What can a city known for sending rockets into space teach us about growth, talent, and the future of the Fox Cities? Quite a bit, as it turns out.
From February 16–18, 2027, the Fox Cities Chamber will bring business and community leaders to Huntsville, Alabama, for our next Leadership Exchange and Benchmarking Tour. Over three days participants will step inside one of the country’s most compelling growth stories and explore how Huntsville has built an economy rooted in innovation while continuing to invest in its people, places, and quality of life.
Huntsville is widely known as the Rocket City, a name earned through its deep ties to the nation’s space and defense programs. But the community’s story extends well beyond aerospace. Huntsville has developed into a center for advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, healthcare, technology, and research, creating an economy shaped by both major institutions and private-sector investment.
That combination makes Huntsville an especially relevant destination for the Fox Cities, as our region is also thinking carefully about what comes next: how we attract and retain talent, prepare students for changing careers, redevelop properties that no longer serve their original purpose, support our core industries, and create places where people want to live and work. Read on to learn what you will experience on the Huntsville Leadership Exchange and Benchmarking Tour.
Economic growth is often measured through jobs, investment, and new development. Those measures matter, but Huntsville’s experience also raises a broader question: How does a growing community remain a place where people feel connected and want to build a future?
During the exchange, participants will learn more about Huntsville’s approach to economic development and sense of place. We will explore how community identity, amenities, infrastructure, and quality of life have become part of the region’s strategy for competing for companies and talent.
That conversation is particularly important as communities across the country face workforce shortages. Employers may create job opportunities, but communities must also create reasons for people to stay.
Not every major opportunity begins with a blank piece of land.
One of the case studies featured during the exchange will examine how a former mall was transformed into an entertainment district. The project provides a practical example of how communities can rethink properties that have outlived their original purpose and turn them into places that generate new activity, investment, and energy. For Fox Cities leaders, the value is not only seeing the completed development. It is understanding the vision, partnerships and decisions that helped move the project forward.
What allowed leaders to see potential where others may have seen decline? How were public and private interests aligned? What can other communities learn from the process?
Huntsville’s growth has also required the community to think differently about talent development.
A visit to the Alabama School of Cyber Technology & Engineering will provide a closer look at how education can be connected to emerging industries and long-term economic priorities. Participants will explore how schools, employers and community partners can work together to help students understand future career opportunities and develop skills that industries increasingly need.
The Fox Cities faces its own questions about how to strengthen the connection between education and the workplace. Huntsville offers another perspective on what it looks like when workforce development is treated as a shared community responsibility rather than the work of any one institution.
The exchange will also include conversations with executives from aerospace, healthcare, and the broader Huntsville business community.
These leaders will help us look beyond the success of individual companies and better understand the larger ecosystem surrounding them. What role do anchor employers play in regional development? How do business, education, and government align around common goals? How does a community turn major investment into opportunity across the broader economy?
Participants will have the chance to hear what has worked, what remains challenging and what Huntsville’s leaders are thinking about next.
A tour of Polaris will bring the conversation inside a modern manufacturing environment.
Manufacturers everywhere are navigating changing technology, workforce expectations, supply-chain pressures, and the need for continual improvement. The Polaris visit will offer a firsthand look at how one company approaches production, talent, and innovation within an increasingly competitive industry.
Experiences like this are one of the most valuable parts of a Leadership Exchange. Seeing a strategy in action often sparks different questions than hearing about it in a meeting room.
Why now? The Fox Cities is at an important point in its own growth.
We have strong industries, committed employers, respected educational institutions, and a history of collaboration. We also face challenges that will require new thinking and stronger partnerships.
A Leadership Exchange creates space for that thinking. It gives leaders a chance to step outside their daily responsibilities, experience another community together and consider what its successes and challenges might mean for our region.
The goal is not to return with a list of projects to replicate. It is to return with better questions, stronger relationships, and ideas that can help shape what comes next for the Fox Cities.
Join the Fox Cities delegation for the Huntsville Leadership Exchange and Benchmarking Tour, February 16–18, 2027. Learn more and register here: Huntsville Leadership Exchange and Benchmarking Tour – Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce