Jobs such as those created by the coal fired power plant being considered for the region cannot be exported. While the legislation clearing the way for the plant has been passed and at least three companies are studying plant sites in the region, little public progress has been documented.

Dominion Power is a key player in that plan and company officials say it will be at least 2011 before such plant could begin electricity production.

Ike Prilliman of Norfolk Southern told the group that permitting regulations need to be eased to open new mining. He said it was time for coal operators "to take some risks and make some reinvestment."

"I would like to think longer term contracts will come," Prilliman said.

He predicted that coal availability will move the market. "The miners' holiday is going to put some eastern utilities in tight spots," he said, with mid-Atlantic power generation up 5 percent and some utilities already bringing coal from Wyoming.

In the meantime, economic developers are concentrating on what is coming available now.

"There's a lot more companies doing projects," said Charles Yates, executive director of the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority, or VCEDA. "The competition is still fierce, but we are going to have better opportunities than we've had the last two years."

Josh Lief, a lawyer and former Virginia secretary of commerce, told the authority's executive advisory board to learn from previous mistakes. Citing Travelosity's entry and rapid exit from Dickenson County, he said more needs to be done to assure companies' commitments to the region.

"We need more emphasis on job retention," Lief said. "If government is going to give company incentives, we need to string out those incentives, not give them all at once."

Lief also recommended looking at attracting small, even home-based businesses, instead of looking for a large number of jobs from a single employer. He cited the recent success in Utah using this strategy to obtain technology jobs - jobs he said, "that typically would be sent off shore," or overseas.

Yates says his authority has revamped its marketing efforts with face-to-face sales to the technology, wood products and automotive industries.

In addition, VCEDA has rebranded its marketing efforts to bring them all under a single name, dropping "Virginia Southwest Promise" in favor of "Virginia's Energy Region."

Yates said the new slogan, "Reflects the natural resource history of the region while focusing on the skill and ingenuity of the workforce for present and future industries."

"We face a constant challenge to add value to our natural resources," Yates said.

In August, the authority will join Gov. Mark Warner for an executive tour of the region, with Warner hosting the group at the Aug. 28 race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Forty-four suite seats have been obtained for that event.

That tour will be followed by an October VIP tour through the region for about a dozen business executives and their guests. The day-and-a-half tour will showcase the region's pro-business and quality of life attributes.

Despite efforts to diversify, coal remains an element in the region's overall economy. Recent upsurges in coal prices and the possibility of the new power plant have generated new interest in that traditional mainstay, officials noted.

Every job sector in the region has grown in the last 10 years with the exception of coal and manufacturing. There have been 6,000 mining jobs lost and 2,000 in manufacturing, including virtually all apparel manufacturing jobs.