Ingram's May 2024

2009 Dow Jones hits a 12- year low in March at 6,450—a 53 percent loss since 2007. Huge layoffs hit con struction sector; more than 30 percent of crafts- men lost in some trades. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is named secre tary of Health and Human Services.

2010 The region’s unemploy ment rate peaks at 9.3 percent in March, 2010— its post-recession high. Dodd-Frank banking reforms and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act bring new waves of regulation. Big XII Conference rocked by the departures of Nebraska and Colorado.

2011 Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opens. By a 3-1 ratio, voters in Kansas City agree to retain the city’s 1 per cent earnings tax. Google announces that Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan., will be the first to receive its ultra-high-speed Internet services.

RAINMAKERS 10/9/09 4:58 PM Page 1

WOMEN EXECUTIVES-KANSAS CITY | BANKING & FINANCIAL SERVICES QUARTERLY REPORT | LEGAL INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

KANSAS CITY’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Missouri and Texas A&M leave the Big XII for Southeastern Conference. Texas Christian and West Virginia replace them. Sporting Kansas City opens its new stadium in Wyandotte County’s Village West, a $200 million pro soccer venue hailed as the ultimate set ting for fan experience.

IngramsOnLine.com | October 2009

RAINMAKERS TOP PRODUCERS REFLECT ON KEYS TO SUCCESS Joe Freeman, Pioneer Services; Ken Block, Block Real Estate Services Susan McGreevy, Stinson Morrison & Hecker; Tracy Kenison, Freightquote.com Mike Valentine, Cerner Corp; Denise Bade, Lockton Companies Owen Buckley, LANE4 Property Group

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and Missouri have joined in ventures that cross the state line.

money in Kansas City these days, and the most popular, like Bazooka’s, have begun approaching the market in an upscale way. Forget the seedy topless bar image. Today’s nude “juice bars” (so-called be cause they don’t serve liquor) are known as “gentlemen’s clubs,” and their strip pers have become entertainers. Dirty bookstores have gone upmarket, too. At Ray’s Video on Main, for example, out-of-town newspapers sell alongside fetish newspapers. Owner Ray Cain says many of his best customers arrive in lim ousines—from Johnson County. Even some escort services (read: illegal pros titution rings) are advertising “upscale” services, promising the women who work there as much as $2,000 a week. Here and around the country, the sale of sex has become a trendy, billion-dollar business. 1997 You know the adage about the month of March and how its legendary winds of change have been known to rearrange the landscape. In this case, the landscape is the staff box over there to your left. You’ll notice that Show-Me Publishing is now listed as owner and that Joe Sweeney is listed as publisher. To be sure, there have been a number of changes going on inside Ingram’s these past few weeks. Most of the changes are imperceptible; they have more to do with legal points and transfer agreements than the actual printed product. If you are worrying about whether Ingram’s , the magazine, will become something less than the readable, informative, interest ing business publication that it has al ways been—don’t. I’m Joe Sweeney, and I like Ingram’s too much to change its spirit. Oh, we MARCH Publisher’s Note

might tweak it here and there. Massage the look, energize the content, adjust a few levers, turn a few valves. But by and large, this magazine will always look, feel and read like the Ingram’s you know. — Joe Sweeney, Ingram’s Publisher

MARCH Drawing the Line

A tax could alter our perception of the state line, the county lines, and the lines that divide our cities and towns, say some area residents, politicians, civic leaders, artists, and arts administrators. But not just any tax, a quarter-cent sales tax, a bistate tax for the five-county area that, if plans become reality, could create met ropolitan sodality, repair Union Station, support the first bistate cultural district in the country, and buttress the area’s cultural establishments and amenities. Approval of the tax would be historic. When Kansas City International Air- port opened 23 years ago, developers hoped the land around it would fill with homes and offices. That didn’t happen. The airport always seemed halfway to Iowa, sitting at the end of a long haul through miles of vacant land. Weathered for-lease signs hung on the few buildings that rose from the countryside, a testa ment to wishful thinking and a warning to those naive enough to believe, “If you build it, they will come.” Time, however, may finally be catch ing up with the airport and the area around it. Low lease rates have led some Kansas City businesses to relocate to the area, and large blocks of available office space have lured companies outside Kan sas City there. Today, the area’s occupan cy rate is 95 percent. 1996 NOVEMBER Unzipped Plenty of sex businesses want to make SEPTEMBER Critical Mass

JULY Start Your Engines

The race is on. Kansas has the early lead and Missouri is scrambling to catch up. After recently passing a measure to allow for public financing, Kansas could be the host state for a motorsports super speedway in the Kansas City area. Missouri defeated a similar measure but, not to be outdone, has also promised to offer incen tives to International Speedway Corp., a Florida-based builder of race tracks. The prize is a 1.5-mile, multi-purpose race track that would, according to fig ures compiled for ISC, generate millions of dollars for the local economy. Madison Avenue, move over—Kansas City is making its share of noise on the na tional advertising scene. It used to be that an advertiser seeking help would look for an agency located near a big body of wa ter, say for instance, the Atlantic or Pacific oceans or Lake Michigan. That’s no longer true because here in the Midwest, Kansas City advertising has burst onto the nation al landscape like a shooting star. It is now considered one of the coun try’s fastest-growing advertising commu nities, according to both trade associa tions and industry consultants. 1998 FEBRUARY Kansas City’s Future Comes Into FOCUS The curious have come from as far OCTOBER KC’s Ad Agency Boom

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Kansas City’s Business Media

May 2024