In this episode, Dennis brings Mark Lautman, author of the book, When the Boomers Bail back to scare the heck out of you.

If you think we have seen the worst of the talent crisis, buckle down because the worst is yet to come.  You will hear a bit about:

-Irreversible forces
-The zero sum game
-Immigration
-The inverted dependency ratio

More About Mark Lautman

When the Boomers Bail: How Demographics will Sort Communities into Winners and Losers

Disasters can happen in many forms from weather to employment closures to riots.  By their very nature, they are unpredictable.

As the community development group, what should you do when disaster strikes?  What if you don't know what to do?

In this episode, Dennis and Jason share some best practices and food for thought when the time comes.

This episode brought to you by Accrisoft Corporation - leaders in the economic development web design business.

As is customary, the month of May concludes with your favorite podcast co-hosts sharing their updates from the month, tackling a listener question about retail recruitment, and providing some key takeaways from the interview shows.

In this bonus episode, Dennis interviews Lee Thomas, the head of the Georgia Film Office.

Despite some challenges with the audio, this episode highlights the economics of film production as well as some great anecdotes from working in this business.

More About Lee Thomas

More About the Georgia Film Office

It is possible that your favorite podcast co-hosts are skilled in the art of procrastination.

Instead of working on your to-do list, take a few minutes and listen to this episode where Dennis and Jason provide the world's best excuses for procrastination and then offer strategies that may or may not work.

Either way, listening to this episode allows you to take a break from what you should be doing for the cause of professional development.

In part 4 of this series on Opportunity Zones, Deborah Burns is back to help us look at this program from the point of view of a banker, attorney, or accountant.  How can service providers help their clients reap the benefits of Opportunity Funds?

Get some tips for useful resources as well as some advice for steering clients in the right direction.

Deborah Burns with investUS has enjoyed a 30 year career in finance and has analyzed more than 3,000 business and been a part of more than $3 billion in investments.

More about Deborah Burns

investUS Opportunity Fund

By now, we are all well aware of the workforce challenges faced by most communities.  Unfortunately, we do not yet see the light is not at the end of the tunnel.  In fact, it may get much worse before it gets any better.

In this episode, Dennis interviews Mark Lautman, author of the book, When the Boomers Bail.

There are four big challenges:

-Boomers didn't have enough kids
-Our birth rate is too low
-We are living much longer
-The education system is dropping half the kids in the academic dirt

More About Mark Lautman

When the Boomers Bail: How Demographics will Sort Communities into Winners and Losers

In this special bonus episode, Dennis brings Kyle Adams on the show to provide some teasers for the upcoming MidAmerica EDC Best Practices Conference to be held in Milwaukee, WI from July 17-19.

Kyle serves on the board of directors for the MidAmerica EDC and holds the position of 1st Vice President.

As a special feature this year, Develop This! will be recording on location.  Be sure to register today (you can even bring your family)!

Register for the Best Practices Conference

More MidAmerica EDC

More About Kyle Adams

If you have not yet read the Good to Great book by Jim Collins, you should definitely put it on your list.

In this episode, Dennis and Jason discuss the 6 key ingredients behind the successful transition from a good organization to a great organization and then apply them to the economic development profession.

Jim Collins, Good to Great

In part 3 of this series on Opportunity Zones, Deborah Burns is back to help us look at this program from a community's point of view.

Should we start our own local Opportunity Fund? How do we compete for investment among the other 8,000 zones?  Can we layer on additional programs to make our projects more attractive?  Get the answers to these questions and more in this episode.

Deborah Burns with investUS has enjoyed a 30 year career in finance and has analyzed more than 3,000 business and been a part of more than $3 billion in investments.

Stay tuned for more episodes as successive parts in this series will be published each Friday in May.

More about Deborah Burns

investUS Opportunity Fund