Saturday, September 09, 2006
The Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County follows an interesting focus: it specializes in small business turnarounds. Small businesses employ less than 200. Read more.
Interestingly, the local Workforce Investment Board funds the Collaborative's 911 business assistance program. Visit the web site here.
The Collaborative is guided by a twelve member board of directors, drawn from both the public and provatge sectors. Eaqually important, the Collaborative represents a partnershiop among the county government and different cities within the county. View the board.
One of the biggest challenges facing public sector economic development efforts -- like county economic development porgramws -- comes in connecting to the market (instead of blindly following political calculations). The Collaborative's structure is a good appraoch to connect public resources to market needs.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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.
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.
Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County
