Great event at the Hilton Mark Center, with the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce’s State of Business annual event. What we learned:
1 – “Bleisure” (business/leisure) is a key type of travel now popular with visitors to Alexandria (with tax receipts jumping this past year from visitor business)
2 – All recession indicators are real (per Truist) – but that doesn’t mean many paths ahead for resilience, innovation, OPEX focus, etc. (more to come from us soon on that)
3 – Recovery of “goods sold” business is generally decent, services are below trends – very problematic interest rates, and “choppy” tactical marketplace (stocks).
4 – Energy, health, industrial, consumer staples – most healthy sectors