Tags: ec, economic development, Friday Links

Tags: chairman, economic development, EDC Division

An article in this week’s Time highlights the emergence of Austin, Texas as one of the nation’s premier alternative energy and clean tech hubs. While the author plays up the political angle in this story – green tech in a red state – I read a shining example of smart economic development. Austin’s clean tech story is a lesson is effective cluster strategy, public private partnership, talented workforce, strong community and building off existing assets.  Here are key excerpts:

For Austin, high tech had to come before clean tech. The city has long been a science-and-technology hub, thanks to the presence of the sprawling main campus of the University of Texas, with a student body of 50,000. In the mid-1980s one of those students was Michael Dell, who founded his eponymous computer company in a University of Texas dorm room before moving Dell to a sprawling campus north of Austin. Around the same time, the federal government and U.S. semi-conductor manufacturers launched a research consortium — based in Austin — called Sematech, pooling public and private investment to compete with Japan, which was threatening to dominate the semiconductor industry.

Sematech and Dell helped create a high-tech boom in Austin through the 1990s, luring tens of thousands of talented engineers who came for the jobs and stayed for the Austin lifestyle … So as clean tech began to heat up in the early part of the past decade, Austin was a logical place for start-ups and entrepreneurs to set up shop. An experienced technical workforce was already available, ready to shift from manufacturing computer chips to building solar panels.

"We like the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and there's just a ton of talent here that you can't get in Illinois," says Joe Scarci, SolarBridge's vice president of marketing. "It's a great place to recruit."

Read the full article here.

Of course, none of this is news to the economic development team at the Austin Chamber of Commerce.  Clean energy is one of their focus industry segments.  They know that growth in the clean tech cluster is as much about smart strategy as good luck.  And they’ve been getting good press coverage about this for years.  Check out all the great info on their Clean Energy webpage, pay special attention to the Pecan Street Project.

Tags: alternative energy, clean tech, cluster strategy, economic development, green tech, public private partnership, talented workforce

No other trend in public policy, technology or industry will have as much impact on economic prosperity of your region over the coming decade as demographics.

Analysis of the 2010 Census done for Brookings’ State of Metropolitan America report shows that the country is growing slower, growing older, and becoming more diverse every year. Those trends may not surprise you, but the report also finds that we’re less mobile and that the median household is also less rich.

While some of the census findings may be exaggerated by the economic downturn, all of these demographic trends are interconnected. Understanding the connections and developing strategies to adapt to an older, more diverse population and workforce will likely widen the divide between prosperous regions and struggling ones over the coming years.

For a quick and dirty digest of key census findings, check out  Five Things the Census Revealed About America in 2011 from the Brookings Intuition.

For a deeper dive into this topic, check out the ACCE webinar “Baby Boomer Economy” featuring Ellen Cutter from Market Street Services.

Tags: census, demographics, diversity, equity, growth, population, workforce

Frequent ACCE blog readers may recall several posts from me last fall noting multiple examples of chamber and economic development entities merging forces. (For reference see HERE and HERE) In those posts I did everything but proclaim a national trend of chambers and economic development entities merging. There is a flip side to every coin.

Last week the Bradenton Herald reported that the Manatee Economic Development Corp. is no longer under the Manatee Chamber of Commerce umbrella and has become its own separate entity.  While it will have a new separate board and its own separate budget, the EDC will still be located in the chamber’s building, and the two organizations will still cooperate closely. 

Read more here.

Tags: economic development, mergers, organizational structure

In November, the Brookings Institution released an intriguing economic development report for Nevada titled Unify, Regionalize, Diversify.

The study highlights Nevada’s economic challenges, chiefly that it has been over-dependent on consumption sectors like tourism and home construction. But it also notes that Nevada’s key asset is an “overall business-friendly environment, including low taxes, relatively low costs, light regulation, and ease of business start-up/permitting.” I believe this is a testament to the ongoing public policy work of the Las Vegas Chamber.  

After performing a full SWOT analysis and examining strong potential growth sectors, the study’s authors identify three primary recommendations to boost growth and economic innovation in Nevada:

• Unify:  Install an operating state-wide system for 21st century economic development
• Regionalize:  Support smart sector strategies in the regions
• Diversify:  Set a platform for higher-value growth through innovation and global engagement

Sounds easy, right?

Digging deeper into the report, Kristin McMillan and the Las Vegas Chamber are already tackling many of the workforce and infrastructure challenges outlined in the report. They also plan to help feed the regionalized “bottoms up” approach recommended for a reworked economic development structure.  

Brookings has done similar business plans for the Puget Sound, Northeast Ohio and the Twin Cities.  If you’re not familiar with this work you should take a look.

Tags: business attraction, economic development, Las Vegas, Nevada, regionalism, strategic planning

The November issue of Site Selection magazine hit my desk last week with this cover story headline: Texas Tops the 2011 Business Climate Rankings. Kudos to Texas for earning the coveted top spot on a high profile list from a respected publication. Impressive job creation stats, sound tax climate and serious tort reform efforts; seems to me like the Lone Star State earned this one the hard way. Texas was trailed this year by 2) Georgia, 3) North Carolina and 4) Virginia.

The same four states occupy the top spots on CNBC’s 2011 Best States for Business ranking, but in a different order:  1) Virginia, 2) Texas, 3) North Carolina and 4) Georgia.  Forbes hasn’t updated its Best Business State rankings this year but in 2010 Utah took the top spot followed by Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado.

Best business tax climate, according to the Tax Foundation, is South Dakota. Best legal climate for business, according to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, is Delaware. Best educated workforce, according to CNN Money, is Massachusetts. I could go on and on.

A quick scan through ads in Site Selection (or many regional chamber websites) reveals just how much stock is placed in these kinds of rankings. Regions build their brands on them, politicians build their careers on them and business publications build their business plans on them. You better believe that when I win best husband, son, brother, and employee of the year, I'm having that magazine framed and sending a copy to everyone I know.

I think rankings are useful in determining how you benchmark your state or region against others. But you have to look at methodology for the ranking to have any meaning. The best is only the best because of the judging criteria, so if you're in the middle of the pack and want to move up you need to know what specific policies and practices to emulate. If your state is at the top, celebrate the successes that got you there but don't ignore your blind spots.

For a healthy dose of perspective about rankings and how we use them in the chamber/economic development profession, I suggest you read Mick Fleming’s article from the summer 2011 issue of Chamber Executive, "From Where I Stand: My Short List.”  My favorite line from that piece:

 “…the real problem with the media obsession with rankings—publishers, pollsters and pundits know that we don’t really care to hear the rest of the story. We want the digested, synthesized and, above all short, versions of news and analysis.”

Tags: business attraction, economic development, rankings; community branding, regional branding

The Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County in South Bend, IN announced last month that they will now lead business attraction efforts for the county. The move, jointly announced by the chamber and Project Future, the organization that previously performed this function, came after the head of Project Future accepted a role assisting innovation commercialization effort at the University of Notre Dame. Project Future will cease to exist starting January 1, 2012.

St. Joseph County Chamber president Jeff Rea said, “We are excited about these changes and believe they are in the best interests of both organizations and this community. This clarity and focus, the clear delineation of roles and responsibilities and the leveraging of key assets and resources, better position St. Joseph County for future prosperity.” The move creates a "one stop shop" for prospects and positions the chamber as the single point of contact for all business needs. The chamber previously led retention, expansion and workforce efforts.

“We still have a little heavy lifting to do," Rea added, "but it’s a move in the right direction and we really are seeing the community start to rally around the effort.”

Read more about the merger here.

This is the latest example in a growing list of recent chamber-ED mergers.  Check out this blog post for other recent mergers – Chamber ED Merger Talk on the Rise – and look for an extensive cover story on this topic in the winter issue of Chamber Executive magazine.

Tags: business attraction, merger, regional alignment, south bend

What can you learn in 2 days and 2 nights at a palatial estate in the Hudson Valley with a room full of smart, experienced regionalists? I'm sure glad I'm in a position to answer.

Last week I participated in a symposium on states and regions organized by the Citistates Group. The event was generously hosted by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and supported by the Carnegie Corporation and the William Penn Foundation. Citistates founders and 2009 ARS-John Parr Award Honorees Neil Pierce, Curtis Johnson and Farley Peters pulled together this ‘meeting of the regional minds’ to address one central challenge: metropolitan regions are the geography of the economy but not the geography of government.

Along with a couple of chamber leaders, I was joined by representatives from MPOs, COGs, universities, foundations, think tanks, and several former big city mayors. To articulate the professional accomplishments and accolades of this distinguished group of veteran practitioners and thinkers would easily run two hours or more. And it did. Thirty minutes into the introductions my suspicions were confirmed; I was the low man on the totem pole in both credentials and class. I just hoped a few of the collected IQ points might rub off on me.

From Wednesday evening through midday Friday we discussed and debated. What is the best structure to organize regional stakeholders? Can state governments help, or do they need to just get out of the way? Can you expect regional cooperation without a galvanizing crisis? Does the “ism” in regionalism turn people off? Can the Cardinals really come back with 2 outs and 2 strikes in the bottom of the ninth?

Scattered amid the discussion were some fantastic success stories from leaders in the field: Atlanta’s regional regulatory and infrastructure action to quickly solve an acute water crisis, Seattle’s alignment of two major ports and dozens of distinct municipalities to speak with a unified voice on international trade and investment recruitment. Don’t be surprised to see more detailed write ups of these success stories soon.

At the end of the day I left with renewed confidence in some core convictions about regional cooperation:

• Business leadership is essential to regional action. Business groups are the only entities with political leverage across the multiple jurisdictions that comprise a region.
• The outcome of regional action is far more important than the structure or governance of regional organization. As the Atlanta Chamber’s Sam Williams said, “Results and outcomes equal power and influence.”
• Someone has to provide neutral turf to get suspicious stakeholders together. Whether COG, MPO or chamber, the regional convener role is vital.

I also picked up a few concepts that, while not necessarily new, are now crystal clear and I'm likely to repeat:

• Economic competitiveness can be the great unifier for regions. The downturn has compounded our challenges but it has also provided a rallying point for individuals with different political affiliations and groups with different agendas – jobs, trade and investment.
• We’re all the same, but we’re not. There is plenty of head-nodding and “me too” expressions when someone describes the challenges facing his region, but the context is always unique. Orlando is not Cleveland is not San Diego, but they can learn a lot from each other’s experience. That’s why I think detailed success and failure stories are as important (if not more important) than models.
• Business can’t do it alone; it needs a strong public sector partner. I’m not just talking about public/private partnerships, I mean a visionary elected or appointed public sector leader willing to cross political divides and work with non-traditional allies for the common good. Almost every success story cited last week mentioned dynamic individual players from the public and private sectors. I should note here that Mick has said this to me dozens of times, but I really get it now.

Where does the learning and collected input from last week’s symposium go from here? I’ll leave that tough question in the capable hands of Neil, Curt and Farley. For me, I brought back a renewed conviction in the important role chambers must play as regional actors and the important role ACCE must play in equipping chambers with the information, connections and success stories to fulfill that role. Expect to see more…

How do you entertain a room full of 30-something Iowan transplants on a Thursday evening in Washington, D.C.? For the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the answer is simple: fresh pie, the Nadas and Templeton Rye. 

Last Thursday night I had the pleasure of joining a group of young professionals from all walks of life in a neighborhood in Northeast D.C. Most arrived as strangers but they shared a common link: Iowa. Granted, there were a few native Minnesotans and Nebraskans thrown in, but even they were Iowa-educated. 

They were drawn together by the Greater Des Moines Partnership-sponsored East Coast Living Room tour by the Nadas, a talented Des Moines-based rock band that has been a staple of the Midwest university scene since the mid ‘90s. The pie and rye (Templeton is distilled in Iowa) were gravy for the guests.

This is the second such Nadas tour the Greater Des Moines Partnership has helped throw. Last spring they did a West Coast train tour that inlcuded stops in Portland, Seattle and Spokane. Their goal: stanch talent drain by reminding native sons and daughters about the great professional and personal opportunities back home. For a talent-hungry region with low unemployment, is there any better strategy than luring returnees? Iowa housing prices alone would perk the ears of anyone living inside the beltway.

So what’s this North Carolinian's Iowa link?  I never turn down an invitation for drinks with Jay Byers.

Tags: Des Moines, events, Jay Byers, talent, workforce