Keeping Pace 7/18

The pace of business development activity at the EDC has slowed during recent months, perhaps partly due to national economic conditions, or just as much due to our clients taking a respite after a busy spring season. However, our economic development team is not waiting by the phone for things to pick up again. Quite to the contrary, we are using the time to focus on projects that will improve our community's competitiveness for businesses and entrepreneurs.

We will soon announce two important developments in our Small Business & Entrepreneurship Initiative (SBEI). We are working to develop opportunities for small business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs, and dislocated workers to be their own bosses. Our success to date with SBEI programming has been well documented, with 26 businesses or entrepreneurs participating in FastTrac business and strategic planning programming.

We are also hosting a series of three Summer Series programs to connect local business and industry contacts with resources they can strategically leverage to support their businesses. And we are working with local partners to support industrial park and downtown development initiatives throughout Whitley County.

Each of these projects connects our community to regional initiatives and helps us to improve our quality of place to grow and attract new businesses as we keep moving forward together. To help get the word out as we work through these initiatives, we continue to build our marketing & communications focus. We are now launching a monthly email newsletter to aggregate local news and updates from the EDC and our industry partners. We will continue to build our Facebook and Twitter presence, as well.

Hope that you will follow our updates and join the discussion about how to move Whitley County forward together!

Alan Tio