By Amanda Lilla, Associate Director, Janus Institute

There is something to be said about the feeling of friends gathering and spending quality time together. Something to be said about the opportunity to catch-up on the latest news, tell perhaps somewhat embellished stories, and share smiles and laughter with each other. There is also something to be said for the aforementioned to be what I am fortunate enough to call my job.

When I first started working for the Janus Institute in 2011 to plan Forum events, I never could have imagined that what I was actually doing was joining a family. Not just any family, but a family of economic developers from all over the nation who have an overwhelming passion to bring about the best practices in the economic development profession.

The Janus Forum, now in its sixth year, is the perfect setting to bring these professionals together to share their enthusiasm and desire to cultivate the profession. The 2014 Rabun Janus Forum was held June 8-11th in its original home at Lake Rabun in the North Georgia Mountains. Yet another successful event, Forum participants enjoyed a variety of venues during the Forum and had the opportunity for some dynamic discussions on topics that are directly impacting the economic development profession.

Participants selected two topics for in-depth discussion including: National Target Industries and Product Development. In breakout sessions participants discussed specific issues for each of the topics and how to approach the issues moving forward. The final notes from these discussions will be compiled into the Janus Journal, which summarizes the valuable discussions from the Forum and is distributed to all that are interested in reading about best practices developed by the practitioners themselves.

This year, the Janus Forum also held its first State Directors Forum, in which participants from state economic development organizations were able to participate in interactive discussion with one another in a one-day workshop and then share the outcomes of their discussions with the entire group in a panel discussion during the Forum. This was a superb event and we are planning to hold another State Directors Forum in the near future. We are excited about the possibilities that exist with best practices being developed at the Forum from the state level and shared throughout the entire economic development community.

With great expectations and success, this is just the beginning of what the Janus Forum family has established as a foundation to build on. We look forward to holding several Janus Forum events in 2015 and to welcoming additional professionals to our family.

Thank you to the sponsors of the 2014 Rabun Janus Forum: Convergent Nonprofit Solutions, Norfolk Southern, McCarthy Building Companies, and the Development Authority of Rabun County. We appreciate their generous support and look forward to continuing our relationship with them.

By Robert Pittman

The Porch is a busy place these days as we prepare for our sixth annual Janus Forum at Rabun to be held June 8-11 at our “home base” of Rabun County in the beautiful Northeast Georgia mountain and lake region. This year, we moved the Rabun Forum date up from early August to early June to coordinate better with the Forums at new venues that we are launching with Conway Data.

In my opinion, spring and early summer is when the Appalachian Mountains really show off their beauty. Creeks and waterfalls are full and blooming mountain laurel carpets the forest floor – a perfect setting for the Janus Forum. We will continue our tradition of letting the attendees decide the economic development topics and trends they would most like to discuss, We will also continue to invite a limited number of site consultants and corporate real estate executives to provide the “customer” perspective, and to learn from each other. For the first time, we have invited a limited number of state economic development commissioners. They will have their own Forum Sunday Morning to share best practices and learn new trends from each other.

If the attendees desire, we can also continue to revisit some topics from previous Forums. The two topics from our recent Forum at Watercolor in Florida – economic development “under attack” and establishing and operating public-private organizations for economic development. The summary of these topics is captured in the latest Janus Journalpublication.

There is a wealth of information in the Journal on the two topics assessed at the Watercolor Forum. Rabun Forum 2014 attendees may well want to take up where the last Forum left off or select new topics for assessment. Either way, the Janus Journal will keep a record of all relevant findings and ideas from the Janus Forum on this topic.

Where does the Forum go from here? Well, there are lots of topics to discuss and assess, be they existing topics or new ones. One of our long-range objectives for the Forum is to continue to promote a better level of understanding of community and economic development (which we think will help address the economic development “under attack” topic listed above) and to break down some of the walls between key economic development stakeholders.

By the way, there are a few seats left for the Rabun Forum coming up in just a few days in Rabun County March 2014. Attendance is by invitation, but if you are interested, please call Amanda Lilla (insert contact info) or me (404-431-1255) rpittman@janusinstitute.org) and join the discussions.

By: Amanda Sutt

Amanda Sutt, CEO of Rock Paper Scissors in Lawrenceville, Ga., and previous Janus Forum facilitator

By now, we all know that social media is here to stay. We have seen some platforms come and go, but no matter what comes next, you can bet we are going to stay connected as a culture. How many people do you know who check their Facebook or Twitter feed before they even get out of bed in the morning? Maybe you’re one of them! Either way, it’s pretty clear that people truly love social media.

With a culture that is so connected and willing to share, businesses and organizations can see that social media is more than just selfies, baby pictures, and Instagrams of breakfast food. There is huge potential to engage with new audiences, and some groups have found their niche. But for every group that is connected, there may be 50 more who are struggling to make it work. To avoid being one of them, take a look at these five common mistakes that businesses and organizations make when they are trying to find their social media niche.

Social media is not just about being out there. It is about being present in the conversation and engaging with people in new ways. Learn about your audience, start with a plan, and find your niche. When you begin to thoughtfully and strategically cultivate your business’s social media networks, you never know what amazing things you will discover.

by Robert Pittman, Founder and Executive Director

As reported previously in this Reporter, the Janus Forum held February 16-19 at Watercolor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida was an unqualified success for many reasons – quality networking among economic developers, insights and ideas concerning key issues and wonderful interaction among EDs, consultants and corporate executives. There were so many opportunities to learn and grow professionally including focused discussions among EDs, previews of Conway Data’s latest Governor’s Cup investment results, small-group workshops with site consultants, and interactive panel discussions featuring corporate real estate executives and consultants. All were in agreement that the Forum is a unique and highly effective model for professional growth. The Janus Journal containing the findings and recommendations of the sessions at the Forum will be available very soon.

Participants in the Janus Forum at Watercolor identified over two dozen economic development issues and trends worthy of in-depth discussion, but in the end they voted to focus on two: 1) economic development “under attack” by critics who don’t understand how the process works, and 2) public/private regional ED partnerships. I must admit, the importance of the former topic, economic development under attack, caught me by surprise. After all, in many communities celebration, not criticism, should abound at a time when stronger prospect activity is being reported by many ED agencies. Results of the discussions regarding reasons for increased criticism of economic development practices in some communities and recommendations for addressing that criticism will make for interesting reading in the next issue of the Janus Journal available very soon. These findings remind us of an important principle for building effective economic development program: “internal” marketing, i.e. keeping local constituents apprised of ED program activities is very, very important.

We’ll have more learning and networking in a few weeks when forty or so invited economic developers get together June 8-11 in Lakemont, Georgia with more guest site consultants and corporate real estate executives. We look forward to more interesting discussions, findings and recommendations, but this time in the mountains of Northeast Georgia overlooking scenic Lake Rabun. We’ll share the results of the Janus Forum at Rabun County in future issues of the Janus Reporter and Janus Journal. We invite you to get more involved with the Janus Forum, now operated as a joint venture between the Janus Institute and Conway Data.

By Ron Starner
Executive Vice President of Conway Data Inc.

They haven’t launched any home runs yet, but economic developers are stepping up to the plate and taking some pretty big swings when it comes to social media.

In fact, investment in social media is second only to spending on websites in total marketing budget expenditures these days for economic development organizations, according to a comprehensive survey conducted last month by Site Selection magazine publisher Conway Data.

While 84 percent of the 101 survey respondents said they are investing marketing dollars into their websites, 49 percent said they are spending marketing money on social media – topping email marketing (46 percent), print advertising (43 percent) and online advertising (31 percent).

However, just 1 percent of all respondents said that their “biggest economic development success” came from social media. Thirty-five percent said their largest success came from networking; 28 percent said “they found us,” and 8 percent said that their biggest success came through their website.

The survey yields some broad implications for chief marketing officers of EDOs. Among the most significant findings:

• 75 percent of all EDOs are using social media as a regular part of their promotions.
• Facebook (88 percent), Twitter (71 percent), LinkedIn (68 percent) and YouTube (50 percent) are the four most-used platforms for social media marketing by EDOs.
• Building awareness is the primary objective for using social media, according to 82 percent of the survey respondents.
• Most EDOs use social media to promote local accomplishments (75 percent), local events (71 percent) and local businesses (68 percent).
• Only 35 percent of all EDOs have any kind of social media policy in place.

The survey, conducted in early February by Conway Data, targeted a global audience of economic development professionals and grew out of an in-depth discussion on social media at the Lake Rabun, Ga., meeting of the Janus Forum in August 2013.

That discussion was facilitated by Amanda Sutt of Rock Paper Scissors in Lawrenceville, Ga., and Jessica Hayslett of The Hayslett Group in Atlanta – two noted social media experts who regularly advise marketers for EDOs.

They strongly encouraged all EDOs to get more aggressive in using social media as a marketing tool and to adopt metrics to measure those tools’ effectiveness. They also advised EDOs to adopt a social media policy as a way to prevent abuse or misuse of various social media platforms.

Along those lines, about 19 percent of the survey respondents said that they had already had a “negative social media experience.”

Platforms to watch moving forward, say Sutt and Hayslett, are up-and-coming tools like MeetUp, Vimeo, StumbleUpon, Tumblr and Vine. While none of these are widely adopted just yet, they soon will be, the experts say.

In the meantime, it’s best to know what your competition is doing to stay ahead of the game. For a more detailed report on the social media marketing survey of economic development organizations, look for the Janus Forum Journal, set for publication soon.