If everything is on schedule, by the time you read this the charter flight carrying nearly 200 of your colleagues and friends will have arrived in the nation’s capital for the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s #DMDC2019, the annual mass lobbying and collection of panel discussions, tours, banquets and receptions.

The first official event begins at 11 a.m. CDT with the opening luncheon featuring Partnership CEO Jay Byers and board Chairwoman Kathryn Kunert, with a keynote address by U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. After that it’s a series of briefings by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

Though the agenda this year is without the crooning and guitar-playing of Byers or anyone else who appeared at past talent shows, it is packed with face time with Iowa’s congressional delegation, panel discussions and briefings on housing, trade, health care, immigration, transportation and other topics, the traditional group photo on the steps of the Capitol, and keynotes from speakers such as U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who is a candidate for president. The New Yorker this week asked in print if Gillibrand is “Trump’s Kryptonite,” the same week the New York Times said in a report from Creston that when people ask the 2020 hopefuls if a woman can win, Gillibrand and others say, “I have.” Gillibrand famously announced her candidacy in front of the Trump International Hotel and Tower and is a champion of the #MeToo movement.

The agenda also includes a keynote by the co-authors of “Meet the Press: First Read,” Carrie Dann and Mark Murray of NBC News. 

Left off the agenda are many side meetings encouraging support of the proposed Des Moines airport terminal, the water trails project and other needs, chats in the hall and at the bar about a variety of topics, and important introductions among Greater Des Moines business leaders and important Washington, D.C., contacts. I’ll be along to provide coverage of the on-the-record parts of the trip for the Business Record.

The group returns Friday midday.

Here’s our story on the Partnership’s federal priorities.