Develop This: Economic and Community Development

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

5G wireless capability is here and is rapidly expanding across the nation.  This generation of internet speed is unlike its 3G and 4G predecessors as it can be 1,000x faster and will require a very different infrastructure plan.

In this episode, Jason interviews Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr to gather insight on 5G's rapid expansion, the jobs necessary to support the investment, and ways communities can prepare for this revolution in wireless technology.

The Honorable Brendan Carr's Biography

Text of Barcelona Speech on 5G

5G Jobs Program

With more than 20 years of fundraising experience under his belt, Rick Kiernan knows a thing or two about raising money.  As principal with Convergent Nonprofit Solutions, Rick has worked with communities large and small to help design plans of work that are both impactful and worthy of the investor dollar.

In markets all across the country, the challenges surrounding workforce are proving to be a major influence on investor sentiment. Is your plan of work robust enough to move the needle?

In this epidoe, Jason interviews Rick about the changing landscape in fundraising. Rick calls out those communities doing really well when it comes to workforce programming and offers some tips to engage potential investors during your next capital campaign.  Remember- if they help write the plan, they will underwrite the plan.

More About Rick Kiernan

Convergent Nonprofit Solutions

In part 2 of this series on Opportunity Zones, Deborah Burns is back to help us look at this program from an investor's point of view.

If I have the capital an a project in mind, what do I do next?  Alternatively, if I have a qualified project in mind but need additional capital, what are my options?

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

Sports tourism is big business.  Would your community spend $75 million to build baseball, softball, and soccer fields?  The City of Westfield, IN, population 38,000 pulled of Grand Park - a 400 acre facility designed to serve thousands of competitors.

In this episode, Jason interviews Amanda Rubadue and William Knox with the City of Westfield to break down the deal and share some of the challenges and successes of pulling off such an endeavor.

You will hear about:

-Aggregating land from multiple land owners

-Using a property tax TIF to finance the deal

-A contentious mayoral race

-The current state of the operational budget

Grand Park Sports Campus

More About Amanda Rubadue

More About William Knox

Sometimes we may rush to fill board seats simply because they are open.  However, it is very important that we select the right board members - those that will show up and take their job seriously.  So what makes a good board member?

In this episode, Dennis brings Andy Davis with BoardSource back one more time to provide some insight into this question.

Show highlights:

-Select board members concerned about the duties of care, loyalty, and obiedience

-Showing up is important.  So is 'trying'

-Diversity can be powerful

More About Andy Davis

BoardSource

Opportunity Zones offer tremendous benefits for both communities and investors.  Guidance continues to be updated on this powerful program, and this is the first episode in a five part series on Opportunity Zones.

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.

Deborah serves as our resident expert on Opportunity Zones, and in this episodes, shares a high level overview of the tax benefits to investors.

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

How do the big economic development deals come together?  Dennis invites fellow podcasters Andy Levine and Patience Fairbrother with The Project: Inside Corporate Location Decisions on the show to share some lessons learned from publishing nearly 60 episodes.  Their podcast features interviews with both the economic development professional and the company representatives behind recent deals.

Here is just a taste of what you will hear:

-It's the talent, stupid!

-Some ED groups just want the project more.

More about Andy and Patience

Development Counsellors International (DCI)

The Project: Inside Corporate Location Decisions