ReNew Jersey Business Summit
The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is holding “the single largest business event in the state this year” on April 13 and 14 at the Borgata Hotel in Atlantic City. Keynoted by Gov. Phil Murphy, the in-person ReNew Jersey Business Summit: A Time for Answers features a two-day general session of panel discussions about how to reignite New Jersey’s economy, bringing experts together to explore ways to create jobs and make the state more business friendly.
Agenda
Day One, April 13
9:00 a.m.: Business Expo Opens
12:30 p.m.: General Sessions Door Open – Lunch Available
1:00 p.m.: Welcome Comments and Sponsor Acknowledgments; Tom Bracken, NJ Chamber of Commerce
1:15 p.m.: Panel 1: How do we ReNew Jersey and Make it Better for Business?
2:15 p.m.: Panel 2: Health Care Costs
3:15 p.m.: Break
3:30 p.m.: Panel 3: Infrastructure and the Environment
4:30 p.m.: Panel 4: Taxes and Incentives
5:30 p.m.: Introduction of Gov. Phil Murphy, Jim Fakult, president, JCP&L
Keynote Address
The Hon. Phil Murphy, Governor of New Jersey
6:00 p.m.: Networking Reception
7:30 p.m.: Adjourn
Day Two, April 14
7:30 a.m.: Networking Breakfast
9:00 a.m.: Welcome to Atlantic City,
The Hon. Marty Small, Mayor, Atlantic City
9:15 a.m. Panel 5: Labor Shortage and Workforce Development
10:15 a.m. Panel 6: State Legislative Priorities
11:15 a.m. : Readout of Panel Recommendations and Open Discussion, Tom Bracken, president and CEO, NJ Chamber of Commerce
12:00 p.m. : Adjourn
The discussions will include mission-critical topics like taxes and incentives; health care costs; infrastructure and environmental issues; and the labor shortage. Expected attendees include a variety of business executives from large and small companies, state and local government leaders, representatives from trade groups, labor, academia, and nonprofits.
Bracken
Ahead of the gathering — the third such statewide event in the Chamber’s 111-year history — NJBIZ spoke with some panelists to get a preview of the issues, and answers, they’ll be discussing and developing. “The goal is to bring together subject experts from business, politics, education and labor to discuss the problems stifling New Jersey’s economy, and propose the actions needed to shift into a full-throttle economic recovery,” said Tom Bracken, president and CEO of the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce. He said he expects the event to be on a scale “comparable to our Walk to Washington.”
Bracken sees evidence that the state is moving forward, “but we’re still lagging many states,” he told NJBIZ. “If our economy doesn’t improve significantly, we’ll have an even tougher time balancing the budget in future years.”
Good position
As NJBIZ recently reported, the state is in a good financial position right now, thanks in part to an influx of billions of federal dollars from COVID-relief funds and from stronger-than-expected tax collections. “But we need long-term recurring sources of income — one-time plugs don’t work,” Bracken warned. “So the time is now to bring people together to develop ideas and present them to the governor and the Legislature — with a unified business voice — to demonstrate our commitment to solving these issues. The Chamber has received an overwhelming response to our call for action, and we need everyone to come together to realize the potential this state has, and the ability to make things better for all of us. We’re slowly recovering from the pandemic, and businesses in New Jersey are ready to move forward.”
More from our ReNew Jersey Business Summit Preview:
- How to ‘build back better’
- What can be done about NJ’s tax rates?
- Experts share how to recruit, retain employees
- Panelists to tackle how to tame health care costs
- NJ politicians weigh in on ways to spark state’s economic activity
