Earlier this month we traveled to Nashville for the Economix Conference. It’s run by a group called Consultant Connect and a gathering of 250 economic developers and site selection consultants -- terrific content and great networking opportunities. 

One of the sessions that stood out was a presentation made by Gray Swoope of Vision First Advisors. Gray previously headed up economic development in the states of Florida, Mississippi and Arkansas. His session was titled “The Ten Big Issues of 2018.” For today’s podcast, we asked Gray to trim this down to the “Top 5 Issues” of the past year. Here’s the countdown from #5 to #1: 

5) Trade

4) Disappearing Workforce

3) Disruption

2) Incentives Under Attack 

1) Amazon HQ2

Special thanks to Gray for the chance to reflect back on the past year in economic development.