2026 State of Business Program
STATE OF BUSINESS 2026
Innovation, Economic Competitiveness, and the Path Forward
Join us for the Springfield Chamber of Commerce's annual State of Business program, a timely and engaging conversation on Oregon’s economic outlook, business climate, and policy landscape. This year’s program centers on how Oregon and the Southern Willamette Valley region are positioning themselves for long-term economic growth in an increasingly competitive national landscape, grounded in a clear-eyed look at the economic realities shaping business today.
Beginning with an economic outlook from John Tapogna, the program will frame the key trends, pressures, and competitive challenges facing Oregon’s economy, and what they signal for the path ahead.
With leadership from the Southern Willamette Valley Innovation Corridor (SWVIC) and the Governor’s Prosperity Council, the conversation will then move beyond identifying challenges to focusing on coordinated strategies for growth. The program will explore how innovation, talent development, policy alignment, and regional collaboration intersect, and what that means for businesses of all sizes and sectors.
Program agenda:
- 7:00am. Networking: with decision-makers, business owners, and community leaders
- 7:30am. Welcome and sponsor remarks
- 7:45am. Economic outlook: a data-driven snapshot of where Oregon stands, with John Tapogna
- 8:15am. Featured conversation: a forward-looking discussion on innovation, policy, and regional alignment, with Karl Scholz and Tim Knopp
- 9:00am. Closing perspective: grounding the conversation in local business realities, with Stacy Koos, Senior Vice President and Market Development Officer of Summit Bank and Board chair of the Springfield Chamber
- 9:15am. Adjourn
Every year, the State of Business program brings together leading voices from the economic and advocacy arenas to share data-driven insights and actionable perspectives. This year’s program is shaping up to be particularly substantive, with participation from:
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John Tapogna |
Karl Scholz PANELIST President of the University of Oregon |
Tim Knopp PANELIST Governor’s Chief Prosperity Officer |
John Tapogna is President of the Oregon Business Council, a CEO-led organization representing many of Oregon’s largest employers and working to strengthen the state’s long-term economic competitiveness and prosperity. He previously served as President of ECOnorthwest and has spent nearly three decades advising governments, foundations, and business leaders on economic strategy and public policy. John currently focuses on several structural pressures shaping Oregon’s future—housing supply, education performance, wildfire management, tax competitiveness, and regulatory and land-use constraints. He also serves as Board Chair of Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Karl Scholz is in his third year as President at the U of O. He previously was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was an economics professor, directed the federally funded Institute for Research on Poverty, and served as the dean of the College of Letters & Science, Provost and briefly, as interim Chancellor. President Scholz has also served as an economic advisor in two presidential administrations, first as a senior staff member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors and then as a political appointee in the Treasury Department. His undergraduate studies were at Carleton College, Northfield Minnesota, where it dawned on him that his best future was perhaps not tied to basketball. He received his economics Ph.D. at Stanford.
Tim Knopp is the Chief Prosperity Officer for the State of Oregon. Knopp is a former small business owner and award winning legislator serving 18 years in the Oregon House and Senate. He spent 22 years at the Central Oregon Builders Association (COBA) as their Executive Vice President, leading COBA to become one of the most influential associations in Oregon.
