also, Hess notes, “In September, we hosted around 30 meeting planners from around the mid-Atlantic region, and they too had a positive outlook on the future of the industry.”
The biggest challenge confronting the hospitality industry these days is staffing. Many senior staffers left the industry during the start of the pandemic and sought other employment, and so far, employers have had a hard time replacing them.
The Omni Homestead Resort in Hot Springs has seen an uptick in short-term bookings and longer reservations. Photo courtesy The Omni Homestead Resort
Tewksbury says that even though there are staffing shortages, he has great hope for the future of young people entering the industry.
“I am very encouraged by many Virginia universities that are offering world-class hospitality management programs. Virginia’s community colleges are also offering outstanding courses in culinary arts and business management skills to help train or retrain workers looking to start or to advance their careers in the meetings industry,” Tewksbury notes.
Graduates of Virginia’s colleges and universities will be entering into a career field, he says, that is “ripe with opportunities to gain expertise from the bottom up and in many cases experience rapid career advancement, particularly for those who bring valuable technical skills, a strong work ethic and a gracious customer service approach.”
As year three of the pandemic ends, COVID has remained an issue but is no longer the only factor governing work-related travel.
“We’ve just had to adapt and accept,” Ruddy explains. “COVID precautions,” she says, are part of the job, part of “risk mitigation process.”
“At least now, we have a better idea of what to expect,” adds Marty Malloy, principal and co-founder of Henrico County-based Convention Connections Inc., which plans conventions nationwide.
Conference attendees really want to get back together and meet face-to-face again, he says. “We are experiencing strong demand as our clients are all hosting their conventions and conferences again. All of our clients have exceeded expectations with regard to attendance this year. We believe we will be back to pre-pandemic numbers in 2023.”
Malloy and Ruddy each explain that hybrid meetings are a great safety net but cost more.
“Basically, you need to plan two events: one for in-person, one for an online audience,” Ruddy says. “Make sure to consider engagement for online. The production element, including audiovisual and staff, is expensive.”
The industry is rebounding, Tewksbury says, and the future looks great for those interested in careers in conference and meeting planning.
“In addition to the traditional skillsets required for the meeting and planning industry, those considering entering the field need to come with increased technology skills to assist the planners and anticipate future needs of clients,” he says. “This is a great time to be someone entering the industry.”
Technology being developed in a nondescript office building in Reston could change how Army soldiers train for and operate in combat thousands of miles away.
The Army’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) runs on a pair of Microsoft goggles and links to a microsized drone that flies autonomously and collects video analyzed in real time by artificial intelligence algorithms trained to identify threats, like an enemy combatant with an assault rifle coming around a corner, or a vehicle of interest. Detections are sent to a heads-up display within the goggles and are shared across a squad.
“It can all be done at the tactical edge out on the battlefield, using new-edge computing technologies, which basically puts the power of a supercomputer in the soldiers’ hands,” says Rob Albritton, a vice president at Reston-based Octo who heads up the AI Center of Excellence at the federal contractor‘s oLabs tech accelerator. Octo has been working on developing AI technology for IVAS since 2020 and is currently working with about 20 government agencies on a variety of other AI projects.
In 2011, IBM’s Watson supercomputer wowed the world, demonstrating the power of artificial intelligence by beating “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings, who still holds the television quiz show’s record for the longest streak of victories. Bowing to defeat, in his response to the match’s final question, Jennings added a “Simpsons”-inspired quip: “I for one welcome our new computer overlords.”
While that sort of doomsday scenario hasn’t occurred, artificial intelligence has matured into a routine — and often unseen — part of our daily lives, moving in recent years from the realm of science fiction to the mundane. From mapping apps on smartphones to technology that helps secure the United States’ borders, AI is performing everything from rote business tasks like scanning health records to helping the Navy search for underwater mines from unmanned surface ships.
And several Virginia-based companies, running the gamut from small tech startups with a few clients to massive Fortune 500 federal contractors, are at the leading edge of AI work.
“AI will enable how … systems navigate, perform their mission, sense the environment and communicate strategic information to stakeholders, which are both people and other systems,” says Duane Fotheringham, president of unmanned systems for Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc.’s mission technologies division. “On the data side, humans alone cannot manage the volumes of time-sensitive data that will be collected and shared by autonomous systems.”
Reston-based Octo develops AI tech for the Army’s IVAS goggles, which receive sensor data from various sources including drones (pictured) and other communications devices to give soldiers greater situational awareness. Photo courtesy Octo
From small to large
Using its cloud-based EarthAI platform and free data from the European Space Agency, Charlottesville-based Astraea Inc. mapped out every rooftop with a white membrane — a waterproof, reflective covering preferred by the solar industry for installation — and matched each with an address and owner or landlord across six counties in Virginia after Astraea was approached by a solar company client for help pinpointing customers.
Though it took Astraea time to build its algorithm, it took EarthAI just five hours to complete the scan. A job that might have taken nearly two dozen employees a year to research was completed in a fraction of the time with up-to-date data, using artificial intelligence, says Astraea co-founder and CEO Brendan Richardson.
Founded in 2016, Astraea has a few dozen enterprise customers, including The Nature Conservancy, which uses EarthAI across multiple areas, including land preservation and carbon sequestration, tracking forest changes in remote areas from logging, road construction, clear-cutting, tree disease and replanting. Astraea expects to double in size to about two dozen employees by the end of the year, with revenue in the “low millions,” Richardson says.
At the other end of the spectrum, Chantilly-based federal contractor Peraton Inc. has a portfolio of about $150 million in contract work related to employing advanced data analytics and AI for customers such as the Department of Defense and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says Mark Adams, Peraton’s vice president of technology and engineering. Because of the ubiquity of AI, however, Adams says that $150 million represents only a portion of the company’s AI projects.
“There are a lot of jobs where we’re doing large-scale, enterprise IT and even mission-critical, large-scale cyber and intelligence networks where we’re actually building the underlying infrastructure and secure data management system” using AI, Adams says. And the company is looking into other ways of expanding the use of AI to support its customers.
Adams and others say they expect the use of AI to continue growing, and Virginia companies can expect to grow with it.
In June, Reston-based federal contractor NCI Information Systems Inc. rebranded as Empower AI Inc., taking the name of the AI platform it launched in 2020. Depending on the level of automation desired and the complexity of the task, the platform is adaptable and can be customized to a client’s needs, says Empower AI Chief Technology Officer Allen Badeau.
During a nine-month period this year, Empower AI’s automations saved one federal client, which he declined to name, as much as 13 man-years worth of work by completing up to 7,000 automations a day, including verifying information found in health records.
“When you’ve got health records potentially that are hundreds and, in some cases, even thousands of pages long, to move that kind of information between those systems takes a long time,” Badeau says. “When you can automate that process and automate some of the validation around that, it’s a significant time-saver from a human perspective.”
More than 75% of Empower AI’s revenue now comes from its AI platform, which the company says accounts for more than $1.5 billion worth of work. Empower AI has more than 20 federal customers, a figure Badeau expects will double in the next year.
‘Never get tired, bored or distracted’
Recent developments in the AI field helped pave the way for Falls Church-based General Dynamics Information Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Reston-based Fortune 500 aerospace and defense contractor General Dynamics Corp., to develop an algorithm that can classify skin lesions, helping medical personnel diagnose skin cancer.
GDIT’s Skin Lesion Classifier prototype won third place and $10,000 in a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs competition that ran from 2020 to 2021. GDIT has pitched the idea to the VA as a pilot project.
“The ability to take a picture of a skin lesion and quickly help an oncologist decide if it’s a particular kind of a disease, and then whether it’s malignant or benign, really speeds the workflow so that veterans are seen faster and their appointments are escalated if they have dread diseases,” says Dave Vennergrund, GDIT’s vice president of AI and data insights.
Streamlining systems for veterans is also an area that Tifani O’Brien is addressing in her work leading an AI and machine-learningaccelerator at Reston-based federal contractor Leidos Holdings Inc.
As part of two Veterans Benefits Administration contracts awarded this year to a Leidos subsidiary to provide medical disability exam services for veterans and separating service members, Leidos is incorporating AI to screen intake questionnaires for disability claims, using the tech to route patients to the correct physicians with greater speed and accuracy. For the other contract, Leidos is using AI to screen thousands of pages of handwritten medical records, freeing up doctors to focus on the relevant pages they need to make health care decisions for their patients.
The contracts, both of which have six-month base periods and six one-year options, are worth up to $1.7 billion if all options are executed.
“We’re making it faster and more cost-effective to make decisions on what’s the next step in a veteran’s access to services and what they need to do next,” says O’Brien, a Leidos vice president. “Hopefully, that frees up more time to actually spend talking to the veteran and servicing the veteran and interacting with them, as opposed to going through the documentation and bureaucracy and deciding what to do next.”
While Leidos’ medical AI work is more behind the scenes, the company’s AI tech is showcased in a considerably more visible way at airports across the nation. If you’ve gone through an airport security checkpoint recently, chances are you’ve encountered Leidos’ screening machines, including ProVision2, a body scanner, and ClearScan, a luggage scanner. Both products use AI to determine quickly if a passenger or their bags contain prohibited items that checkpoint workers might not be able to identify in a cluttered space.
The AI can pick out objects based on characteristics that a human might not see, explains Ron Keesing, Leidos’ senior vice president for technology integration. “Also, computer-vision algorithms never get tired, bored or distracted,” Keesing says. “In this way, Leidos AI works as a partner to humans, helping them do their jobs more effectively and efficiently.”
Unmanned future
When it comes to AI development, the Pentagon is a focal point for many of Virginia’s largest federal contractors and tech companies. In the race to keep up with adversaries like China and Russia, the Pentagon in 2018 established the Joint AI Center — now known as the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office — to accelerate delivery of AI national security operations.
In 2020, McLean-based Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. received an $800 million, five-year task order to integrate and develop AI for the warfighter. Booz Allen’s work on that contract, called the Alliant 2 Joint Warfighter Task Order, runs the gamut from data labeling, management and conditioning to AI product development and incorporating the tech into new and existing programs and systems across the Department of Defense.
Booz Allen is the prime contractor on more than 150 AI projects for the federal government, says Eric Syphard, a vice president in Booz Allen’s artificial intelligence engineering practice.
The Fortune 500 company also started a venture capital fund this year to invest in AI companies, helping sharpen its focus on emerging capabilities. In April, Booz Allen announced an investment in San Francisco-based Reveal Technology Inc., which developed a platform, Farsight, for military special operators and squads operating in austere environments. The platform relies on autonomous drones to develop maps, line-of-sight analysis and route planning without the need for network connectivity.
“Imagine being a troop deployed to an area that you’re brand-new in that geography, you want to get a handle on some potential threats, the infrastructure and roads and you want AI to help you plan and recommend which path to take,” Syphard says, adding that the capability is similar to a civilian using a GPS traffic app to determine the fastest route to take during rush hour.
The individual military branches, too, have noted the importance of AI.
In April, HII’smission technologies division, based in McLean, announced the launch of Odyssey, an open-architecture platform that can turn any ship or vehicle on land or in the air into an intelligent, autonomous system. While it’s got a range of possibilities, Odyssey can use sensors to autonomously navigate, and it can be used to automate mechanical or electrical systems and diagnose problems when issues may arise.
“Sometimes we talk about the ‘AI captain’ steering the ship, but there also has to be an ‘AI engineer’ that’s controlling all of the engine-room operation,” says Fotheringham. “Then we also have to make sure that the systems are both reliable and resilient because we all know that things are going to break.”
The technology is already being incorporated into an unmanned, surface-traveling maritime vessel that will be used by the Navy to hunt and sweep for mines. Louisiana-based Bollinger Shipyards in April received a contract worth up to as much as $122 million to build as many as 30 unmanned vessels that will rely on Odyssey during the next five years. HII is also part of a team contracted for work on initial concept design for the Navy’s large, unmanned surface-ship vehicle program.
Fotheringham notes that the Navy has projected that up to 30% of its force structure could be unmanned in the future, and AI will be “the fundamental enabler” of that.
In September, the Army accepted delivery of its first 5,000 IVAS goggles, Bloomberg reported. The service spent $373 million on that order and could pay out as much as $21.9 billion on as many as 121,000 of the devices during the next decade.
While an Octo spokesperson declined to comment on whether that order incorporates the company’s technology, Albritton says the program has far-reaching potential.
“If this program is successful, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re gonna save lives,” Albritton says. “And being able to bring more soldiers home to their families is really why we do what we do.”
who I ADMIRE: My grandparents, because of their resiliency and selflessness
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: There is talent and genius everywhere, but true opportunity does not exist everywhere.
WHAT MAKES ME PASSIONATE ABOUT MY WORK: The opportunity to help a person transform his life and the life of his loved ones
FAVORITE SPORTS TEAM: Whatever team my daughter is playing on
SOMETHING I WOULD NEVER
DO AGAIN: Eat vegan soul food
WHAT I WAS LIKE IN HIGH SCHOOL: Full of energy
FAVORITE APPS: Kindle, Audible
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65,” by Taylor Branch
FAVORITE VACATION SPOT: Bermuda
DID YOU KNOW? A Rhodes scholar, Jones served as deputy secretary of housing and urban development in the Obama administration. Since 2021, he’s led OneTen, a coalition of Fortune 500 corporations and CEOs focused on hiring and promoting 1 million Black Americans without four-year college degrees in the next decade. Under Jones’ leadership, OneTen has already notched 17,000 hires and 4,000 promotions.
1. State Sen. Creigh Deeds speaks at the Sept. 30 dedication ceremony for inpatient psychiatric care at the Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters’ Children’s Pavilion. Photo courtesy CHKD2. Former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich delivers keynote speech at Liberty University‘s Networking the Nations CEO Summit on Oct. 6. Photo by Eva Soderstrom3. Owners Tony (L) and Rahsan Kilic and their four children cut the ribbon at Classic Granite & Marble’s new $14.5 million headquarters in Powhatan County on Sept. 16. Photo courtesy CGM4. L to R: Virginia Passenger Rail Authority Executive Director DJ Stadtler, Alexandria Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, Arlington County Board Vice Chair Christian Dorsey, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser announce the receipt of $20 million in funding to construct a bicycle-pedestrian bridge between Arlington and Washington. Photo courtesy Sen. Warner’s office. 5. L to R: A. Duie Pyle Inc. Chairman and CEO Peter Latta; Billy Latta, Pyle’s director of enterprise services; Russ Miceli, Pyle’s vice president of integrated solutions; John Luciani, Pyle’s chief operating officer of LTL solutions; Gov. Glenn Youngkin; Del Bilbao, Pyle’s director of operations, East Region; Kyle Caffrey, Pyle vice president of field sales and training; and Bob Moser, Pyle’s national account manager, attend the Oct. 4. ribbon cutting for the new Pyle logistics service center in Richmond. Photo courtesy A. Duie Pyle
The DORA designation from the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority lets adult customers buy drinks from ABC-licensed establishments within a set zone and then walk around the area. Legalized in July 2021, DORA licenses differ from event permits in that cities can create permanent open-air locations where drinking is allowed. Danville and Roanoke, among other cities, have DORA licenses.
Norton unveiled its zone during the August High Knob fest, a celebration of the region’s outdoor recreational activities. A week later, Norton held the inaugural Flag Rock Hill Climb, the second event to offer the outdoor refreshment area option.
“The first two events went really well,” says City Manager Fred Ramey Jr. “There were no issues, and this is something we will use again in the future.”
Norton City Council voted to apply for the DORA permit in June. “This was something council wanted to do to help downtown businesses and restaurants, and bring more activities to downtown,” Ramey says. “We hope more people will come downtown for these events and go into businesses to eat and purchase beverages.”
Incorporating an outdoor refreshment area for special events is part of Norton’s downtown revitalization efforts. The city is using a community block grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to fund aesthetic improvements, encourage business development and refurbish a former automobile dealership into the Norton Expo Center.
Lincoln Road Coffee Lounge, one of the three ABC-licensed vendors within the DORA zone, saw an increase in sales and brand awareness during the summer festivals, says co-owner Blake Salyer.
“We’re happy to be a stop where people can grab a drink and then go to the events,” he says. “Having the DORA pulls downtown businesses into events instead of adding an outside entity.”
Doughmakers Pizza also attributed a spike in sales to the license. “It definitely increased business,” manager Isaiah Gibson says. “Everything was kept under control, and everyone had a great time.”
Future events incorporating the license have not been announced, but Ramey believes the city will use the outdoor refreshment area frequently. “People have already asked for more events with DORA.”
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