News Briefs

NABE held its fourth annual Professional Development Seminar (PDS) in Dallas, June 16-18.  The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas hosted the event and past NABE President Harvey Rosenblum, the Dallas Fed’s director of research, welcomed participants. This year’s PDS featured an expanded program that included new sessions on regional, industry, and international data and applications in addition to the core PDS program. NABE past Presidents Maurine Haver and Duncan Meldrum presided and made presentations. The event also included a Fed-sponsored reception, a dinner with choice of discussion topic, and ample time for networking.  Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, NABE president and chief economist at Ford Motor Company, delivered an instructive luncheon address that demonstrated how analyses are pulled together in a cohesive way in the corporate planning process and offered suggestions on effectively communicating in a corporate setting.  The seminar ended with a lively panel composed of Haver, Jack Kleinhenz, chair of the NABE Foundation, former NABE Board member John Silvia, and current NABE Board member Robert Fry.  The panel members offered their perspectives on the importance of quality data in developing quality analyses, and then fielded questions from the audience.

Get Connected now has 60 members and counting!  Originally seeded by a handful of NABE members last year, Get Connected has added interested participants each week since.  The organization is now forming teams to develop programs, to help forge new relationships with NABE chapters and student chapters, and to keep communications flowing.  Conference calls with each team were held over the last two weeks in July with each team focusing on one or two top issues.  “The teams have to work together to accomplish our goals,” said Chris Swann, NABE board member and team leader for the management team.  A marquee project within Get Connected is the 2008 trial of a new mentoring program.  Many thanks go to Kim Flood and those who participated with her, and also to Chris Varvares, NABE vice-president and Get Connected member, for his direct involvement in the process.

NABE turns 50 this year and we want to hear your recollections for a history project. Send your observations, experiences, and most poignant memories of your time with NABE via e-mail or postal mail. Submissions will be shared online. Send your recollections to: NABE News editor Pam Ginsbach at pamg@nabe.com.

Copies of the Emmy award-winning documentary “September 11th, 2001: the Story of NABE and AUBER” are available from Sharareh Drury, producer of the video and daughter of NABE member Michael J. Drury, McVean Trading and Investments in Memphis. Sharareh wrote and produced the documentary as a high school studentand she is now a broadcast journalism student at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communication. Requests for copies of the 20-minute video should be sent to her at sdrury@usc.edu. 

The July 2008 NABE Industry Survey has received outstanding news coverage since its July 21 release, according to NABE press officer Melissa Golding. The survey’s lead analyst, Ken Simonson of the Associated General Contractors of America, did broadcast interviews with CNN Radio, ABC Radio, CBS Radio, the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Associated Press Radio, Voice of America, and the Biz Radio Network (Houston-Dallas-Fort Worth). Survey analyst Sara Johnson of Global Insight discussed the survey live on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, and Bloomberg Radio, and did a recorded interview with KFWB Radio in Los Angeles that was broadcast throughout the day on July 21.

Check out the latest podcasts of Roundtable teleconferences available on the website, including the July 24 podcast of the Regional Utility Roundtable’s conference call on “Housing in Real Time”.