Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Lessons from Beijing
Larry Jensen quoted in Commercial Appeal article following up on the Airport Cities conference in Beijing. Read the story here.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Blogging from Beijing Part II
Thursday, April 22 - 11:15 pm
Attendance at the Airport Cities has revealed to me an important insight into the value of our airport in Memphis. While I have appreciated the work of the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority under the leadership of President Larry Cox and Chairman Arnold Perl, it is my great privilege to gain a better understanding of the valuable asset that has been carefully managed and developed over the years. Thankfully, our community has been provided with an opportunity to excel and compete. We cannot be complacent and must work hard to assure our efforts are strategic and aggressive. We have opportunity before us if we can seize it and maximize the potentials.
From Munich to Dubai to Mumbai to Denver to Dallas and all around the world, there is a staggering amount of current economic investment in airport infrastructure. China, for example, plans to building 50 new airports in the next ten years and renovate many of the 152 existing facilities. Investing billions of dollars in airports globally is driven by the 21st century reality that the new economic highways are the air routes globally and domestically. Like the clipper ships of bygone days, world commerce occurs when airplanes have sustainable and efficient access to those air routes to carry business people, tourists, and goods effectively and efficiently. Vital airports provide access to the economic highways and are the key generators of economic activity for the 21st century for local and regional economies. It is critical to understand the concept of the entire regional economy revolving around the ingress and egress to the new economic highways. The new economic highways offer access and opportunities to expand and grow tourism, biosciences, medical care and research, conventions, education, research, logistics, corporate business operations, headquarters, and manufacturing.
Memphis is a current thought leader and participant as a global access airport. With hub status for the largest global airline, Delta; one of three global Aerotropolis hubs for FedEx, an UPS freight hub, Memphis’ airport impacts the daily lives of people and commerce across the region well beyond the land inside the fences at Memphis International Airport. Further with our Aerotropolis initiative of leveraging Memphis’s multi-modal transportation infrastructure (river, rail, road, runway), the future is bright if the community can comprehend the opportunity and make certain there is a laser focus on the airport’s importance and continued investment is made not only on the airport facilities but other vital infrastructure components.
Attendance at the Airport Cities has revealed to me an important insight into the value of our airport in Memphis. While I have appreciated the work of the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority under the leadership of President Larry Cox and Chairman Arnold Perl, it is my great privilege to gain a better understanding of the valuable asset that has been carefully managed and developed over the years. Thankfully, our community has been provided with an opportunity to excel and compete. We cannot be complacent and must work hard to assure our efforts are strategic and aggressive. We have opportunity before us if we can seize it and maximize the potentials.
From Munich to Dubai to Mumbai to Denver to Dallas and all around the world, there is a staggering amount of current economic investment in airport infrastructure. China, for example, plans to building 50 new airports in the next ten years and renovate many of the 152 existing facilities. Investing billions of dollars in airports globally is driven by the 21st century reality that the new economic highways are the air routes globally and domestically. Like the clipper ships of bygone days, world commerce occurs when airplanes have sustainable and efficient access to those air routes to carry business people, tourists, and goods effectively and efficiently. Vital airports provide access to the economic highways and are the key generators of economic activity for the 21st century for local and regional economies. It is critical to understand the concept of the entire regional economy revolving around the ingress and egress to the new economic highways. The new economic highways offer access and opportunities to expand and grow tourism, biosciences, medical care and research, conventions, education, research, logistics, corporate business operations, headquarters, and manufacturing.
Memphis is a current thought leader and participant as a global access airport. With hub status for the largest global airline, Delta; one of three global Aerotropolis hubs for FedEx, an UPS freight hub, Memphis’ airport impacts the daily lives of people and commerce across the region well beyond the land inside the fences at Memphis International Airport. Further with our Aerotropolis initiative of leveraging Memphis’s multi-modal transportation infrastructure (river, rail, road, runway), the future is bright if the community can comprehend the opportunity and make certain there is a laser focus on the airport’s importance and continued investment is made not only on the airport facilities but other vital infrastructure components.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
The Concept of Aerotropolis
Aerotropolis is formed from two words which might be literally understood as a city in the air or airport city. Site Selection Magazine featured an article entitled “Airport Cities” that does a much better job of defining the word in today’s global economic environment. In particular, the article provides history, current status, and future insights about Memphis’ role in providing sustainable global access as an “airport city” or “aerotropolis”. This is real, global, and a powerful economic reality for the future. Read carefully and grasp the opportunity by reading the article here.
Blogging from Beijing
Monday - April 19, 8:09 pm
We are sitting down to breakfast just now before heading out this morning to see The Great Wall. Our group continues to arrive and the conference meetings begin tomorrow evening, Wednesday. After arriving late last night via Detroit to Norita Japan and onto Beijing, we were escorted to our hotel and checked in after more than 26 hours in transit.
Tuesday - April 20, 5:57 am
We went to the Forbidden City, which was the palace of the Emperor in the 1400s. I have pictures, but it is huge and covers several hundred acres. It is an incredible place just off Tianemen Square. Beijing is a very busy city with many beautiful buildings mixed with large modern office buildings and hotels. Tomorrow we got to Great Wall and conference starts tomorrow evening. About 50 of the 500 conference attendees will most likely not be able to attend because of the volcanic ash in Europe.
Wenesday - April 21, 11:54 am
It was nice to be out in the countryside and ride through villages on the way to the Great Wall tour. The weather was cool, damp, and overcast, but pleasant enough to make our tour work. The Great Wall is impressive and we visited a section which was completed in the 16th century. The wall is more than 5500 miles long. I have pictures, but for some reason can't upload them to send right now. The conference began last night and we have a booth where we greeted attendees and began extending our invitation to come to Memphis next year for the 2011 Airport Cities Conference. I had visits with the airport executive for Munich and Denver, for example. Some people are still struggling to get here due to the disruption of air travel and others simply cannot make connections and have cancelled.
We are sitting down to breakfast just now before heading out this morning to see The Great Wall. Our group continues to arrive and the conference meetings begin tomorrow evening, Wednesday. After arriving late last night via Detroit to Norita Japan and onto Beijing, we were escorted to our hotel and checked in after more than 26 hours in transit.
Tuesday - April 20, 5:57 am
We went to the Forbidden City, which was the palace of the Emperor in the 1400s. I have pictures, but it is huge and covers several hundred acres. It is an incredible place just off Tianemen Square. Beijing is a very busy city with many beautiful buildings mixed with large modern office buildings and hotels. Tomorrow we got to Great Wall and conference starts tomorrow evening. About 50 of the 500 conference attendees will most likely not be able to attend because of the volcanic ash in Europe.
Wenesday - April 21, 11:54 am
It was nice to be out in the countryside and ride through villages on the way to the Great Wall tour. The weather was cool, damp, and overcast, but pleasant enough to make our tour work. The Great Wall is impressive and we visited a section which was completed in the 16th century. The wall is more than 5500 miles long. I have pictures, but for some reason can't upload them to send right now. The conference began last night and we have a booth where we greeted attendees and began extending our invitation to come to Memphis next year for the 2011 Airport Cities Conference. I had visits with the airport executive for Munich and Denver, for example. Some people are still struggling to get here due to the disruption of air travel and others simply cannot make connections and have cancelled.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Larry Jensen Heads to Beijing
Larry Jensen is part of a delegation from Memphis including Mayor AC Wharton and Memphis International Airport president Larry Cox attending the Airport Cities World Conference in Beijing, China this week. Read the Commercial Appeal article here.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Congratulations 2009 Pinnacle Award Winners!
Shown L to R: Matt Weathersby, Kemp Conrad, Bentley Pembroke and Wyatt Aiken accept their Pinnacle Awards.Friday, April 9, 2010
Non-Profit Organizations - Addressing Community Challenges is a Grass-Roots Effort
Bottom-up, grass-roots consensus community processes are the centerpiece of 21st century community building and empowerment. Most successful projects and processes in our Memphis metro area in recent years have addressed the community challenges as inclusive, grass-roots approaches. Most failed projects have ignored these principals.
You only have to look at the board of directors of four organizations in our community to gain some understanding. Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, Memphis Bioworks Foundation, the Crime Commission, and the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce are four examples of boards and leadership comprised of a broad cross section of Memphians: black, white, young, old, male, and female. Furthermore, the leadership of those organizations understands and practices reaching deep into the stakeholder communities to gain opinion, feedback, and participation before decisions are made and projects initiated. The approach and priorities of each of these organizations along with many, many others represents the present reality and the future approach of our community. While many seemingly intransigent issues around economic disparity, poverty, and race remain as significant community challenges, there is a new spirit of success, cooperation, collaboration, and community building emerging and even maturing.
For example, Memphis Tomorrow’s membership is comprised of predominantly white male CEO’s of the largest companies and institutions in the region. Memphis Tomorrow executes its projects and initiatives focused on education, crime, and economic development around the successful principles of deep research, broad community fact-gathering and grass-roots engagement. While comprised of top-down leadership, the approach of Memphis Tomorrow at its core is grass-roots community consensus building and execution.
You only have to look at the board of directors of four organizations in our community to gain some understanding. Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, Memphis Bioworks Foundation, the Crime Commission, and the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce are four examples of boards and leadership comprised of a broad cross section of Memphians: black, white, young, old, male, and female. Furthermore, the leadership of those organizations understands and practices reaching deep into the stakeholder communities to gain opinion, feedback, and participation before decisions are made and projects initiated. The approach and priorities of each of these organizations along with many, many others represents the present reality and the future approach of our community. While many seemingly intransigent issues around economic disparity, poverty, and race remain as significant community challenges, there is a new spirit of success, cooperation, collaboration, and community building emerging and even maturing.
For example, Memphis Tomorrow’s membership is comprised of predominantly white male CEO’s of the largest companies and institutions in the region. Memphis Tomorrow executes its projects and initiatives focused on education, crime, and economic development around the successful principles of deep research, broad community fact-gathering and grass-roots engagement. While comprised of top-down leadership, the approach of Memphis Tomorrow at its core is grass-roots community consensus building and execution.
Killer B's of Memphis
Memphis is a major player in the emergence and transformation of the railroads into a primary transportation mode of business and commerce both domestically and internationally. Iconic, mutual fund investor, Warren Buffett, has added his confirmation of the shift in transportation with an 'all-in wager' in the Berkshire Hathaway $34 Billion dollar acquisition of Burlington Northern (BNSF) railroad, the 2nd largest railroad in the country. In true Buffet fashion, he is quoted on msnbc.com as saying, “Berkshire’s $34 billion investment in BNSF is a huge bet on that company, CEO Matt Rose and his team and the railroad industry. Most important of all, however it’s an all-in wager on the economic future of the United States. I love these bets” (read the entire article here). So what does that have to do with Memphis?BNSF recently opened its $300 million "Memphis Intermodal" sort located on Lamar just north of Shelby Drive. With lift capacity in excess of 500,000 per year, the Memphis operation is reflective of the BNSF preparations for a changing focus of moving goods and products via the more 'green' railroad mode for longer distance shipping and shifting the trucking industry to more short-haul focus. The BNSF/Berkshire/Buffett combination makes a 'killer Bs' alignment for the Memphis economy. According to the BNSF website, “The expansion creates a sort of ripple effect of other new developments and growth in an area buzzing with warehouses, distribution centers and other transportation industries.” These new lifts not only help to fuel jobs and commerce locally, but they further edify Memphis’s role in the global marketplace as a transportation/distribution hub.
During difficult economic times, the major railroad companies continue to invest or have plans to invest more than $1 billion in rail infrastructure enhancements in the Memphis market.
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