"Our goal is to put business out front, where it belongs, in the effort to attract business and create jobs," said Bill Sasso, chairman of the chamber's board and head of the Stradley, Ronon, Stevens & Young L.L.P. law firm.
Business leaders who are making expansion or relocation plans "want to talk to their peers, not government bureaucrats," Sasso said.
At this morning's breakfast meeting, Sasso will turn the chamber board chairmanship over to Steve Steinour, Middle Atlantic chief executive officer of Citizens Bank.
The economic development programs are still new. Indeed, the staff that will sell the region is still being recruited, and key elements of the strategy are still being debated. And the trust relationships between area governments and business leaders that are critical to regional cooperation are still being built, said Hugh Long, chairman of the program's steering committee and Wachovia Bank's Pennsylvania and Delaware CEO.
Regions such as Washington; Boston; Chicago; Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; and Phoenix have well-established business-backed programs, some going back a decade or more. The Philadelphia area has taken a fragmented approach, relying on state and county government agencies.
Until now, Long said, the Philadelphia region "has been rearranging deck chairs, but not doing things to lift all the boats."
But a growing number of business leaders say they are now convinced that the new program would get the support it needed to succeed, and that there was a growing awareness that winning jobs against strong rival regions required a regional approach to marketing and regional cooperation to close deals.
"The platform is coming together. We're on track," said Mark S. Schweiker, the former Pennsylvania governor who is now president of the chamber.
