By Robert Pittman
My wife Anita and I just returned from the Southern Economic Development Council in Memphis, Tennessee. It’s about a six hour drive from Rabun County in Northeast Georgia and it pretty much shoots the day, with just enough reserve left in the tank for an evening reception. SEDC and the local Tennessee host committee did a fantastic job with a great conference full of learning and networking opportunities. An obvious theme given the Memphis location was logistics and infrastructure. For the benefit of those who could not attend, former Mississippi Governor and Republican National Committee Chair Haley Barbour kicked off the program by reminding the audience of Southern economic developers that favorable business climates (including right to work) and good infrastructure have been key factors in the South’s post-war economic development success. His bottom line: don’t put the horses that got you here out to pasture, and make room for that new team member workforce development that will help carry you into the future. To that we could certainly add telecommunications infrastructure and services that are at the top of most location checklists these days. Representatives from railroads, ports and of course Federal Express brought this and other messages home and brought us up to speed in their industries.
The historic Peabody Hotel was a great venue for the SEDC conference with good food, ample meeting space and a great rooftop deck for the final night’s reception. By the way, the secret to keeping the ducks in the Peabody lobby fountain and not waddling into conference sessions is to keep them a little leery of humans and rotate them off the varsity team if they get adventurous. There was a lot to learn and see away from the conference as well (dare I admit I skipped a session or two to play tourist?). Graceland was marvelous, really conveying a sense of the life and times of Elvis. I went into those famous gates with the same pre-conceived notion (almost a parody) of Elvis that a lot of people share, but came out with a much better appreciation of his talents, musical accomplishments and philanthropy. I highly recommend you go there, as well as those icons of music history, Sun and Stax studios.
The FedEx hub in Memphis is just one of the area’s leading logistics assets.
Photo courtesy of FedEx
It would be hard to imagine life in the southern economic development industry without SEDC. Those of us who have attended over these many years know we are never alone in the business – colleagues we have met and friends we have made through SEDC will be with us through job changes, life changes, and the next board crisis. The same goes for SEDC’s counterparts in other parts of the country – Mid-American Economic Development Council, the Northeast Economic Developers Association and so many great state associations. Of course, the International Economic Development Council is a great organization at the national and international level, but the state and multi-state regional associations offer not only peer-to-peer but neighbor-to neighbor learning.
The Janus Forum and Janus Institute were born of this legacy. We will always strive to complement and magnify, but not duplicate, the learning and networking opportunities provided by these long-established regional and state associations. If associations like IEDC and SEDC are the Hiltons and Sheratons of the economic development industry, the Janus Forum is a boutique hotel where you can probe in depth and learn from reading and discussing a good book in the lobby. Also, along with leading economic developers, site consultants, corporate executives, and other key industry players, you can not only discuss industry best practices – you can create them.
Thanks again to SEDC members, board members and Memphis host organizations for an exceptional educational event that will not soon be forgotten. We look forward to seeing everyone at future economic development association meetings and, of course, at future Janus Forums. Along with our great partner Conway Data, we’ll be announcing 2015 Janus Forum and Institute dates and programs very soon.
Leave a Reply