Two important research reports about Northwest Arkansas will be shared Nov. 5 at an annual event put on in partnership by the University of Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas Council.

The Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, in collaboration with the Council, will share the findings in the eighth yearly State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report.

The other report, completed by researcher Greg Pogue of the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas, focuses on Northwest Arkansas entrepreneurship.

The luncheon where both reports will be shared starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Northwest Arkansas Board of Realtors Event Center, 314 N. Goad Springs Road in Lowell. Attendees may arrive at 10:45 a.m. for networking.

Reservations for the luncheon may be made online or by calling 479-575-4151.

Pogue is the deputy executive director and senior research scientist at the the IC2 Institute at the University of Texas. The institute is a “think-and-do tank” that explores factors that promote economic development and creates programs to promote good business practices around the world.

Pogue and his team at the IC2 Institute spent more than a year studying entrepreneurship in Northwest Arkansas. Pogue will share his final report, called “Innovate Again, Innovate Here,” at the luncheon. His Northwest Arkansas research and assessment was funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

The State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report was first published in 2011. University of Arkansas economist Mervin Jebaraj, director of the university’s Center for Business and Economic Research, will share the findings.

Jebaraj will outline the economic highlights in the State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report as well as economic data and statistics from the Center for Business and Economic Research’s Quarterly Business Analysis. The report is widely viewed as one of the best measures of performances compared to peer regions such as Madison, Wisconsin; Raleigh, North Carolina; Provo, Utah; Des Moines, Iowa; and Austin, Texas. The report published in 2018 is available on the business and economic research center’s website.

The cost for the program and luncheon is $45. Preregistration is required, and the deadline is Friday, Nov. 1.

Pictured at the top: Mervin Jebaraj, the director of the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research, talked at the State of the Northwest Arkansas Region Report luncheon in 2018 about how the region compares to places such as Des Moines, Madison and Durham-Chapel Hill. Those metropolitan areas are used as economic benchmarks for Northwest Arkansas.