"Promoting the Tennessee Valley Corridor as one of the nation's premier science and technology centers, and leveraging the Valley?s abundant research and technology assets and institutions for maximum regional economic development and new job creation." ~Congressman Zachary Wamp, Congressional District 3

2007 Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit to be Held in Tri-Cities, TN/VA Corridor Board Members Return from Kingsport Planning Meeting Tennessee Valley Corridor News Release July 27, 2006 Kingsport, Tenn. - The Tennessee Valley Corridor has selected Kingsport, Tenn. as the location for the Corridor's 2007 National Technology Summit.

The Tennessee Valley Corridor Board of Directors convened recently at Kingsport's Eastman Lodge for their quarterly meeting. Among the business discussed at the meeting was the location for the Corridor's 2007 National Summit. The Corridor board chose Tri-Cities, TN/VA as the host region for next year's event. The event will be held at Kingsport's MeadowView Conference Resort and Convention Center, May 29-30, 2007.

"We in the Tri-Cities are delighted to host the 2007 TVC National Summit," said Susan Reid, Chair of the TVC Board of Directors and Executive Director of the Johnson City-based First Tennessee Development District. "Building on the success of the last Summit held in Kingsport in 1998 and on the momentum of a very successful 2006 Summit in Chattanooga earlier this summer, we expect next year's Summit to be one of our best events yet."

TVC Board Members attending the meeting were:

From North Alabama: Sharon Morgan, representative of Congressman Bud Cramer to the TVC Board; and Mickey Crutcher, President and CEO of Maximum Technology Association.

From Southeast Kentucky: Jerry Rickett, President and CEO of Kentucky Highland Investment Corporation.

From Knoxville/Oak Ridge, Tennessee: Dale Ditmanson, Superintendent, Great Smoky Mountains National Park; Tom Rogers, President and CEO of Technology 2020; Jim Reafsnyder, Director, Department of Energy/Oak Ridge Operations, Office of Partnerships and Program Development; Tom Ballard, Director of Economic Development and Partnerships for Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Dr. Fred Tompkins, President of the University of Tennessee Research Foundation; Larry Clark, Assistant Manager of Nuclear Fuel Supply, Department of Energy/Oak Ridge Operations; Robin Spradlen, Program Development Manager, Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration; Mike Arms, Chief of Staff, Knox County Mayor's Office; Bob Morris, Vice President of Valley Relations, Tennessee Valley Authority; and Tom Jensen, President and CEO, National Safe Skies Alliance.

From Southeast Tennessee: Wayne Cropp, CEO of Aquaterra Engineering, from Chattanooga; and Dr. Edward Kraft, Technical Advisor for the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma.

From the Tri-Cities, Tennessee: Dr. Jim Hales, Dean Emeritus and Special Assistant to the President, East Tennessee State University; Susan Reid, Executive Director of the First Tennessee Development District; Paul Montgomery, Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs for Eastman Chemical Company; and David Stout, Director of Business Health Services for Mountain States Health Alliance.

From Southwest Virginia: John O'Neil, from Floyd, Va., who is Program Director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Tom Taylor, former Executive Director of Mount Rogers Planning District Commission.

Other topics discussed at the quarterly meeting were ways to continue to foster the year-round initiatives of the Corridor, including: education, innovation, job creation and modernization. In addition, the Board is working on organizing a regional Homeland Security Conference this Fall. Details on both the Fall conference and the 2007 National Summit will be available soon on the Corridor web site.

The TVC Board of Directors, composed of representatives from eight contiguous Congressional districts in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, meets quarterly at a different Corridor location each time, to plan and discuss ongoing activities to help advance the Corridor as one of the nation's leading science and technology regions in the U.S.

Building on such regional assets as NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal, the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 National Security Complex, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the National Transportation Research Center, the Center for Rural Development, the National Safe Skies Alliance, several world-class research universities and dozens of corporate leaders in science and technology, the Corridor has helped showcase the Tennessee Valley's superior quality of life and the people, business, natural and scientific resources needed for high-tech research, development, business and investment in the 21st Century.

For more information on the Corridor, please visit www.tennvalleycorridor.org