In the City of Virginia Beach, the title of our strategic plan summarizes the intent of all we do as a city: we exist to create a Community for a Lifetime for our citizens. Our highly successful Department of Economic Development, distinguished among its peers as one of only 31 Accredited Economic Development Organizations by the International Economic Development Council, embraces this long-range goal as it recruits businesses throughout the world and assists with the expansion of its local business base. The high quality of services the department offers is augmented by the fact that it has a keen eye trained on the future. It is not simply the near future of five or ten years, but a future of economic vitality that lasts for generations to come.