IEDA In Your Ear

When the coronavirus hit, One Southern Indiana launched ‘1SI Cares’ to organize communication, business outreach and resources with a three-pronged approach. Matt Hall, Executive Vice President with One Southern Indiana talks about 1SI Cares, their ongoing business and retention efforts, and the opportunities for cross-state collaboration as part of the Louisville region.

The COVID-19 crisis has created new and unique opportunities for collaboration. In this episode of IEDA In Your Ear (the Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever series) Michigan City is in the spotlight. Clarence Hulse, with the Economic Development Corporation of Michigan City and Katie Eaton from the Michigan City Chamber talk about how their organizations have combined forces to join their relative strengths to create a responsive mechanism to help MC businesses survive and thrive during the pandemic. The speculate about the lasting, positive impact of the newfound collaboration with other community entities and how they think the pandemic will affect the future of economic and community development.

Jeff Rea, CEO of the South Bend Regional Chamber isn’t sure what a ‘COVID Czar’ is, but he has earned that title from his colleagues. On the latest episode of ‘Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever,’ Jeff shares his experiences after being tapped to coordinate COVID-19 activities in St. Joseph County and how he anticipates the crisis will change economic development.

Kosciusko County EDC CEO Alan Tio is featured in the next ‘Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever’ podcast. Alan shares his insights about the value of social media in communicating with businesses and stakeholders during the crisis, how their efforts to diversify the local economy continue, and shares updates on their local small business assistance efforts.

This is the fifth in our ‘Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever’ podcasts. In this episode, Jennifer Pearl, President of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation talks about the community’s early efforts to convene various stakeholders, how she expects her job as an economic developer will evolve post-COVID-19, and gives a shout out to Carol Rogers and the Indiana Business Research Center and the assistance Carol is providing to create an economic development dashboard. (Jen asked to give a post-podcast-session ‘thanks’ to her staff and all the hard work they’ve been doing).

In this episode of our ‘Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever,’ podcast series Tim Eckerle and Mikayla Marazzi of the Grant County Economic Growth Council talk about their role as a convener in Grant County, the impact of their small business COVID-19 loan fund, and what they are anticipating will be the impact of the crisis on economic development.

Third in our ‘Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever,’ podcasts, Molly Whitehead from the Boone County Economic Development Corporation talks about workforce development, the increased importance of BR&E and how the Boone EDC goals for 2020 have stayed the same, but the methods for achieving them have changed drastically.

For the second in our series of ‘Economic Development Is More Important Than Ever’ podcasts, Lee Lewellen spoke with Keith Gillenwater, President/CEO of Grow Wabash County.

Keith talked about their small business loan program, buying gift cards, and why entrepreneurship will be an important strategy for re-opening Wabash County.

The Indiana Grown program has been, by all accounts, a success for the producers who secure the Indiana Grown designation, and for Hoosiers in general, hoping to eat, drink, and buy ‘local.’

Heather Tallman, Executive Director of the Indiana Grown program talks with Lee Lewellen about the value of the program to the state, why it is an important conduit for Indiana producers and consumers, and some of the challenges and opportunities for the program created by the COVID-19 crisis.

For our first podcast in the ‘Economic Development is More Important Than Ever’ series, Lee Lewellen talks with Corey Murphy, Henry County. Corey and Lee talk about what Corey is doing today to help businesses survive during the crisis and how he expects the practice of economic development to change post-crisis.