Trip Summary
In March 2026, Fox Cities leaders traveled to Charleston, South Carolina as part of the Chamber’s Leadership Exchange and Benchmarking Tour. The goal was straightforward: see how a comparable region has built a diversified, high-growth economy and bring useful lessons home.
Charleston, which encompasses Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties, has grown to nearly 870,000 residents and is among the fastest-growing metros in the country. What makes it relevant to the Fox Cities isn’t just its growth, it’s the intentional collaboration behind it. Public and private leaders have aligned around shared priorities, turning tourism and aerospace into major economic drivers alongside logistics, advanced manufacturing, and quality-of-place investment.
During the exchange, participants examined four key areas of Charleston’s regional strategy:
- Tourism and aerospace as economic development engines
- Long-term regional vision planning
- Adaptive reuse and large-scale redevelopment
- Downtown revitalization through Business Improvement Districts (BIDs)
The broader takeaway for the Fox Cities is less about replicating Charleston’s model than about the value of aligning leadership, institutions, and strategy around a shared regional vision that works across municipal boundaries while honoring each community’s identity. The Charleston Leadership Exchange gave Fox Cities leaders a close look at how a peer region has built something worth studying.
Charleston’s success didn’t come from any single initiative. It came from years of aligned leadership, consistent vision, and willingness to invest in the region’s assets (port infrastructure, tourism, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, and quality of place) all at once.
A few themes came through clearly. Economic competitiveness happens at the regional level, as companies and talent evaluate entire metropolitan ecosystems rather than individual municipalities. Second, long-term strategic planning and collaboration across sectors are what make big things actually happen. And investments in quality of place and infrastructure play a growing role in attracting talent, visitors, and investment.
For the Fox Cities, the exchange was a reminder that the region already has most of what it needs: a strong industrial base, engaged civic leadership, vibrant downtowns, and a genuine culture of collaboration.
The opportunity is to keep strengthening that alignment and sharpen a regional vision that can carry the Fox Cities forward. The Charleston exchange wasn’t about copying another region’s playbook. It was a chance to step back, see how others have done it, and think more clearly about our own path forward.