The half-day meeting involving three corporate members, eight economic developers and eight service providers began with a continental breakfast and networking session literally in the midst of hundreds of vintage motorcycles, cars and other memorabilia dating back to the 1940s.

During networking breaks, meeting registrants were able to observe Porsche owners in "speed driver" training —on the race track just outside the meeting venue.

After welcome remarks from Art Murray, associate broker, industrial division for Lavista Associates Inc., and Ted vonCannon, president of the Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board of Birmingham, IAMC Chair Charles McSwain, CSX, presented information and engaged the audience in discussion about intermodal transportation trends.

"Intermodalism has come of age out of necessity," says McSwain, and is being supported across the board by government, truckers and shippers. "Rising fuel prices, high demand for freight movement in our

Click the image to access a chart from Steve Sewell's presentation on the automotive economy in Alabama, presented at the IAMC Southeast Region meeting on Aug. 10.

During the second half of the meeting, Steve Sewell, executive vice president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, talked broadly about economic development in Alabama and emphasized work opportunities in the state's thriving automobile industry. As of the end of 2004, the industry accounted for more than 340 companies in the state, and total vehicle production has more than tripled from 230,000 in 2002 to 760,000 this year and next. Cars are the state’s leading export, their $2.2 billion in value accounting for 28 percent of the state’s total export base.

The industry has also spawned the Alabama Automotive Manufacturers Association, which recently established a scholarship program for 25 students pursuing two-year degrees or certifications at the Alabama College System’s network of two-year colleges. That’s the same system that just offered complete tuition and fee breaks to all two-year college students in Louisiana and Mississippi whose schools suffered catastrophic damage.

As evidenced in the wake of Katrina, movement and transport have become integral to the Southeastern U.S. economic engine. In fact, that was the theme of the recent Southeast Regional Review, "Move Along Now" in the July 2005 issue of IAMC official publication Site Selection.