One employee suggested inviting “DC-based site selection consultants who bring us active projects.” The names of all the potential guests were redacted, including a person one state official said was “thrilled to be included, but now has to be at the Pentagon and is not able to attend.”

The state’s Freedom of Information Act allows government agencies to keep the identities of business prospects secret to protect sensitive negotiations.

“VEDP does not comment on economic development projects, real or imagined,” Sandi McNinch, a lawyer for VEDP, said in a letter accompanying the records given to The Times-Dispatch.

The disclosure rules for the other guests are less clear.

McNinch’s letter said that the names of “state or local employees or officials” in attendance had been redacted because the agency had been told those guests “paid in full the cost of the tickets.”

“Since they paid their way in full, they were in effect, attending the event as private citizens,” McNinch said. “As to them, therefore, the list of their attendance is not a public record.”