Articles

The boundaries of economic development are shifting.

The increasingly important role of young professionals in a regional economy represents a prime example. In the past, young professionals had almost no voice in a region's economic development strategy.

Now, however, young professionals are playing an increasingly important role in providing leadership as the economy shifts toward a new set of important economic drivers: networks, creativity, innovation.

Here is an example from Chattanooga. The nonprofit organization CreateHere is pushing out the frontiers of economic development in that city. Read more.

Connecting podcasting  with economic development is relatively new. increasingly, though, EDPros will have to experiment with different ways of getting messages to different audiences. Over the past several months, I've been working on a number of initiatives to try to experiment with new Web 2.0 platforms, low-cost video and audio streaming, and simply capturing events with audio files.

Virginia Beach is starting to experiment with a regular podcast. You can learn more about what they're doing from this article. You can download their podcasts through iTunes.

A first impression: the primary audience for a podcast for economic development is probably local. In other words, you're trying to keep people informed of your economic developer strategy, as well as important event information. My guess is that podcasts are not going to be all that successful in marketing a community.

Here some basics on podcasting.

Young professionals are helping to rebrand older industrial cities. Here's a New York Times article that explains the trend.

Read more.

One of my favorite examples of this movement is taking place in Youngstwon, OH, where young professionals are changing the economic development cliomate in the region.

"Thinkers and Drinkers" is one of the regular civic meetings they hold to discuss critical opportunities to revitalize Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.

You can read more on three of the blogs that have emerged as the new voices of Youngstown:

Defend Youngstown

I Will Shout Youngstown

Youngstown Renaissance

Young, creative and innovative professionals are bringing back these cities.

The Piedmont Triad Partnership probably does the best job of any WIRED region in getting its story out across the wires.

A couple of weeks ago, the Piedmont Triad Partnership announced that it had contracted with the Automation Federation to manage its advanced manufacturing cluster. Here's a brief story on the announcement. Note that it appears in a UK publication, Manufacturing Talk.

The lesson: even small announcements can carry ripples.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is one of the best newspapers in the country focusing on regional economic developmen.  Taking the Southeast Wisconsin economy as a backdrop, the paper regularly explores how the regional economy is transforming.

Unlike many papers that focus on economic problems, the Journal Sentinel spends a good deal of effort identifying new patterns of wealth creation.

Here is an example.

In a recent series of articles, the Journal Sentinel profiled a small group of engineering students engaged in building new business around bio-diesel. Read more.

The series underscores a number of new trends at work. First, of course, entrepreneurship plays a central role in the new story of regional transformation and wealth creation.

Second, the series illustrates the growing importance that universities are playing in regional economic development. Finally, the series underscores the importance of seeing some of our older economies with new eyes.

So, for example, Milwaukee is building off its manufacturing assets to create new hubs of innovation and faster growth companies. Here's an article that underscores these trends. As one manufacturer in the article notes, "We've peeled the rust off the belt."

Creating a new narrative for older economies represents one of the central challenges of economic development. Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin are in the middle of re-writing their story. Re-crafting a region's core narratives is what branding is all about.

Read more.

As we move toward a network-based economy, stories play an important role in building prosperity. Stories convey meaning. They shape our perceptions, our mental maps.

Most branding efforts in economic development are driven by marketing techniques that have little connection with these deeper stories.

Here's two examples of regions that are changing their stories.

• In Western Virginia, the recruitment of two high tech firms has started to change how young people are viewing their future prospects. As one high schooler noted: "Now, there’s going to be a lot more jobs for college-educated people. I guess you could say we feel like more opportunities will follow since these came here." Read more.
• In Southeastern Michigan, a region battered by manufacturing shutdowns, the regional EDPros are shifting the story to the new investment that is flowing into the region. Read more.

There are other places in which civic leaders are actively shifting the story. My favorite is Youngstown, where a group of young professionals -- led by a young mayor and Congressman -- are embracing the notion of a shrinking city. View a couple of the blogs that are shifting the conversation here and here.

For EDpros interested in branding, Wisconsin will bean interesting place to watch over the next few months. The governor has announced a new "brand platform", a strategic framework that guides and defines the promises of a brand. Here are some articles to get you up to speed with what has been going on:

• Doyle unveils state's new 'brand platform'
• State Aligns Branding Initiative with Regional Efforts
• Hey, express yourself, you're in Wisconsin!

Last October, Arkansas unveiled a DeltaMade, a branding program to strengthen local economies in the Arkansas Delta.  

Here's an overview of how the initiative works.  Read more.  

You can also visit to the Arkansas Delta made web site here.

Here's an interesting effort to tighten the connections to a new regional brand. The folks in Detroit are holding a brand summit to explore "What can the D do for your business?"

Smart move. One key to regional branding is to develop the value proposition among potential brand partners. The idea of a regional brand is relatively new, and most businesses may not immediately see the opportunity. A forum provides a good way to build connections and explore the possibilities. 

Learn more here and here.