Nov. 4—NORTH AUGUSTA — Hundreds of the Aiken-Augusta area's business leaders, military officers and other prominent residents spent a couple of hours Thursday meeting their neighbors and hearing some upbeat reports on the local economy.

Leading the program at North Augusta's municipal building was Terra Carroll, president and CEO of the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce, with help from her organization's corps of ambassadors. She estimated the attendance as 400 and was part of the effort to introduce business representatives from both sides of the Savannah River, as well as some of Fort Gordon's relatively new leadership.

"It is a mega-chamber event with nine different chambers in our region ... so it is an unbelievable undertaking by North Augusta, who is the sponsor this time," said Tom Clark, executive director of the CSRA Alliance for Fort Gordon. He noted that the businesses represented at Thursday's gathering were about 5,000 businesses and 50,000 people.

The South Carolina chambers of commerce represented, aside from North Augusta, were Aiken, Edgefield County, McCormick County and Midland Valley. Their Georgia counterparts, representing the western side of the river, were Thompson-McDuffie, Augusta Metro, Columbia County and Greater Augusta Black Chamber of Commerce.

Clark noted that similar gatherings to be held in the months ahead will have others of those eight chambers as the host organizations.

Briton Williams, North Augusta's mayor, helped provide the welcome and commended the various chambers for their collaboration. Gesturing toward the south, he said, "We have a river there. It's not a wall, and I think for us to be able to go on both sides and foster those types of relationships is fantastic."

He added, "Thank you for coming to our little town. I say that tongue in cheek. There are 270 municipalities in ... South Carolina. The city of North Augusta is now the 21st largest, so we're growing, which is pretty exciting. I would tell you, we have five gateways into the city of North Augusta. We are having growth in every one of those five gateways, and we see that continuing over the next 10 years, so it's an exciting time."

Williams, a financial advisor and longtime North Augusta Chamber of Commerce booster, said the Aiken-Augusta area's economy is strong and diversified, with such components as the Savannah River Site, a variety of manufacturing and banking operations and "a huge medical complex," as well as small businesses and a solid educational system.

"We are fostering a lot of economic incentive in this area, but the game changer for us is Fort Gordon, which is now the Cyber Center of Excellence," he said, citing $2.3 billion in annual economic impact. "It is going to drive how all of us can benefit."

Major sponsors of Thursday's event included Aiken Regional Medical Centers (which handled the catering), Alison South Marketing Group, Amentum, Budget Blinds and NextHome Realty Consultants.