Northeast Ohio will try regional marketing Wednesday, January 22, 2003 Chambers of commerce in Northeast Ohio have joined to form Team NEO, a regional marketing organization. Sponsors have secured $3.4 million in commitments over three years, and they hope to secure another $3.5 million. Team Neo includes the chambers in Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown, as well as other development groups. Don't hold your breath on this one. Regional marketing efforts are the toughest type of cooperation to pull off. First, you have to promote a strong brand. There's no clear understanding of what Northeast Ohio really mens. (Team NEO sounds meaningless.) And will the participant organizations -- the Akron Chamber, for example -- do away with their own marketing efforts? I don't think so. How will existing brands integrate? Next, you have to have procedures in place to handle prospects. This is very tricky. Cooperation is all fine and dandy in the abstract. But when there's a live prospect in the room.... Who decides which sites? Is there a hand off to existing organizations? And these siting procedures only work if there is a strong sense of trust among the participants. Finally, I'm not clear on why regional business leaders chose to focus on marketing to start. Building university collaboration makes more sense initially. Or, alternatively, focus on regional coordination of infrastructure issues. Present a single voice to legislators in Columbus. In short, this effort is unlikely to build the region's innovation economy. Read more posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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