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Web sites that build a sense of community
Monday, September 30, 2002 Not all web sites are designed for marketing. Some good ones build a sense of connection and direction. Humbolt County, CA has a simple web site for its Economic Development Forum. It reveals a clear, focused and realistic economic strategy. It talks abou tthe New Economy and clusters, but it avoids a lot of the gibberish that often accompanies those terms. While the On-Line Advocacy feature is a little clunky, it's heading in the right direction. Go posted by Ed | International R&D networks We are beginning to see more global connections in research and development. Representatives of perhaps two dozen Israeli high-tech companies have been invited to come to Blacksburg and Roanoke, Virginia next month in search of capital to launch operations.The ones that attract financing will move into Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center, where they will refine their products for the U.S. market and join Tech in joint research projects. Once they expand, they will move into nearby industrial parks. Virginia Tech is a leading campus for business development. The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center will start construction in the spring on a $5.8 million small business incubator to launch high-tech companies.The project will be partially funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration; the Virginia Tech Foundation will pay for the rest. Learn more about Virginia Tech's relationships with business. Go Here's another example of how international R&D partnerships are forming. An Israeli biotech incubator has started operations in Singapore. Singapore has already established four "foreign" incubators with Germany, China, India and New Zealand. Go posted by Ed | Canada's innovation strategy Sunday, September 29, 2002 Sometimes we gain some real insight when we look outside. It is certainly true with economic development. Some of the most important new directions are not being defined by Silicon Valley or the Boston's Route 128. (After all, how hard could it be to innovate with nationally ranked research universities in your back yard?) Instead, some of the best approaches to economic development in the Knowledge Economy are being defined in places like Ireland, Finland, Scotland and, yes, Canada. If you are interested in getting some sense of this trend, you can spend time on Canada's new innovation strategy web site. Here, you'll find two very good reports. One that focuses on innovation strategy from the perspective of industry. The second from the perspective of human capital. posted by Ed | Report from Beijing: 2 Think the U.S. lead in software is unassailable? Think again. With U.S. companies looking to cut costs, more and more are deciding to outsource their software development needs offshore. When they do, there are literally hundreds of service providers in dozens of countries competing for their business. In Asia, dynamic software centers have emerged in India, China, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. India has long been the favored destination for companies seeking to outsource. The reasons are clear: it has a deep pool of programming talent, a wide range of expertise in both software and hardware design, and the ability to handle complex projects at relatively low cost. Project management and English language skills are strong. But now China is moving to catch up. Industry analysts predict that China will be the largest IT outsourcing country by 2007. China has an estimated 200,000 professionals in the software exporting industry, with another 50,000 graduates entering the workforce each year. Software parks have been set up in centers such as Pudong (Shanghai), Dalian, Xi’an and Chengdu. U.S. investors can qualify for rent-free office space and sweeping tax breaks. Special offices have been set up to help foreign IT firms obtain business licences. What does all this mean for EDPros? The world our children will grow old in will be vastly different from the world of today. Global networks will grow. Now is the time to plant seeds in your communities. Encourage a sister city program. Learn more. (See how one small town in North Carolina has done it.) Celebrate international programs at your schools and encourage student exchanges. Support foreign language instruction. Get involved in international travel. The seeds you plant today are likely to grow into big tress indeed. Go posted by Ed | Report from Beijing: 1 Saturday, September 28, 2002 In the next couple of weeks, I will be reporting from Beijing and Tokyo. From this vantage point, I will give EDPros an insight into global competition -- the type of competition that is shaping all of our economies now. One of the most remarkable developments I have come across is the speed with which commercial relationships between India and China are developing. Incredibly, the first ever commercial airline flight between India and China only took place in March this year. A remarkable development between the world's two most populous nations, with a combined citizenship of more than 2.5 billion. The distrust between the wo runs deep for both cultural and geo-political reasons. In recent years, the chill has begun to thaw, to the extent that New Delhi and Beijing now extol one another as partners. The commercial implications of these developments are hard to guage, but they will certainly be profound. Take the possibilities in information technology, an industry that we in the U.S. like to think we lead. India recently surpassed Ireland as the prime software-outsourcing destination of the world - a position that it wants to retain - and Indian companies have won a reputation for low-cost, high-quality software delivery. China's strength is in hardware with exports of $26.4 billion. Recently, Chinese premier Zhu Rongji painted the picture. During a recent visit to India, he told his hosts that together China and India could dominate the world's information technology markets. "You are number one in terms of software, we are number one in terms of hardware ... together we can make the world's number one," he said. What does this mean for EDPros? It means four things: 1) Expect continued global pressure on your industries, even those leading edge businesses (like IT) that we have felt were unassailable. This means that business retention and expansion programs are going to become even more critical in the years ahead; 2) Actively participate in a regional economic development strategy that put industrial innovation -- including university research and university/business ties -- at the center; 3) Get more comfortable thinking in global terms. The easiest way is to add a foreign newspaper to your regular reading. Choose something like the BBC, the International Herald Tribune, the Financial Times, the Singapore Business Journal; and finally 4) Build global commerical ties any way you can. Get friendly with local colletge and university faculty, so you can gain a window on these global developments through local colleges and universities. Students and faculty can open you to new ideas for commercial ties. Encourage these international exchanges to expand. (You can even start a "sister city" program.) More on these issues later. Go posted by Ed | Minnesota's new entrepreneurs Minnesota is finding that a small segment of workers laid off from their jobs are interested in starting a business. The proportion is relatively small -- about 10% -- but it underscores an important point. EDPros faced with major layoffs or a plant closing should make sure that worker adjustments include a screening for potential entrepreneurs. (This is not elaborate...all we only need to ask, "Are you interested in starting a business?") Once EDPros identify dislocated workers interested in starting a business, we can move these people into entrepreneurship networks. The authors of the rport estimate that workers involved in mass layoffs in Minnesota have started more than 400 businesses. Download the report. Go posted by Ed | Tennessee calls for regional approaches to biotech Friday, September 27, 2002 That's one of the conclusions of Tennessee Biotechnology Task Force, which released its strategic plan this week. The Task Force recommends establishing centers of excellence in biotechnology in several areas of the state, improvements in the state's educational systems, standardization of technology transfer from research institutions, and effective incentives for business development. Central to the report’s findings is a call for Tennessee to enter into cooperative arrangements with centers of excellence in neighboring states in order to create a regional magnet for capital, talent and research funding. Go You can download the task force summary here. posted by Ed | Iowa's strategy to build entrepreneurship Thursday, September 26, 2002 Iowa's new entrepreneurial strategy is getting off the ground. Spurred by the passage of four pieces of legislation to encourage venture capital formation, the strategy is designed to send "a strong message that we are a state that encourages entrepreneurial minds to be a part of our future," according to the governor. One particularly impressive feature about Iowa's approach is connecting a potential source of venture capiutal (insurance companies) with a delivery system (the Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers that are connected with state schools in Ames, Cedar Falls, Iowa City and Mason City). The problem in Iowa -- as in most states -- occurs even before entrepreneurs get to the level of formal venture capital investment. By that stage, business development is already fairly far along the track: a basic management team with a legal structure and accounting controls is in place, the prototype business model has been tested. Read more. Go posted by Ed | Update on Chrysler's van plant Wednesday, September 25, 2002 Jacksonville, Fla., Charleston, S.C., and Savannah, Ga. are on the short list of potential sites for production of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter cargo van. Lockwood Greene is consulting on the project. Learn more. Go Last week, the South Carolina Coordinating Council for Economic Development passed a resolution to provide $2.5 million for clearing and grading a site in Berkeley County, near Charleston. for the plant. Daimler Chrysler is considering the 1,500 acre site for the 700 million dollar van manufacturing plant. posted by Ed | Report on manufacturing in upstate New York misses the mark Manufacturing remains an essential foundation of New York's upstate economy, according to a new report. It argues that New York needs more state-level policy changes to keep manufacturing competitive. The report is right in its basic message: manufacturing is not dead. People who think it is ignore basic facts. Commentators spend too much time focusing on the decline in manufacturing jobs, and they fail to understand the remarkable increase in manufacturing productivity over the past two decades. That means that each manufacturing job is generating far more income (for both workers and owners). The real key to understanding manufacturing is focusing on productivity (value added per employee). The report also misses a big opportunity to focus on the importance of developing manufacturing skills among high school students. One of the biggest challenges facing upstate New York (and elsewhere) is the lack of skilled manufacturing workers. This report only mentions the problem in passing. Take the case of Corning. In the "go-go" 90's, when telecomm companies were building fiber optic networks out the wazoo, the company expanded outside its base in upstate New York. Why? Labor shortages. Addressing this problem takes time, and it is far harder than telling state legislators to keep taxes low. But some manufacturers are making progress. (See, for example, how manufacturers in Kentucky have developed manufacturing skill standards for high school students. Go) Read a summary of the New York report. Go Download a copy. Go posted by Ed | St. Joseph's new web site Add St. Joseph, MO to the list of communities that have recently redesigned their web sites. The Chamber decided to make the investment in recognition that a growing number of companies are using the web to develop their short list for site selection. They refer specifically to Progressive Moulded Products, based in Concord, Ontario. In searching for a location for a new manufactuing facility, the company used Internet sites to pare down its list of finalists to three communities in the Kansas City area. Learn more about the background. Go The new St. Joseph site shares several characteristics with other recently designed sites. The home page is tightly designed to provide quick access to three different "channels": information for members, information for site selectors, information for people visiting or relocating. (See the panels across the top.) Quick links move people to the most requested pages. One good feature: instructions on how to use the site. This provides a short description of the major sections. It also establishes a relationship with the reader and invites comments in a meaningful way. posted by Ed | New report on broadband Tuesday, September 24, 2002 For EDPros interested in telecommunications, the Department of Commerce has released a new report on broadband demand. This short report (25 pages) provides EDPros with a good overview of an emerging infrastructure issue. Much like the railroads, telephone lines, and utilities shaped the Industrial Age, the Internet -- broadband and then, later, Internet2 -- will shape the Knowledge Economy. According to the report, "Broadband -- high-speed, always on Internet connectivity -- represents the next phase in the evolution of the Internet. Most experts predict broadband will enable applications and services that transform our economy, education, health-care, R&D, homeland security, military effectiveness, entertainment, government and the qualilty of life for citizens around the world. The deployment and usage of broadband will significantly impact the global competitiveness of nations and the businesses of the future." Download a copy. Go You can also read more about the potential impact of broadband in George Gilder's book, Telecosm. posted by Ed | New strategy in Great Falls Great Falls, MT has been working on a new strategic marketing plan for the past year. Designed by Wadley-Donovan, the plan calls for targeted marketing to a small range of targets, including administrative support centers, customer support centers, and quick-delivery distribution centers. Development Counsellors International (DCI) is assisting on the implementation. Read the details. Go posted by Ed | Talent magnet strategies Sunday, September 22, 2002 EDPros are going to start to hear more about "talent magnet strategies". This idea has been developed and promoted by Richard Florida at Carnegie Mellon University. He summarizes his thinking in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class. Memphis is one of the first communities to sieze on this approach as an economic development strategy. You can download their "talent magnet" report. Go Memphis business leaders surveyed by the Chamber overwhelmingly support this approach. Florida is pushing this notion as well through his own web site. There, you can see how metro areas rank. Go Effective EDPros need both to think comprehensively and to act incrementally. Florida is a good comprehensive thinker, but he does not provide enough practical hooks yet to guide us in acting incrementally. (Hopefully, these will follow in his subsequent work.) Instead, he relies on simplistic formulas. He tells communities that they need three "T's": technology, talent and tolerance. OK. What's next? posted by Ed | EDPros shift to retention Saturday, September 21, 2002 Like many EDPros around the country, those in the Bay area are shifting the focus of their efforts to retention. The problem for EDPros is this: retention is a complex process, and it is often difficult to see the forest from the trees. If you are working on a retention program, keep an eye on Oakland. They are preparing a new retention strategy that will focus on the needs of targeted industries that employ the most people or hold the greatest promise for growth. The city is holding a focus group this month with business leaders to refine its plans prior to unveiling the program in October. Read more. Go In Maryland, EDPros launched Maryland Advantage this week. It is a campaign to retain Maryland businesses. The program will be run as a pilot in three counties in the western part of the state. Learn more. Go posted by Ed | Occupational wages, 2001 Friday, September 20, 2002 The Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its national compensation survey for occupations. Glancing through the report will give you some good numbers to keep in your head. Earnings averaged $16.23 per hour for all occupations. Average wages are lower for private industry ($15.46) than for government employees ($20.56). (Part of the difference is due to the different occupational mix in the puublic sector...there are relatively more technicians/professionals/managers in government.) Service workers earn just under $10 per hour ($9.86). Download a copy. Go Supplementary tables are also available. Go posted by Ed | Toyota update News on the Toyota plant is heating up. Here's a summary. The company wants 1,000 acres of relatively flat land with access to rail and major highways. The stakes are high. According to Tennessee's economic models, 2,500 jobs are created for every 1,000 auto assembly jobs. Toyota President Fujio Cho told reporters at an analysts conference in New York earlier this month that adding a fifth North American assembly plant would make sense once the company's sales rise above 2 million a year. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. sold 1.7 million cars and trucks under the Toyota and Lexus brands last year. Through August, sales were 4.1% higher than last year. A Toyota spokesman in Kentucky says that no ecision has been made to add a plant. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Hiroshi Okuda said last week, "One more plant is small talk, there will be more plants than one." But, as industry analysts have noted, company chairmen and presidents don't start talking in public about major production initiatives unless they have already made a decision to move ahead. Economic developers believe that Toyota has a short list that includes 3 sites near Memphis and one in Northen Alabama. The sites are in Jackson, Tenn.; Fackler, Ala.; Como, Miss.; and West Memphis, Ark. Politicians in Texas also believe they're in the hunt with a site near San Antonio in Bexar County. According to Automotive News, Toyota's site team is also looking at sites in Georgia, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. The competition is intense. Alabama officials have shown in the past they can make sites more attractive by piling on tax abatements, free land, worker training and other incentives. Alabama officials can point to Hyundai building a $1 billion plant in Montgomery, Honda undertaking a $425 million expansion in Lincoln and Mercedes in the midst of a $600 million expansion in Vance. Toyota chose Huntsville for a $220 million V-8 engine plant now under construction. Tennessee has its own automotive success stories, with Nissan and Saturn producing vehicles there. Mississippi beat Alabama to win a $930 million Nissan plant nearing completion near Jackson. One thing is certain. The competition will also be expensive. The cost per job to lure automakers to the South has risen dramatically over the past few years. In 1999, Alabama offered Honda about $68,000 per job for a 1,500-person van plant. In 2000, Mississippi paid Nissan about $74,000 per job for the first 4,000 jobs at the plant under construction near Canton. Earlier this year, Alabama offered South Korean automaker Hyundai $117,500 per job for a 2,000-job plant. posted by Ed | Iowa launches a community vitality center Thursday, September 19, 2002 Now here's a new idea. Iowa State University Extension and 20 leaders from across the state have launched a new statewide initiative called the Community Vitality Center. The Center is partially funded with a $268,600 grant from the federal government. The Board of the Center hopes that the organization will become a catalyst for innovative initiatives to build community vitality across the state. This sounds a little flaky until you dig deeper. Their first project is "Enhancing Entrepreneurship to Improve Iowa's Community Vitality". That's an important topic, and they are drilling into the tough issues by examining examine different approaches that communities may take in supporting and assisting entrepreneurs and start-up businesses. They won't stop there. Next, they'll select three communities and work with them to implement a development program to encourage entrepreneurship. Finally, they'll take the perspective of entrepreneurs and see if they can build more supportive networks. And that's only one topic. There are two others: "Integrating Rural Iowa into Iowa's Industry Cluster Strategy for Economic Development" and a project to identify best practices among fast growing, non-metro regions. This all sounds promising. Some practical people are driving the bus. Learn more. Go posted by Ed | Muncie's incubator strategy Muncie is implementing an incubator strategy by first focusing on the process and then on the building. This approach emphasizes a point that some EDPros forget: An incubator is not a real estate deal. A former executive with the Ball Corp. will manage the Muncie Innovation Connector. The Connector will evaluate business proposals and design a process of business development for the most promising. Real estate will come later. Ball State University, Ball Memorial Hospital and the city of Muncie sponsor the Connector. Aside from strong sponsors, the Connector has assembled a high powered advisory group. Learn more. Go posted by Ed | Buffalo's consolidation plan Wednesday, September 18, 2002 An outside consulting team has recommended that economic development organizations in the Buffalo Niagara region consolidate. The report recommends that the current system, which has more than 11 different economic development agencies in Erie County, be consolidated into one agency. Read about the report. Go There's only one probelm with this approach: it rarely works. Consolidation is a tough call in economic development. Each organization has its own funding sources, mandates, and political or member constituencies. Consulting teams with a private sector background often have difficulty understanding the dynamics within existing economic development networks. They want to rationalize them through hierarchies. People end up wasting a lot of time fighting these fights. A far better approach is to build more effective networks among existing organizations. Buffalo Niagara should be looking to Phoenix for inspiration. Look in particular at the remarkably strong ratings that stakeholders give to the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. Go What Buffalo needs, I suspect, is a stronger climate of trust. Trust comes with clarity about roles, shared understandings about differing needs, and a simple set of ground rules on how people will behave toward one another. posted by Ed | Albuquerque's new web site As I have mentioned before, EDPros need to know what a good web site looks like. Here's another one to review. Albuquerque Economic Development has launched a new web site targeted at site selection professionals. Go AED's management and consulting team designed the site explicitly as a marketing tool, and they appear to have done a thorough job of research and testing. The web developers tested the prototype with site selection consultants in Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago before launching it. EDPros can use this site as a benchmark to evaluate their own. Learn more on the background. Go posted by Ed | School-based enterprises Every year, thousands of high school students participate in school-based enterprises (SBEs). They build houses, publish books, run restaurants, produce original scientific research, staff child-care centers, and provide other goods and services under school sponsorship. EDPros should be promoting SBEs in our communities. Like teaching hospitals attached to medical schools, SBEs provide practical, project-based skills. Lee County in Northeast Mississippi has just established an SBE. It takes a commmitted faculty to start. Corporations are willing to support SBEs with donations. Read more. Go Schools are using SBEs to provide valuable school-to-career training. A high school in Portland, OR has an SBE that produces multi-media kiosks. A high school in Minnesota has a school-run lumberyard and a grocery store. Learn more. Go There is an SBE web site. Go An excellent book on SBEs is also available. Go Download a manual for starting SBEs that you can hand off to others in your community. Go posted by Ed | Louisville business looks at education Business leaders in Louisville are moving ahead with efforts to evaluate their school system, a step other communities should follow. About a month ago, the Brookings Institution issued a report on the future of Louisville. The report outlined a major weakness in low performing schools. Greater Louisville Inc. has responded by establishing a business-led task force to evaluate the schools. The task force will examine issues such as curriculum, low-performing schools, achievement gaps between races, dropout rates and how well the district is governed. We'll keep an eye on this initiative. It will likely provide a good model for how to forge stronger ties between the business and education leadership. Go posted by Ed | Milken releases technology report Tuesday, September 17, 2002 The Milken Institute has released its latest report on technology and economic growth. Milken compiles the state rankings and concludes that "Massachusetts, Colorado and California are in the best position to succeed in the technology-led information age". The problem with this, of course, is that technology-led economic growth is more a function of regions than states. The Milken report can have an impact on state policies (funding, primarily), though, and economic developers should not hesitate to push these arguments in their state associations. At the same time, keep in mind that innovation depends on so much more. Other important factors, for example, are entrepreneurial leadership within post-secondary institutions, local business development networks, and the quality of technology transfer policies. Scroll down to the end of the page to find the link to the full report. Go For some good background on the role univerisities play in technology-led economic development, see the recent report by the Southern Technology Council, Innovation U.: New University Roles in a Knowledge Economy. Go posted by Ed | The future of manufacturing An interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor shows the future of manufacturing in this country: smaller, more flexible factories, higher technology, more skills. Go posted by Ed | Chicago builds technology base Chicago's economic development program is shifting focus to new start-ups that are commercializing discoveries coming out of university labs and research centers. The incentives are the same, but the targets are different. Last year, a McKinsey study targeted biotechnology and nanotechnology as promising areas in which to focus. One proposal would provide $3 million in low-cost financing to Genomics USA to buy equipment to start production. The financing proposed for Genomics USA is tax-exempt industrial revenue bonds, issued by the city and purchased by private investors. Another would provide $1 million to a nanotechnology company. Learn more. Go posted by Ed | Tupelo turns to innovation The Community Development Foundation in Tupelo, MS stands as one of the leading economic development organizations in the South. Since its founding in 1948, the CDF has pioneered privately-led, publicly-supported economic development initiatives. In particular, the CDF has compiled an impressive record of manufacturing recruitment. So, it is significant that the CDF is shifting its attention to entrepreneurship: growing companies, not just recruiting them. The CDF, responding to its members, has launched a $2 million initiative to build an incubator in downtown Tupelo. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal recently published a good background article on the project. Go The CDF has put together a clear explanination of its incubator strategy that is available on its web site. Go posted by Ed | Hampton Roads' innovation strategy Monday, September 16, 2002 In strategy, only two questions really matter: What is your vision? and What is the next step? Building an innovation economy within a region requires a twenty year time horizon and some quick targets to sustain momentum. A lot depends on how your declare victory. For Hampton Roads, victories are coming in building technology transfer, expanding university cooperation, and building a sense of regional identity. Hampton Roads will be a good region to watch: they are making the right steps. Go posted by Ed | Smart Growth encourages cooperation Wisconsin's Smart Growth legislation calls for every community to develop a 20 year plan by 2010. One consequence of this legislation has been to encourage a more regional approach to economic development. Advance Business Center, the economic development arm of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce, pools countywide resources for the good of the region. Go posted by Ed | Jacksonville designing "intensive care" district Saturday, September 14, 2002 Jacksonville is moving ahead with a new economic development progam, an "intensive care" business district (although they will not call it that). To be eligible for the new incentives (which have not been defined yet) projects would be scored on the basis of several critieria. The current list includes: creating high-wage jobs, defined by one measure as those paying at least $34,600 a year; diversifying the area's economic and tax base; making a significant capital investment; improving a blighted area; or helping revitalize downtown. The level of incentives would be tied to the scoring. The plan will not be finalized until about November. Learn more. Go posted by Ed | Innovation in Western North Carolina Friday, September 13, 2002 Western North Carolina is making some big strides in building its entrepreneurial infrastructure in the region. AdvantageWest, the western North Carolina public/private economic development partnership, has launched the Mountain Council for Entrepreneurial Development. MCED will work closely with the Blue Ridge Angels Investor Network, or BRAIN, (www.blueridgeangels.org), the region's universities and colleges, private firms and local entrepreneurs. MCED will also partner with the Small Business and Technology Development Center (www.sbtdc.org), the Mountain Microenterprise Fund (www.mtnmicro.org), and local chambers of commerce to enhance entrepreneurial efforts already underway. Go posted by Ed | R&D in the South The Southern Technology Council has issued a report on the state of research and development in the South. Thirteen Southern states and Puerto Rico have seen increases since the early 1970s in federally performed research and university-performed research. But the South's share of national industry research and development is dropping. Industrial R&D, which accounts for about two-thirds of the total funding and three-quarters of the actual work, dropped in the South from a national market share of 8.8 percent in 1963 to 7.1 percent in 2000. The STC is a division of the Southern Growth Policies Board. You can download STC reports from their web site. Go posted by Ed | Arizona Technology Council launches Arizona launched the Arizona Technology Council last week. The Council is an outgrowth of a statewide software and Internet association. Read a news article. Go Visit the Arizona Tech Council web site. Go posted by Ed | Maryland's biotech base Thursday, September 12, 2002 About 25 percent of all Maryland bioscience entrepreneurs have ties to the Bethesda-based National Institutes of Health, according to a report released Tuesday by the Maryland Technology Development Corp. Go Learn more about Maryland's Technology Development Corporation. Go The main lesson here: places like Maryland have an inside track on biotech development. Biotech is different than other high technology, high growth industries. There is no Henry Ford, no Bill Gates in biotech. Why? Because the nature of the enterprise is different. The research, technology transfer, and business development networks are an order of magnitude more complex. posted by Ed | IEDC in Cincinnati Wednesday, September 11, 2002 IEDC's Jeff Finkle has advised Cincinnati to step up its market recruitment efforts. Comparable cities invest more than twice as much in marketing as Cincinnati. Other cities average $4.2 million, while Cincinnati invests $1.9 million, according to Finkle. Go Meanwhile, in Tennessee, both candidates for governor have outlined their economic development plans. Go posted by Ed | Goodwill industries workforce report Monday, September 09, 2002 Goodwill Industries has released a useful report on workforce development. Go posted by Ed | Southern Growth policy board reports The Southern Growth Policies Board has produced two reports, one on workforce and one on innovation. Both provide a useful context for economic developers, especially those concerned with state economic development policy. Go posted by Ed | Connecticut clusters site is a good intro Saturday, September 07, 2002 If you are confused about clusters, spend some time on the Connecticut ED site. They have perhaps the most detailed set of materials on clusters available in one place. Go You can find another good set of materials on the Department of Trade and Industry site in the UK. Go posted by Ed | Profile of an ED website Thursday, September 05, 2002 Designing a good ED web site is not a simple task. Too many sites are "brochure-ware", an electronic version of printed materials. From time to time, we'll point out sites that have it right. They pack a lot of information with easy navigation. They capture e-mail addresses, and they play down the Flash intros. EDPros need to know what makes a good web site, and the best way to learn is to look at some really good sites. Here's an example of an excellent ED website. Go posted by Mark | Follow Capitol Hill developments The National Congress for Community Economic Development does a good job of reporting on the latest from Capitol Hill. On the homepage, choose "Public Policy" from the menu on the left to see the latest Action Alerts. Or choose any of the other options for info on everything from funding sources to faith-based initiatives. Go posted by Ed | Conferences on innovation A bunch of promising conferences on innovation and entrepreneurship are coming up: The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds is holding a conference in Pittsburgh, PA on September 22 to 24. Go The State Science and Technology Institute is holding a conference on ‘Ôuilding Tech-Based Economies'. It will include more than 30 sessions on tech-based approaches to economic development. The conference will be in Dearborn, MI on October 2 and 3. Learn more. Go The National Business Incubation Association is holding its Fall training conference in Orlando on November 13 to 15. The sessions include 9 workshops on various aspects of business incubation. Go The Association of University Research Parks (AURP) is holding its annual confernece in New Orleans on October 30 to November 1. Download the conference brochure. Go posted by Ed | State incentives directory available Wednesday, September 04, 2002 The National Association of State Development Agencies has published its 2002 directory of state incentives. It's available on CD-ROM for $300, a fairly big chunk of change. It makes sense for state ED organizations to get a copy and review how their state stacks up. Go posted by Ed | How to project occupations Tuesday, September 03, 2002 In workforce development, economic developers are often at a loss to project the occupations that will be in demand in your region. The place to start is with the Occupational Employment estimates. These are compiled for metro areas. Go You can also look at state-wide occupational estimates. Go Look at the most general level first. One easy way to move through this information is to copy from your browser window and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet. posted by Ed | Guides to managing brands Managing brands for economic development and tourism is a tricky business. No one does it better than the Australians. Check out some of their brand guides and style manuals, all designed to develop and project a consistent image. Go posted by Ed | Good resource on work skills The National Association of Manufacturers provides helpful guidance on workforce issues through its Center for Workforce Success. The website includes a number of reports that give you some perspective on the shortage of manufacturing skills. Go posted by Ed | Learn about your clusters Monday, September 02, 2002 The Harvard Clusters project has published a powerful set of data for both states and metro areas. Use this site to get insights into the clusters that are operating in your regional economy. The data are presented in easy to read tables and charts. Learn more. Go posted by Ed | |
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