Go ahead. Type in www.austinchamber.com Click on "Do Business" and watch as a complete database of demographic and economic information about our region unfolds before your eyes. Interactive maps show locations and city and county statistics. You can also learn about taxes and incentives, business relocations, and what assets the region offers to business and industry.

The Chamber's "Do Business" site was unveiled Thursday morning, February 24, during the first Annual Opportunity Austin Investor's meeting at the Driskill Hotel. The site was created for site consultants, facility experts and corporate officers looking for business relocation sites. It takes Austin's workforce advantage to a new, global level.

"The goal is to drive companies to visit our site," said Dave Porter, Chamber Vice President of Economic Development. "It is truly exciting that we are now in the game from a website perspective."

As the keynote speaker, Texas Governor Rick Perry praised the Texas Enterprise Fund for luring businesses like the Home Depot Technology Center and Cabela's to the Central Texas region. The Chamber board voted in November to support the Governor's request to lawmakers to reauthorize the Texas Enterprise Fund for $300 million. The Governor has also asked the Legislature to create a new $300 million Emerging Technologies Fund. Addressing the crowd of more than 150 business leaders in the region, Governor Perry asked for help in moving the entire state forward.

"We need to be able to identify those emerging technologies being created in laboratories...for us to become one of the premiere states where this emerging technology needs to occur," Perry said. "It's going to happen somewhere—it needs to be in Texas."

Numbers show the Opportunity Austin campaign, an economic development initiative aimed at creating 72,000 jobs in five years, has already laid the groundwork to make this happen. A progress report of 2004 shows:

• 6,100 new jobs were created
• $249.3 million was added to the payroll
• 31 companies relocated to the Austin region
• 55 business retention visits were made
• 144 out of region company visits
• 1,041 serious relocation inquiries
• 51 prospect visits to Austin

In nearly every case, the 2004 goal was surpassed.

"We are not waiting on the phone to ring," said Gary Farmer, President of Heritage Title Company of Austin, and Chamber Vice Chair for Economic Development. "We are getting on the phone and making outbound calls and getting on the plane and making outbound visits. I hope you get a sense we are working. Working hard and working smart."

Opportunity Austin was launched in 2003 as part of a five-county, five-year plan based on extensive study conducted by Market Street Services, a national economic development consultant based in Atlanta. The plan is intended to diversify the economy and replace the more than 30,000 jobs lost during the technology slump. Opportunity Austin is financed by more than $13.5 million raised in 2004 by the Greater Austin Economic Development Corporation and a team of volunteers.