ANN ARBOR –The city and the University of Michigan’s hospitality and facilities won rave reviews from the nearly 2,000 electricians from across the nation who participated in the National Training Institute (NTI) program, held Aug. 1-7 on the U-M campus.

“What a great week,” said host IBEW Local 252 Business Manager Greg Stephens. “The participants were welcomed and warmly received, and I heard them constantly raving about how well they were treated and how friendly everybody was. They felt welcomed, they did their work, and it seems everybody had a good time.”

In April 2008, The National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee for the Electrical Industry (NJATC) announced that they were cutting their association with the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, where the week-long, train-the-trainers education program for union electricians in the U.S. and Canada had been held for 19 years.

Their new annual destination for the training program: the University of Michigan campus, which is currently sponsoring $1.3 billion in construction activity, and where projects are built 100 percent union. The same couldn’t be said of the Knoxville campus, where they didn’t exactly extend a hand of friendship to the IBEW sparkies: less than 10 percent of the electrical work done at their facilities is performed union.

“Beyond the construction contracts on campus, the City of Knoxville just refused to even acknowledge we were in town,” said NJATC Assistant Executive Director Rick Hecklinger. So the NJATC moved its 2,000 participants and estimated $5 million in local economic impact from Tennessee to Michigan.

“They wanted to come to a place where they felt welcome,” said Stephens. “That’s why they’re here.”

Hecklinger said the beautiful weather was a major factor for the group’s initial visit to Ann Arbor but everything else was positive, too. “I don’t think it could have possibly gone any better,” he said. “I heard compliment after compliment. Even other diners in restaurants who read that we were coming to town would see our people and welcome them to the area. I think the word is, we were ‘wowed.’ ”

He added: “We were in Knoxville for 19 years, and it really took a monstrous effort to move this program. They gave us their word in Ann Arbor that they would help us, and they really stood behind it.”

University of Michigan Director of Community Relations Jim Kosteva said participants in the National Training Institute courses would have a “campus experience” during their stay, with classes only a few minutes apart from each other and restaurants, shops and lodging blending in with the campus. Getting that slice of campus life was an important factor for the NJATC, Hecklinger said.

The Ann Arbor Convention and Visitors Bureau saw the opportunity in making a good first impression on people who wanted to come to Michigan, and helped throw out the welcome mat. Signs, banners and lapel pins welcomed the guests. Local restaurants and hotels got in on the act, with food specials offered during the week. A block party in downtown Ann Arbor was held Aug. 5 for the electricians, with music, motorcycles and plenty of eating options.

Gwen Brown of the convention and visitors bureau estimated that the visit by the electrical industry trainers created a $5 million impact on the community.

“I think they felt very welcome here, and I hope that they found a home,” said Brown. She pointed out that the IBEW educators took up a collection and donated $10,800 to Food Gatherers, a local food bank. “They gave back in a big way,” she said. “That was incredible; it was completely unexpected.”