TalTech Event Redux: Regional Partnerships along Northwest Florida's I-10 Corridor

Today's TalTech lunchon brought together several practitioners of the difficult and amorphous methods of economic development.  I've always been struck by the seemingly impossible task that Economic Development groups are charged with.  Much like the economists who are struggling with our country's current financial situation, ED must find the secret pressure points of its local and regional economies and creatively stimulate those key factors to indirectly encourage growth and development where it's needed.  Hopefully, it achieves this without causing adverse effects elsewhere.  From where I sit, it's a dauntingly holistic science.

While I haven't followed the efforts outside the Greater Tallahassee/Leon County area until recently, the local EDC's most publicized efforts always seemed to my untrained eye to be focused on playing peacock:  trying to attract desirable "big players" into the local area by competing with other regions in some kind of economic beauty pageant.  What I hadn't seen until I became active with TalTech was the collaboration, the information sharing, and the many other less glamorous activities that these tireless believers constantly undertake.

Our speakers today were unanimous in their desire to increase the sharing of information about best practices and to form partnerships that help them to achieve their missions.  Pam Tedesco of Florida's Great Northwest actually took a few minutes to introduce us to TeCMEN, an initiative of Okaloosa County's EDC, whose representative was unable to attend our meeting today due to a meeting with the Governor.  Throughout their presentations, each played off the information of the prior speaker, with TalTech's own Travis Yelverton of the EDC of Tallahassee/Leon County tying it all together in between.  The point is, these folks know their stuff.

Mr. Shannon Ogletree of TEAM Santa Rosa kicked off the session.  The cornerstone of his presentation was TSR's I-10 Wired initiative which emphasizes, among other things, fostering and retaining local talent and high growth industry entrepreneurs through programs such as the Pensacola Young Professionals and the High Growth Business Club.  He also discussed how their travelling "Summit" events have created networking and information-sharing opportunities for business-people and economic development authorities.

The aforementioned Ms. Pam Tedesco, an oft-seen presence at TalTech events, showcased FGNW's regional business survey and their industry "pyramid" which shows the key industries which have been incorporated into their strategic plan as a result of their analysis.  In that pyramid, the targeted industries sit atop the Information Technology and Engineering industries, which serve supporting roles and which reportedly continue to grow even in the current recession.  I can't find the pyramid on their web site, but if it turns up, I'll post a follow-up.

The speaker who delivered the positive news about the IT industry's growth in the recession was our final speaker, Matt Doster of ITFlorida.  Matt, a valued supporter of TalTech, presented a whole menagerie of initiatives and resources, many of which can be found on ITFlorida's web site.  These included the Governor's recently announced "Economic Gardening" initiative, ITFlorida's new Florida 2.0 web site (have to get the link from Matt as my notes are wrong), and a nascent idea for rewarding telecommuting as an eco-friendly "Green" business technique.

All in all, it was a combination of common refrains and newly emerging ideas.  It's encouraging to see that these driven and dedicated individuals and the organizations they front can remain true to their ideals and seek out fresh ideas in these difficult times.  From where I sit, putting our heads together is a matter of survival these days.

-jpt