If no one attending the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet was aware of the incredible journey of Horatio Nelson Jackson before the Thursday evening event, they were before it was over.

 

On a bet that he couldn't do it in fewer than 90 days, Jackson and a companion made the first ever cross-country trek by automobile from San Francisco to New York City in 1903 when the country sported only 150 miles of paved road and there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in existence. The car, by the way, had no windshield or roof.

Actually, Jackson, who set out to make the point that the automobile was soon to revolutionize the world, made the trip in 63 days and 12 hours.

Globalization in markets, technological advancements and demographic shifts will create even more change than the automobile, and Lafayette is well positioned to take advantage of the trends if it chooses, keynote speaker Tom Murphy told the crowd of several hundred gathered at the Cajundome. Whether it becomes a "world class" city or not, depends on the choices that politicians, business and

educational leaders make.

A former mayor of Pittsburgh, who helped lead that city through a decade-long transformation from a rust-belt capital with a declining population to a metropolis that is once again thriving, Murphy is well qualified to tell the audience how it was done.

The formation of public-private partnerships, which have plans, vision, the ability to raise funds and the willingness to take risk is how it starts, he added.

"You're already changing," Murphy said.

While the city had an 11 percent increase in manufacturing jobs, including those in the petroleum industry, between 1990 and 2010, health care and education saw more than a 100 percent increase in jobs.

Living habits are also changing, he said. Citing surveys that show the majority of people between the ages of 20 and 30 want to reside in urban areas, Murphy encouraged investment in downtown redevelopment.

Rebuilding or building a great city is all about how leaders put plans together and follow those plans, he stressed.

Wrapping up his speech with the analogy of the cross-country automobile trek, Murphy said, "You're like Horatio."

The chamber's new Chairwoman Flo Meadows, a CPA and Realtor with Coldwell Banker Pelican Real Estate said that 2011 would be "the year of stakeholder choices."

"When we galvanize, our doubts disappear, fears fade and mountains move," she said.

The banquet's agenda also included the Acadiana Innovation Awards.

Frank's Casing Crew and Rental Tools Inc. was the private-sector winner in recognition of its oilfield technology. UL's National Incident Management Systems and Advanced Technologies Institute won the public-sector honor. Better known as NIMSAT, it was conceived following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and its success in public-private partnerships has earned the attention of the National Emergency Management Association and the International Association of Emergency Managers.