Friday, March 28, 2003
Here's a good profile of Dennis Yablonsky Pennsylvania's new economic development secretary. He's typical of the new breed of EDPro that is coming into the field: a successful entrepreneur, skilled at innovation and business development.
Most EDPros taking leadership at the state and local level have developed their reputations with experience in business attraction. Their skill sets are related to marketing, land development, and incentive-based deal structuring. There's an important lesson in the shift. Political leaders will be valuing business development experience more highly in the future.
So, if you are an ambitious EDPro on the way up, make sure you get some experience in business development...working with incubators, start-up programs, university/industry initiatives.
(For another example of the shift, here's a bio of Tim Mueller, another former entrepreneur who heads Cleveland's economic development department.)
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.
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.