Outlook Conway 2026

Outlook Conway

Thursday, May 28, 2025 | Windgate Center for Fine & Performing Arts

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AGENDA TITLE

TOPIC / EVENT

SPEAKERS / PRESENTATION

8:15 a.m.

Doors Open

Check-In & Refreshments

8:50 a.m.

Welcome & Opening Remarks

Brad Lacy, President/CEO Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation John Simmons, SVP and Regional Commercial Loan Manager Northern Market First Arkansas Bank & Trust

9:00 a.m.

The Arkansas Consumer and Current Retail Landscape

Steve Goode, Executive Director Arkansas Retailers Association Paul Rowton, President GES, Inc. David Hendrix Jr. Family Market Stores Moderator: Crystal Kemp, Chief Marketing Officer Conway Corporation

BREAK 9:55 a.m.

Central Arkansas’s Armed Services Economy

Brigadier General Olen (Chad) Bridges, Secretary of the AR Dept. of Military and the 55th Adjutant General of Arkansas Arkansas Department of Military Retired Brigadier General Charles Brown Jr., Director of Military Affairs Arkansas Economic Development Commission Colonel Katrina E. Smith, Commander, 19th Mission Support Group, 19th Airlift Wing Little Rock Air Force Base Colonel Nicholas R. Ihde, 85th Fighter Group Commander Ebbing Field Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, AR Moderator: Brad Hegeman, Vice Chair/Chief Strategy Officer Nabholz

BREAK 10:45 a.m.

Conway’s Data Center Ask Us Anything

Brad Lacy, President/CEO Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Jamie Gates, Executive Vice President Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Moderator: Mitch Bettis, Owner and President Arkansas Business Publishing Group

11:30 a.m.

Colliers State of the Market

Isaac Smith, President Colliers Arkansas Bill Pendergist, Vice President of Brokerage Colliers Arkansas Foster Pollock, Director of Development Colliers Arkansas Brad Lacy, President/CEO Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Jamie Gates, Executive Vice President Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Moderator: Mitch Bettis, Owner and President Arkansas Business Publishing Group

12:00 p.m.

Closing Remarks

PANEL DESCRIPTIONS If great opportunities were obvious, everyone would take advantage of them. The most successful leaders, businesses, and organizations can see things that others do not. They understand when there is more than meets the eye. This year’s Outlook Conway panels and programming will bring to the surface the operations, activities, and trends that most people don’t take the time or effort to see.

The Arkansas Consumer and Current Retail Landscape

Conway’s Data Center - Ask Us Anything

Panelists will touch on the current trends and behaviors affecting consumers today. Find out how household dollars and budgets are shifting in light of inflation and new ways to shop and pay.

The panel includes the Executive Director of Arkansas Retailers and two lead executives from generationally-owned retailers operating dozens of locations throughout Arkansas.

Last year a Fortune 100 company purchased approximately 700 acres in southwest Conway as the site for a potential hyperscale data center. In recent weeks, the heated national conversation about the impact of data centers on communities has been taking place in Conway. Participants in the site selection process will address questions from the audience.

Speakers Steve Goode, Executive Director Arkansas Retailers Association Paul Rowton, President GES, Inc. David Hendrix Jr., Family Market Stores Moderator Crystal Kemp, Chief Marketing Officer Conway Corporation

Central Arkansas’s Armed Services Economy Billions of dollars flow through Arkansas’s economy because of the multiple military installations located here. Learn how the missions of the Little Rock Air Force Base, Camp Robinson, and other Department of Defense operations employ thousands of Arkansans, attract visitors from around the world, and sustain local industries.

Speakers Brigadier General Olen (Chad) Bridges, Secretary of the AR Dept. of Military and the 55th Adjutant General of Arkansas Arkansas Department of Military Retired Brigadier General Charles Brown Jr., Director of Military Affairs Arkansas Economic Development Commission Colonel Katrina E. Smith, Commander, 19th Mission Support Group, 19th Airlift Wing Little Rock Air Force Base Colonel Nicholas R. Ihde, 85th Fighter Group Commander Ebbing Field Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, AR Moderator Brad Hegeman, Vice Chair/Chief Strategy Officer Nabholz

Speakers Brad Lacy, President/CEO Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Jamie Gates, Executive Vice President Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Moderator Mitch Bettis, Owner and President Arkansas Business Publishing Group

Colliers State of the Market Get exclusive insight into what the future holds for central Arkansas’s commercial real estate market from the state’s largest real estate firm. From warehouse to office to retail, these tenured real estate execs will share the current state of the market and tell us what to expect in the coming years.

Speakers Isaac Smith, President Colliers Arkansas Bill Pendergist, Vice President of Brokerage Colliers Arkansas Foster Pollock, Director of Development Colliers Arkansas Brad Lacy, President/CEO Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Jamie Gates, Executive Vice President Conway Area Chamber of Commerce/Conway Development Corporation Moderator Mitch Bettis, Owner & President Arkansas Business Publishing Group

SPEAKERS & BIOS

Mitch Bettis Arkansas Business Publishing Group

Brigadier General Olen (Chad) Bridges Arkansas Department of Military

Retired Brigadier General Charles Brown Jr. Arkansas Economic Development Commission

Jamie Gates Conway Area Chamber of Commerce Conway Development Corporation

Steve Goode Arkansas Retailers Association

Brad Hegeman Nabholz

Colonel Nicholas R. Ihde Ebbing Field Air National Guard Base in Fort

Crystal Kemp Conway Corporation

Brad Lacy Conway Area Chamber of Commerce Conway Development Corporation

Bill Pendergist Colliers Arkansas

Foster Pollock Colliers Arkansas

Colonel Katrina E. Smith Little Rock Air Force Base

SPEAKERS & BIOS

Not Pictured

Isaac Smith Colliers Arkansas

David Hendrix Jr. Family Market Stores

Not Pictured

Paul Rowton GES Inc.

Mitch Bettis Owner and president of Arkansas Business Publishing Group — the award-winning digital marketing and media company founded in 1995, and he is the owner and president of 360 West, a media and marketing company in Fort Worth. He has more than 30 years of experience in management and publishing. He manages the daily operations of a publishing company that produces more than 30 publications and a digital marketing company working with businesses across the United States. He also serves as the publisher of Arkansas Business, the state’s business magazine.

Brigadier General Olen (Chad) Bridges Serves as the 55th Adjutant General of Arkansas. He was appointed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2024. He brings more than three decades of military service to the position.

His operational career includes three deployments, most notably commanding the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team during a 2023-2024 mission in Germany. There, his unit trained 7,500 Ukrainian soldiers across 80 training iterations in partnership with more than 107 U.S. and international organizations.

He has served multiple tours at the Pentagon in senior advisory roles, including as the National Guard Bureau’s representative on the 2022 National Defense Strategy Core Development Team. He is a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Army War College and holds fellowships at MIT, Harvard Kennedy School, and Syracuse University.

His decorations also include the Distinguished Defense Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star Medal.

Retired Brigadier General Charles Brown Jr. Serves as Director of Military Affairs for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. There, he strengthens and sustains Arkansas’s five major military installations to drive economic growth in local communities and acts as the primary point of contact between the Arkansas government and the U.S. military on economic development projects.

His military career includes extensive ties to Arkansas, highlighted by his command of the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base from 2015 to 2017. His final posting was as chief of staff for Headquarters Air Mobility Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, which followed a tour as senior defense official and defense attache at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel.

He is a command pilot with more than 1,600 flight hours, including 300 combat hours. He is a graduate of the Naval War College, and a distinguished graduate of the Squadron Officer School and was a National Security Fellow at Harvard University in 2012.

Jamie Gates Serves as executive vice president of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce and the Conway Development Corporation.

SPEAKERS & BIOS Steve Goode Principal of Natural State Consulting and Strategies. As a former state director under Governor Hutchinson, Steve has extensive knowledge of state agencies and their practices. Following his return to the private sector he started Natural State Consulting and Strategies. Under Steve’s direction, Natural State focuses on relationship and coalition building to provide the best outcome for his clients’ issues. The Arkansas Retail Association and Arkansas Oil Marketers Association are clients of Natural State.

Brad Hegeman Vice chairman and chief strategy officer at Nabholz Construction. He is responsible for growing and diversifying the company through the development of new geographic markets and service offerings. As a member of the company’s executive management team, he helps drive the overall strategy and performance of the company and its 34 specialty groups that operate across the country.

Hegeman has been a long-time advocate for service members and their families. He works closely with local, state, and national leaders to develop policies to protect and grow Arkansas’s military installations and missions, and position Arkansas as a priority state in the national defense plan.

Hegeman serves as chair of the Arkansas Military Affairs Committee; is a commissioner on the Arkansas Veteran’s Commission; is a member of the Air Force Chief of Staff Civic Leader Board; and is a past chai of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council.

Colonel Nicholas R. Ihde Serves as the 85th Fighter Group Commander at Ebbing Field Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith. His team is essential for training F-35 Foreign Military Sales customers from Poland, Finland, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, Czechia, Greece, and Romania. He also leads an Air Force team that prepares pilots for agile combat employment operations that support the 33rd Fighter Wing mission.

He is a command pilot with more than 2,200 hours, primarily in the F-16 and F-35A. He has served as an F-35A and F-16 evaluator, instructor, weapons officer, and operational test pilot. He has multiple combat tours in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He is a graduate of the Squadron Officer School, U.S. Air Force Weapons School, Air Command and Staff College, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and MIT Sloan Executive Business Program.

His decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster.

Crystal Kemp Serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Conway Corp, a role she has held for eight years. She joined the company in 2000 as marketing and communications coordinator, later serving as manager of marketing and public relations before being promoted to her current position.

A graduate of Lyon College with a degree in media arts, Kemp previously worked for the Forrest City and Conway Area chambers of commerce. She currently serves as chair of the Mid-America Cable Telecommunications Association and as 2026 immediate past president of Arkansas Women in Power.

Kemp has been recognized by Cablefax as one of the telecommunications industry’s most powerful women in 2020, 2024, and 2025, earning Mentor of the Year honors in 2025. She was also named a Voice of Impact and Work Culture honoree in 2025.

Brad Lacy Serves as president and CEO of the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce and the Conway Development Corporation.

Bill Pendergist Vice president of brokerage with Colliers Arkansas. He is responsible for brokerage sales and leasing transactions in office, retail, industrial, land, and multi-family developments. He was a member of Colliers’ Everest Club in 2024 and 2025, recognizing the top 10% of brokers in the U.S. He joined Colliers in 2020.

SPEAKERS & BIOS Foster Pollock Foster Pollock is director of development at Colliers Arkansas with experience in commercial construction management, real estate development, business development, due diligence and architectural planning, and property management.

He has been with Colliers since 2024.

Colonel Katrina E. Smith Serves as commander of the 19th Mission Support Group, 19th Airlift Wing at the Little Rock Air Force Base. She leads 1,800 military and civilian personnel in six squadrons, directing operations for critical base and combat support functions for 12,000 military personnel and their families, plus 57,000 retirees.

She oversees contracting, communications, security, logistics, personnel, and civil engineering functions with assets valued at $2.9 billion, while providing $48 million in Base Operating Support across five wings and 20 tenant units.

Prior to her current role, she commanded the Defense Logistics Agency Aviation Team at Tinker Air Force Base. There, her 436-member team generated more than $920 million in annual revenue to support bomber and tanker aircraft maintenance.

Her decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and Meritorious Service Medal with six oak leaf clusters, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and the Iraq Campaign Medal with one bronze star. She is a graduate of the Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College, and has completed courses in air and space, enterprise logistics, and advanced logistics readiness.

Isaac Smith Serves as president of Colliers Arkansas where he specializes in investment properties. He is primarily responsible for leading the overall strategy of the firm and brokerage team. He has worked extensively with the CapRocq family of real estate funds, as well as Tempus Realty Partners, assisting in more than $1 billion in acquisitions since 2021.

Smith joined Colliers Arkansas in 2003 as a broker, became a principal in 2009, and was named president in 2017.

David Hendrix Jr. David Hendrix Jr. is the merchandising manager for Family Market Stores, which operates convenience and grocery locations in Central Arkansas. David has been part of his family’s business since 2005 and lives in Bryant, Arkansas.

Paul Rowton Paul Rowton, is president of GES Inc. GES operates nine Edwards Food Giant stores and six Edwards Cash Saver stores. He is also a partner in Fast Lane Markets LLC, which owns and operates convenience stores. In 2024, Rowton was named Arkansas Business Financial Executive of the Year. Rowton serves as chairman of the Arkansas Retailers and serves on the board of directors of the National Grocers Association.

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