Apr. 5—A new event crafted by the Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce will allow community members to hear from candidates running for office and participate in discussions involving economic development, tourism, education and health care.

The free event, named Future Forward, will take place Tuesday and Wednesday at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center arena.

While Future Forward will include the chamber’s Meet the Candidates forum, which it has held for years in the lead-up to major elections, Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce CEO Michelle Rotellini said the candidates will not be the sole focus of the event.

Through a number of sessions planned during the two-day event, Rotellini said the chamber will highlight regional economic issues and organizations and officials working to advance the region.

“We just felt that as we are really looking at our area more of a region — the New River Gorge region — that it was important to start to put together a business summit for our area where we brought to the community information on pressing issues, things happening in economic development, legislation, just things that we feel that the community needs to have a more of an understanding,” she said.

For example, Rotellini said one of the issues that will be discussed at Future Forward is the area’s housing crisis.

“No new housing has been built around here for probably 20, 25 years. I think the last thing built in Beckley was Cranberry Pointe,” Rotellini said. “We can do all the economic development we want, we can make attempts to bring in manufacturing, we can say we want to grow WVU Tech, we can say we want to grow tourism, but where are we going to house the employees that are going to support the growth of these different organizations?”

Through the Future Forward event, Rotellini said they not only plan to bring these issues to the forefront but also inform the community about what’s being done to combat problems and ways they can contribute.

“Is the whole community aware of that issue? Do they know that there’s legislation for building back that we can help push forward by talking to our representatives about certain tax credits for developers who want to build housing developments? They might not know that, and they aren’t going to know that unless we present a forum,” Rotellini said.

Sessions for Tuesday will include:

—The Economic Development Successes presentation from 10 a.m. to noon, with speakers from the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, Community Development Hub, and WVU Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative.

—A Raleigh County Board of Education Excess Levy presentation from 1-1:30 p.m. by Raleigh County Schools Superintendent Serena Starcher.

—An Access Health School/Community-Based Clinic presentation from 1:30-2 p.m. by Charles Hunt, CEO of Access Health.

Sessions for Wednesday will include:

—An Investing in the Next Generation presentation from 10:45 a.m. to noon with speakers from New River Community and Technical College and West Virginia University Institute of Technology.

—An Accelerating West Virginia Tourism presentation from 1-3 p.m. with representatives from the West Virignia Department of Tourism, Visit Southern West Virginia, Fayette County Chamber of Commerce, Winterplace and The Resort at Glade Springs.

In addition to these sessions, dozens of booths will set up in the convention center for people to learn more about the local organizations involved in economic development, tourism, education and health care.

Also, three candidate forums are scheduled to take place during the event.

Candidates running for county or city positions will convene for a forum scheduled for 2-4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Those offices include Raleigh County Circuit, Family and Magistrate Court judges, Raleigh County sheriff, Raleigh County Board of Education, Raleigh County circuit clerk, Beckley mayor and Beckley Common Council.

The Wednesday candidate forums are reserved for state or national office officials.

The forum for statewide, except gubernatorial candidates, district and national candidates will be from 8:30-10 a.m. Wednesday.

The gubernatorial candidate’s form will be from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Each of the candidate forums will follow a set format. Some of the candidates will be given a set amount of time to answer questions from a media panel. Candidates not asked questions will be allowed to provide a timed statement.

Future Forward will be live-streamed on the Beckley-Raleigh County Chamber of Commerce Facebook page.

For a full list of events go to brccc.com/chamber-events/future-forward.

Email: jmoore@register-herald.com