(Salt Lake City) Continuing the NCI tradition of Aggressively Marketing to our Target Audience, Ivan Baker was one of only 8 Illinois Economic Developers attending the Site Selectors Guild annual conference in Salt Lake City.
The Guild is the Association of the Top Site Selection Consultants in the World. NCI has participated for the past 3 conferences, to make sure that North Central Illinois is known, recognized, and top-of-mind.
Interesting Take-aways on Site Selection for all Progressive Cities were provided by Amazon HQ2 and State of Virginia. Holly Sullivan of Amazon pointed out Key issues: 1. Talent now and Talent Pipeline, 2. Clear RFP response, 3. City had to truly WANT the Global Company, 4. City had to show Regional approach, 5. City had to Welcome Diversity, 6. Demonstrated Transparency, 7. City knows how to "Think Big."
Site consultants provided a lot of advice and suggestions for rural and exurban development concerns. Here are some key points presented
- Incentives must be performance based, and incentive policies must be clear and transparent. The Amazon HQ2 project brought incentives into National headlines and public comment.
- Rural economic development must adapt and change and focus on the sectors that are already successful
- Rural communities must Make Drastic changes to stop population loss, work regionally to attract investment, improve Education, and make their communities competitive and attractive for the talent pipeline.
- Rural does not mean Poor. With challenging fiscal climates, Successful rural regions must secure the financial resources for economic development and infrastructure.
- Don’t rely on grants in any way, as evidenced by the state of fiscal affairs at the federal, state and local levels.
- Well-funded Regional public-private-partnerships dependent on Local resources (not grants) are required today to assure competitive success.
- Plan ahead to develop the necessary workforce development program for new and expanding industries.
- Employers need to work together to promote Basic Skill Collaborative Training programs through educational institutions…especially in rural areas.
- Economic development organizations need to provide more accurate and up-to-date information on their workforce.
- Labor issues are driving the train for all economic development projects.
- Expanding High skilled industries will only locate where High Quality Education, and skilled labor exist. Today and tomorrow. Companies will follow the Talent Pipeline.
- The “human cloud” is enabling smaller communities to capture technology projects.
- A digital transformation of the workforce is occurring, putting more demand on a productive, highly skilled workforce.