Championing Economic Development

In the face of the blowback that has been generated as a result of the Amazon competition (and subsequent rollback), the International Economic Development Council has provided some very useful information that can help economic developers improve the understanding of their roles to key stakeholders.

With Economic Development Week coming up May 6 – 11, 2019, “Championing Economic Development” published by IEDC arms EDOs with some important tools that first identifies the challenges facing economic developers, such as a misunderstanding of the role of economic development, the lack of an understanding of the role of the economic development organization, ideological opposition and a perceived lack of transparency on the part of EDOs.

The report goes on to identify five recommendations and a set of useful tools that will improve the reputation of EDOs in the eyes of their stakeholders. Among these recommendations is “make transparency a core tenet in all areas of your work.” This is one of the larger challenges as another core tenet is to maintain confidentiality of your project work. The Report provides some useful examples of benchmarking and communication tools that help to tell your story without violating confidentially.

Economic Developers in Ohio are encouraged to think ahead and utilize Economic Development Week as a way of sending the message about your work. IEDC will be providing additional EcD Week tools closer to May.

The report can be obtained by going to IEDC’s EDRP page at https://www.iedconline.org/web-pages/inside-iedc/championing-economic-development/.