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Hampton Roads Alliance and partners tout 'Playbook'; $9,000 pilot yielded web leads for Virginia Beach
Summary
Presenters from the Hampton Roads Alliance and Chamber told the Virginia Beach Development Authority that an August–November pilot for the Hampton Roads talent initiative produced about 1.57 million impressions, over 20,000 sessions and roughly 900 contact-form leads on a $9,000 spend; the Playbook outlines regional projects in defense, energy, aerospace and logistics.
Steve Harrison, chief operating officer of the Hampton Roads Alliance, told the Virginia Beach Development Authority on Nov. 18 that the Alliance’s regional "Playbook" frames economic development around four priority industries—defense, energy, aerospace and logistics—and identifies cross‑cutting growth drivers such as workforce, innovation and available sites.
Harrison said Hampton Roads benefits from a concentration of federal spending and regional assets and outlined eight initial projects that the Playbook will track and steward. "The playbook is really born out of this idea that post‑COVID the economy has fundamentally changed," he said, describing the aim to align the region’s strengths for new investment.
Drew Lumpkin of the Hampton Roads Executive Roundtable and Lauren Robert Carter of the Hampton Roads Chamber presented early results from a pilot talent‑attraction campaign run with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP). Carter said the pilot, which ran Aug. 1–Nov. 12 on roughly $9,000 of paid media, generated about 1.57 million impressions, more than 20,000 sessions on the landing page and approximately 900 contact‑form leads. "For $9,000, we have been able to reach 1.57 million people with impressions," Carter said.
Presenters said the campaign targeted high‑value tech and defense talent in metros such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Philadelphia; top performing ad groups and search keywords showed interest in jobs in Virginia Beach and roles such as software and project engineers. The pilot will end in December; presenters outlined potential future funding from the General Assembly, Go Virginia grants, private partnerships and city/business contributions.
Board members asked about sustainability and budget for a permanent program. Lumpkin and Carter said state seed money ends in December and the proposal moving forward includes layered funding options, including city support and private partnerships depending on the scale of a next‑phase website or jobs portal.
What happens next: staff and regional partners plan to work with the authority to create a Virginia Beach chapter of the Playbook and explore funding for a longer‑term talent portal and retention strategies.
