Develop This: Economic and Community Development

Develop This! is proud to launch a new series of shows to help working economic developers gain a better understanding of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact nationwide.

In the coming weeks, we will be interviewing the members of our newly formed Develop This! Contributing Experts team. The best group of economic development professionals in the country have been assembled to share:

-What is happening in their areas? -How are their areas responding? -Tips to maximize effectiveness during this challenging time

Today's episode continues with Lara Fritts, CEcD, President & CEO of the Greater Richmond Partnership (GRP).

GRP is the lead regional economic development organization for the Richmond, Virginia region. She is a certified economic developer with over 25 years of experience at the city and regional level in both the public and private sector. She previously worked in Salt Lake City and throughout the DC/Maryland/Virginia region. She serves on the board of directors of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) and has a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay.

Lara’s Specialties:

• Finance / TIFs
• Office space need / real estate
• Affordable housing
• Bioscience
• Working with local governments to streamline permitting

Connect with Lara Fritts

Develop This! is proud to launch a new series of shows to help working economic developers gain a better understanding of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact nationwide.

An email offer was recently sent out by the folks at Gazelle.ai offering company services at no cost to economic developers during this challenging time.  Tune in to learn more about the data points that could be helpful for your community and organization such as company data, points of vulnerability, economic indicators, and supply chain information.

Connect with Steven Jast

ROI Research on Investment

Develop This! is proud to launch a new series of shows to help working economic developers gain a better understanding of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact nationwide.

In the coming weeks, we will be interviewing the members of our newly formed Develop This! Contributing Experts team. The best group of economic development professionals in the country have been assembled to share:

-What is happening in their areas? -How are their areas responding? -Tips to maximize effectiveness during this challenging time

Today's episode continues with Jay A. Garner, CEcD, CCE President and founder of Garner Economics, LLC.

Garner Economics, LLC is an economic development and site location consulting firm headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. Jay is a leader and innovator in the economic development profession, having served for 40 years as both an award-winning economic development, Chamber of Commerce CEO, and site location professional. His firm assists clients throughout the world on a wide variety of projects, offering innovative, yet real-world solutions to achieve success. Jay often lectures and provides counsel on creating and implementing proactive global business development strategies and tactics. His firm is also a leader in providing assistance to corporate clients in their site selection process, such as Anchor Glass, Academy Sports, Hatfield Quality Meats, Hill’s Pet Foods, Marel, Future Pipe Industries and others.

His firm is the exclusive provider of site location services for Primus Builders—a global leader in architecture, engineering and construction management specializing in food processing manufacturing, and their worldwide clients. He is a founding member, and current Chair for the Site Selectors Guild, a prestigious group of the top site location consultants globally.

Jay’s Specialties:  

• Site location advisory
• Food site certification
• Economic development action plans
• Economic and workforce analytics
• Workforce solutions
• Targeted industry strategies

Garner Economics

More about Jay Garner

Develop This! is proud to launch a new series of shows to help working economic developers gain a better understanding of the COVID-19 crisis and its impact nationwide.

In the coming weeks, we will be interviewing the members of our newly formed Develop This! Contributing Experts team. The best group of economic development professionals in the country have been assembled to share:

-What is happening in their areas? -How are their areas responding? -Tips to maximize effectiveness during this challenging time 

The series begins with Mary Ann Moon, CEcD, FM, HLM Executive Director, Prosper Economic Development Corporation, Prosper Texas.

Mary Ann served as 2018 and 2019 Dean for the University of Oklahoma's Economic Development Institute. She previously served as Assistant Dean, Director of Mentoring and Curriculum Chairman. She is an Instructor, Mentor and teaches the CEcD Exam Prep Course and authored and teaches 'An Introduction to Transportation and Logistics.'  Mary Ann has also developed and implements “Employer Engagement” training for Workforce Development providers. 

Ms. Moon's prior experience includes successful, private business owner (Dixie Bonded Warehouse of Ouachita, Inc., West Monroe, LA) President of the West Monroe-West Ouachita Chamber of Commerce and Regional Economic Development Manager for Entergy Louisiana, VP Economic Development and Marketing, Tice Engineering Inc. and Business Development Advocate, AECOM. 

Mary Ann’s Specialties:

• Community Development
• Leadership Training
• Program Development BR& E, Employer Engagement
• Transportation and Economic Development
• Economic Development and Business Ethics

Connect with Mary Ann Moon

In this special episode, Dennis interviews Eric Canada from Blane Canada to discuss the BR|E COVID-19 Response Network Task Force.  Please consider participating in this important initiative.

About the initiative:

We're living in an uncertain world in uncertain times and as economic developers it can be scary go to about the crisis management in your community alone. The Network's Steering Committee is working behind the scene to develop a series of blast quick polls for economic development, focused on assessing the business impact of COVID-19. They are trying to make a meaningful difference by arming local developers with valuable, actionable information related to the business impact and draw the data into a national database which would give us - the economic developers - a national voice on a critical issue. Working together, we can have an impact locally and well beyond. No one has the street level view we could provide.  There are no costs associated with this. All of us are acting voluntarily to address a unique set of circumstances.

ARE YOU READY TO JOIN? Simply email [email protected] with your contact information (i.e. name, phone number, email, organization).

In a break from their usual format, Dennis and Jason share thoughts for economic developers working in the trenches during this difficult time.

Economic development is a team sport, and this entire series has been focused on the team retreat- the opportunity for all members of the staff team to convene, strategize, and get on the same page.

In this episode, Dennis and Jason complete the series with a discussion on the final steps for the day.  How should you finish the day and determine the immediate next steps?

Creating content on a budget can be challenging! In this episode, Andy reveals several FREE resources designed to step your game up and deliver top-notch content that captures the attention of your audience.

Graphic Design

Canva.com – Free or Pro for $9.95/mo

Picmonkey.com – Basic $7.99 or pro for $12.99/mo

Fiverr.com  - The quality of content has come a LONG way!

Upwork.com – Post a job and receive offers

Adobe Creative Cloud – Visit techsoup.org for discounts for non-profits – $19.99/mo for entire creative suite

Take classes on LinkedIn Learning (https://www.linkedin.com/learning) – $19.99/mo or start a free trial

Email Marketing

Mailchimp.com – Free option includes up to 2,000 contacts w/a single audience, $9.99/mo includes up to 50,000 contacts w/3 audiences

URL Shortener w/Click Tracker

Bit.ly Ow.ly Twitter URL shortener TinyURL

Managing Teams and Projects

Slack.com Trello.com Monday.com

Mobile Video Creation Apps

iMovie – iOS Quik – iOS and Android Video Shop – iOS Android

In the economic development business, you just have to be ready.

In this episode, Dennis shares his personal story of working with a major project and shares tips for you to consider in your own organization.

-Build your knowledge base

-Make connections

-Have a product and know your product

In this short episode, Jason goes on a bit of a rant regarding the importance of keeping local control over incentives.

It is political silly season, and if your state legislature is trying to take too much of your local decision making ability away from you, fight back.

Of course, having local control and discretion over incentives also requires discipline to walk away from the negotiation table.  Great economic developers help guide a community through delivering appropriate financial assistance without giving away the farm.