Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Portland is trying to align its economic development strategies round sustainability. So, not surprisiingly, a privately-led recruitment effort is focused on a handful of clusters: renewable energy, green-building technology, recycling technology and environmental practices sectors.
Branding remains an important component of economic development, but branding needs to flow from the deeper strengths of the region. It is not a strategy that can be bolted on to existiing efforts. Rather, the brand experience needs to reflect concise values and deeper competitive strengths of a region.
A few months ago, Four County Economic Development Corp. changed their name to Greenlight Greater Portland. Now the group has hired its first full-time chief executive officer. Tim Priest is the former executive director of the Greater Washington Initiative (District of Columbia). Read more.
Learn more about Greenlight Greater Portland from their web site.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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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.
Greenlight Greater Portland gears up
