Sarah directed over 850 economic development leads that generated more than 290 on-site visitations, to secure over 70 recruitment and expansion projects announcing more than 5,900 new jobs and $760 million in capital investment.

One of Sarah’s accomplishments includes securing public-private funding for the $45 million redevelopment of a former tire manufacturing site into the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative. Additionally, she assembled over 85 percent of targeted surrounding property for development of the region’s first research park, while leveraging the growth of a 1,200-acre real estate portfolio to $38 million in value.

Fairfield has already done well attracting manufacturing operations and, because of the great water supply and state of the art sewage system, Karl believes that they are well situated to attract more such facilities.  Of course, they are also on the lookout for headquarters type projects that can benefit from Fairfield’s assets. 

Karl brings an extensive background in real estate and land development, as well as an appreciation for the role that government can play, to his economic development role.  As a home to Jelly Belly and Anheuser Busch InBev, the City can boast of two businesses that many of us would cherish, especially knowing that Jelly Belly offers one of the best facility tours in the US. Fairfield also has leveraged its proximity to the wine-growing regions surrounding it by developing businesses that support them…such as bottle manufacturers.

Fairfield combines a prime commercial real estate location, room for growing businesses, and a large and talented work force. Affordable housing, good schools and close proximity to many of the San Francisco Bay Area’s world-famous destinations make Fairfield attractive for employers and workers. 

Chris has been instrumental in the design of the Phoenix Renewable Energy Tax Credit Program and has directly assisted more than 76 companies in their expansions or relocations to Greater Phoenix.

Chris served as president & CEO of the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation (GYEDC) from 2006-2008. During that time, GYEDC helped 35 companies and 3,500 jobs locate in Greater Yuma, resulting in more than $350M of capital investment in the region.

In the interview, Chris shares thoughts on what skills are required to have a successful career as an economic developer, how the profession is changing and the challenges it faces to continue adding value to the community residents it serves.  Chris talks about the need to understand both industries and competitive locations at a much deeper level and the emergence of a consultative model approach among the most successful EDOs.

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council (GPEC) is one of the region’s premier economic development groups. GPEC has been working on behalf of businesses looking to relocate and expand – at absolutely no cost to the company – for nearly 25 years. They are a public-private partnership representing  Maricopa County, 23 communities throughout the region and more than 160 private investors.

• In-depth market data and analysis
• Site-selection services
• Connections to Arizona’s key leaders and companies

Chris is a winner of the DCI 40 Under 40 award that identifies rising stars in the economic development profession. He joined the Missouri Partnership in 2007 as the public-private, non-profit corporation’s first Chief Executive Officer; in addition to having led the organization through its initial start-up phase, Chris currently directs the Partnership’s efforts to market Missouri for new business investment and recruit new corporate operations to the state.

In this episode, Chris shares his perspective on what it is like to be an economic development professional, the current and future challenges facing the profession, and the role incentives play in structuring capital investment deals.

In this interview, Jay shares his perspective on what it takes to be successful as an economic development professional, how the profession is evolving, the changing role of and challenges with incentive packages, and the emerging issues the profession is facing to remain relevant.

Originally founded in 1957 by an act of the South Carolina General Assembly, the Sumter Development Board has taken on many forms and challenges throughout the years. The Development Board began operating independently in the mid-1990s as the lead economic development organization in the Sumter Community.

Funded by a three-way partnership of Sumter County Government, the City of Sumter and the Sumter Smarter Growth Initiative, the Development Board’s mission is to increase per capita income by creating jobs and luring capital investment to our community.

One of Clay’s accomplishments has been to attract more than 4,000 new jobs and  $350 million in capital investments. He was a winner of the Memphis Region State of Tennessee INCITE Business Accelerator grant to oversee suburban and rural entrepreneur and mentor outreach. In addition, Clay has facilitated the focus of state efforts on creating a skilled labor market for medical device manufactures, building an ecosystem to advance the development of new Life Science technology and start-up companies in Tennessee.

This podcast explores Clay’s perspective on what it takes to be a successful economic development professional, what the industry challenges are, the changing role of incentives and the importance of attracting and retaining skilled labor for communities to be competitive.

Erskine, a veteran of both the public and private sectors, leads a bureau that is responsible for the national economic development agenda and which is required to interact with numerous other agencies at the federal level in addition to its partners at the local and regional levels.

EDA’ s mission is to support local economic development initiatives around critical infrastructure,planning, and technical assistance. Through its headquarters and six regional offices, EDA has an impact all over the country, from Kansas and Oklahoma to New Bedford,MA, and it also has international reach working with the OECD and with Latin American leaders.  Erskine describes the balanced portfolio of resources and services EDA brings to bear on local efforts, and he stresses that localities have to be able and willing to put “skin in the game” in order to secure EDA help, whether in the form of strategic long-term seed capital or another resource.  Manufacturing is the one business sector that receives targeted assistance from EDA and Erskine provides examples of how the bureau is contributing to the perceived renaissance in US manufacturing.  Erskine explains how EDA is getting heavily involved in workforce initiatives and also talks about the symbiotic relationship EDA has with IEDC, with the latter helping to ensure that the federal government stays on the cutting edge of ideas in the field.

Matt S. Erskine 

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and Chief Operating Officer for the Economic Development Administration

Matt S. Erskine was appointed by President Obama to serve as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and Chief Operating Officer of the Economic Development Administration in September 2011.

Mr. Erskine brings more than 20 years of leadership and management experience in business, public sector, and public-private partnerships. Prior to joining the Obama Administration and the Department of Commerce, he led the private-public partnership driving economic development and foreign direct investment for the 5th largest metropolitan region in the U.S. and worked in senior roles at global business consulting firms.

Her passion is to understand and educate key stakeholders about the significant changes happening in these areas. Within these research areas, Christine has published hundreds of reports and articles, and conducted numerous presentations for local as well as international audiences. She also has regularly worked with and advised some of the largest technology and utility companies in the United States about the impact of policy and technology on the energy industry.

The Smart Regions Initiative identifies the immense opportunities that exist to develop and redevelop viable U.S. communities if we’re willing to embrace and develop sustainable cultures—and the roles that digitization and clean technologies can play in them. Sustainable, cutting-edge communities will become more attractive places to live, work and play for everyone—including young folks. 

The visions of in Initiative include:

• Developing connected and thriving U.S. regions that are economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.
• To bring the fuel and the fan to ignite the smart regions initiative…
• Bring together key stakeholders needed for success in the movement
• Provide ways for stakeholders to collaborate
• Gather and provide the information that stakeholders need
• Challenge assumptions about the movement
• Find ways around hurdles facing the success of the movement

Christine supports this professional experience with a master of city and regional planning from Cornell University, and a bachelor of science from Colorado State University.

Are Local Histories the Key To Better economic Development?

The subject came about as a result of an email from Mike Milkovich at LocalHistoryProductions.com a media production company out of Ohio. They interpret local history from two angles, “pride of place” and “economic development.”  Pride of place is for kids to feel proud of their community, economic development simply means to inspire kids to do great things with their life.  Dream, and pursue those dreams and believe you can accomplish them, as others have in your hometown.

Mike is in a unique position in that he produces local histories and designs them as an economic development piece that becomes part of a school’s curriculum. These high school curriculums become a feeder  system for economic development. This is what feeds college age and above people and those people are your target audience for Economic Development is a region.

More specifically, Mike says, social studies curriculum bear  the bulk of the responsibility feeding EDO’s the talent to start businesses and attend  college, etc. The history organizations are upset because most of the funding goes to other things politicians think are more important than civics. What they are “selling” is preservation, intellectual understanding, critical thinking, all important things in many minds but not to the politicians and their pocket books. In short, they haven’t tied local history to making money. What they haven’t done is tie local history to economic development and what Economic Developrs have failed to do is tie economic development to local history and the foundation of local money. When you do that, you get the whole community for a buy in. EDO’s focus on statistical analysis and methods that can be proven.

The true foundation of economic development is an individual, who starts something, like a business, art, invention, a school, a community, a farm. Successful people do things because they believe in themselves.

The Core Values of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) are social responsibility and dedication to building just and competitive communities, the creation of wealth, equity and diversity. The feeder system should teach kids exactly that – and it is easy to do. There are endless stories in every local history that teach social responsibility, creation of wealth, diversity, empowering women, courage, character, giving back to the community, the importance of education, self study and truly understanding freedom and responsibility. We do this as parents, why not in a local curriculum?

The vision of the IEDC is to make economic prosperity and sustainable economic development,  to enhance the image of the Economic Development profession and to encourage the development of new products and services. By encouraging Economic Development professionals to be a catalyst in bringing a local history to a local curriculum, he or she would be doing just that. Mike achnowledges that you need a of faith, there are no statistics that prove a connection between  local history and economic development. It’s never been studied or analyzed. But by teaching and motivating kids, they can connect to the past because it does create intellectual stimulation and kids listen to wisdom. There is no need to design a local history. EDO’s can be a leader, a catalyst.

If you went to the history people with this kind of idea you will get a segment of your population that loves their community and has money and influence. When it becomes part of the school curriculum, now you have credibility. The local Chamber of Commerce can keep every kid up to date with skills the community needs. This is a new tool and the design of it has unlimited potential. You won’t have to twist anyone’s arm in any community to “sell” it. All you have to do is learn more about it, just like any other tool.

In response to the article, several discussion groups took up the subject, Al Jones out of Billings Montana says this:

What consistently surprises me in local histories is the genuine pioneer spirit of many of the current residents’ ancestors a couple of generations back. You find the town’s big public facilities and often it’s large employers or innovative ventures were locally financed, everyday people stepped up and bought bonds and gave what they had to create the hospital, the school system, the water treatment plant, fairgrounds, processing factories, roads, sewer systems, etc.. It fades away with the Great Depression for many reasons, most importantly for about 50 years 50-100% of the cost of local public infrastructure projects including hospitals airports, highways, rural power plants, irrigation pumping systems, campus expansions, etc. could magically come from the federal government just through effective whining or more correctly stated as grantwriting, lobbying, speechifying-extremely low cost investments by the community.

While that got a lot done it meant people could sit back and wait for external sources to take care of their personal, local needs and that greatly atrophied the capacity you see in the previous generations in each community. Dependency both keeps the local human capital mostly unrealized potential and squandered on trivial projects (like street festivals to boost tourism or a day’s retail/dining sales, much like the medieval serfs’ many holidays that distracted them from their bleak lives but didn’t change them.)

Their ancestors spent the same time getting a sawmill built, a food processing plant for local crops built, a new mine financed and underway, a high school financed and begun, a local college created, an airport built…the local histories can point out the opportunity costs and how remarkably quickly big local things were built in the same time as now we allocate to just vaguely talking about maybe doing something someday.

Local histories reliably reveal this and can be used as a rallying call, if your great-grand-parents and their parents and their parents got this, this, and this built from scratch here themselves, with little cash, little time, little expertise, and little technology, why can’t we get big things done here now?” When you point out it’s without electricity, without trucks or power tools, without myriad financing sources/tools, without access to engineers or design software, without the Internet to research and find markets and suppliers, they start to see again how few barriers to their big hairy audacious goals are truly in place.

In another response, Ross Spalding says that he read the article and thought that

while the premise is good ,its unlikely to work until someone gets the educators to think the same way! In California for example, the public schools kids are not taught to embrace wealth, create new businesses or  industries in their communities .In fact they are taught the opposite. Everything is about saving  the environment at any cost..No compromise! Says Ross

Eric Davis, Coordinator, Strategic Workforce Development at Allen Economic Development Group points out that

not only are local histories important for Economic Developers “know the territory” but they are essential in helping tell the community story to current and incoming businesses and industries. History also helps cross the agency boundaries as Economic Development evolves into more than just smoke stack chasing.

If you’re interested in creating a plan of action to embrace Local History in your Economic Development plans contact Mike Milkovich at LocalHistoryProductions.com

Thanks to Ed Burghard and of course to Mike Milkovich for posing this question and everyone that responded with comments and discussion. I think this kind of innovative discussion can help drive the profession and stimulate regional growth. You can read the full article at: http://strengtheningbrandamerica.com/blog/2014/08/local-histories/

You can link to this Regional Business Talk podcast episode via: http://RegionalBusinessTalk.com/47