In this episode Dennis discusses the conundrum many economic development professionals find themselves in trying to deal with stakeholders on both sides of a controversial project. Some of these types of projects can incldue.

• The use of eminenet domain
• Utility franchise fees
• Utility rate cases for rate increases
• Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

Dennis offers some tips to help navigate these tricky waters.

• Enage your board of directors
• Host a neutral forum
• Communicate, communicate, communicate 

Responding to RFPs is a Team Sport

Dennis and Broderick discuss the sometimes intense process of responding to a request for a proposal with a tight deadline. RFPs many times come on short notice and successfully completing the RFP requires being prepared and having a team of rapid response partners. 

RFPs can come from a variety of sources

·       State ED

·       Site selectors

·       Utility partners

·       Rail partners

Being prepared

High-quality maps 

• Acreage, ownership, selling price, and location

·       Topography

·       Wetlands

·       Floodplains – We’re near the Mississippi River

·       Transportation access

·       Utilities

Make sure that you answer all of the questions

Develop relationships with your partners

• Utility providers
• Rail partners
• City and county officials
• COG/Regional Planning organization
• Environmental specialist 

We use the format required and requested

Always include a packet of supporting documentation

Import RFP takeaways

·       Be prepared

·       Have maps

·       Create a spreadsheet of information

·       Know who knows the answer

·       If you don’t know something say so

Friend of the show Mark Perna joins Dennis and they discuss Mark's experience in taking the IEDC Basic Economic Development Course in Nashville. 

• Why did Mark Perna decide to take the IEDC Basic Economic Development Class?
• What was Mark's impression of the class?
• How can the IEDC Basic ED Course help others better understand economic development? 

“Making semiconductor chips in Upstate New York” with Develop This! Contributing Correspondent Sean Maguire and guest Nick Bruno from MV EDGE.

Sean and Nick discuss their love of Utica and semiconductor projects in upstate New York

1. Tomato pie, chicken riggies, and Utica Club beer
2. How’d you get here?
3. How did you get into semiconductor work?
4. Overview of Wolfspeed in Marcy/Utica
5. How did the work in Albany set the stage for Wolfspeed? 
6. How does Wolfspeed fit into the Micron investment in Syracuse?
7. What went well? What was right?
8. What would you improve if you had the chance to do it all over again?

Economic Gardening: No Green Thumb Needed  

Economic Gardening is an economic development model that embraces the idea that entrepreneurs drive economies and places a laser-like focus on creating jobs by supporting existing companies in a community. It originated in the late 80s in Littleton, CO when the state was in a recession and the community lost a major employer. Local leaders realized that only a small percentage of all companies were “high growth” but those companies were creating the majority of new jobs. 

Since 1989, Littleton (current population 45,000), has added 15,000+ jobs, with no incentives.

Dennis is joined by Mark Perna and they discuss how economic development professionals can help our business and industry partners connect with students. In a time of full employment, worker shortages, and a skills gap business and industry partners are increasingly looking to economic development professionals to help bridge the gap with their future workforce.

There is an increase in job fairs, career expos, and career exploration events. A company's approach to these events can make or break a business's recruiting efforts.  Dennis and Mark discuss best practices and ways to help foster an understanding of today's generation of workers. 

Connect with Mark Perna

Nathan Ohle – President and CEO of IEDC

Economic Recovery Corps - Program launched on May 11th

The Economic Recovery Corps Program (ERC) is a multi-year, $30 million collaborative initiative designed to accelerate recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in distressed communities and regions throughout the U.S. by connecting organizations with the talent and capacity needed to advance new ways of doing economic development that promote economic resilience and transformative change. 

The ERC is funded by the Economic Development Administration (EDA) under the CARES Act and led by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in partnership with six leading national organizations: Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), International City/County Management Association (ICMA), National Association of Counties Research Foundation (NACo RF), National Association of Development Organizations Research Foundation (NADO RF), National League of Cities Institute (NLCI), and RAIN Catalysts.

Two Main Goals:

Build capacity in under resourced communities or regions to accelerate their economic development work and drive more equitable economic outcomes

To build a pipeline of the next generation of economic development leaders

Why This Initiative? Why Now? 

The Economic Recovery Corps was created to address long-standing economic issues in America that came into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for historically underserved populations and communities, which led to vastly different outcomes that continue to impact recovery efforts. Economic development approaches have and will continue to pivot in the coming years, and to ensure that communities do not get left further behind, new approaches to building capacity are necessary.

About the Program

To meet this moment, IEDC and its partners are building a nationwide corps of diverse, cross-sector talent with the skills and expertise to help activate regional economic development strategies that promote connectivity, innovation, and knowledge-sharing between urban, rural, and tribal areas across the U.S. Over the course of the 2.5-year (30 month) fellowship, selected host organizations will receive technical assistance, planning, and capacity-building support from an ERC Fellow who will be based in their community or region. 

IEDC and its partners will place up to 65 Economic Recovery Corps (ERC) Fellows in economic development and related organizations in under resourced communities throughout the nation. Hosts will reflect the entire community and economic development field spectrum, from city and county government to regional coalitions, economic development organizations, economic development districts (EDDs), and entrepreneurial technical assistance providers. Fellows will be highly-trained early to mid-career professionals, equipped to help identify and advance innovative, locally-driven initiatives to build stronger, more resilient, and inclusive economies. 

This new initiative has the potential to shift the practice of economic development nationwide in an unprecedented manner — by centering the concerns of under-resourced regions while simultaneously investing in a cohort of diverse practitioners and leaders equipped with the skills necessary to usher in a new era of economic prosperity that is equitable and sustainable. 

2023 Economic Development Week – May 8 - 12, 2023

In this episode, Dennis and Broderick discuss Economic Development Week and why economic developers are not always great at telling their stories. 

Economic Development Week gives economic development professionals a platform to showcase to their community the contributions made to their local economy throughout the year.

• Utilize IEDC’s toolkit to help support your message and increase your impact

Economic Development Week was created by IEDC in 2016 to increase awareness of local programs that create jobs, advance career development opportunities, and improve the quality of life in communities everywhere.

• Are you looking to promote Economic Development within your community?
• Why do you think we are sometimes hesitant to tell our story or blow our own horn?
• Whose job is it to tell our story?
• Every business, company, and organization has a reputation….do you know what yours is?
• We must control our own narrative

Goals of Economic Development Week

• Articulate: Voice the value of your contributions to your local economy
• Organize: Build a base of support within your community for the work of your ED
• Show and Tell: Emphasize the importance of economic development through tangible examples and peer case studies
• Amplify: Spread your message and increase the exposure of all the good work your EDO does throughout the year

     Prepare to get in the game in 2024!

Walking the Economic Development Tightrope

For many of us, there has been a fundamental shift in how we approach economic development. As the job market has tightened the challenge of bringing in a new project has increased exponentially. How do we continue to look for opportunities when our current employers can’t fill their staffing needs?

• Everyone loves the new announcement and golden shovel ceremonies
• How does that play with our existing companies?
• 750,000 jobs are unfilled in the manufacturing sector
• Deloitte Insights predicts that 2.1 million manufacturing jobs will remain unfilled in the U.S. alone by 2030
• Worker shortage and a skills Gap

In this episode Dennis as the question what do you want to be when you grow up?

Whether economic development is your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th career it's never too early or late to decide what you want to be when you grow up. Are you following your childhood dream or has your career been a series of twists and turns?

Now is the time to take a look in the mirror and have a serious conversation with yourself. Sometimes the hardest part of life is being honest with yourself. Only one person really knows you and the truth. 

• Ask yourself the tough questions
• Write down where you want to be in one, three, and five years
• Do something that scares you occasionally  
• Life is too short not to be happy both personally and professionally