FROM ADVANTAGE WEST (full release)
The AdvantageWest board of directors will meet for its regular bimonthly meeting on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 2 p.m. at the AdvantageWest offices, located at 134 Wright Brothers Way in Fletcher, adjacent to the Asheville Regional Airport. Board meetings are open to the public. For more information call AdvantageWest at (828) 687-7234.

AdvantageWest is the regional economic development partnership serving the 23 westernmost counties of North Carolina, a geographic area of nearly 10,000 square miles – larger than eight other U.S. states and roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Chartered by the state General Assembly in 1994, AdvantageWest is a nonprofit, public-private partnership.

AdvantageWest’s program of work focuses on: advanced manufacturing; Blue Ridge Food Ventures, a food business and natural products incubator and commercial kitchen; entrepreneurial development, including the Certified Entrepreneurial Communities® program; the green-collar and clean-energy jobs initiative, AdvantageGreen; and the Western North Carolina Film Commission. For more information, visit http://www.advantagewest.com.