Source: Social Media Survey of Economic Developers, February 2014, Conway Data/Based on 101 respondents.

By Robert Pittman, Executive Director, Janus Institute

Five years ago, we had an idea to bring some leading economic developers together in a scenic, relaxing location to brainstorm about issues and opportunities for the profession and the professional — no speakers, no hurried conversations in the hall before the next session begins, just focused discussions with lots of time to get to know and learn from each other. For the venue, we chose my Rabun County home in scenic Northeast Georgia because it is readily accessible but also has that “getaway” feeling. “On the Porch” became our watchword, and the Forum has taken off from there.

With success comes challenges, and as we got more requests to attend the Forum (all participants are invited by a panel of Janus Fellows and alumni), the challenge became to maintain the small, intimate nature of the Forum yet make room for more participants. The logical answer was to hold multiple Forums across the nation. We sought a partner to help us grow in this fashion, and we didn’t have to look far – just down the road in Norcross, an Atlanta suburb. Conway Data Inc. is well known to economic developers, corporate executives, consultants and others in related fields as a full-service economic development firm. For 60 years, they have published Site Selection magazine, managed associations in the corporate real estate and economic development field (currently they manage the Industrial Asset Management Council – IAMC), and provided many other services to the industry. They are a great partner for taking the Janus Forum and Janus Institute to the next level because of their broad experience, global footprint and shared goals.

Our first Janus Forum away from our Rabun County home was held just recently (February 16-19) at Watercolor in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida with another great group of attendees. Sunday afternoon and Monday morning were devoted to open discussion and identification of priority topics. Through advocacy, debate and voting, the attendees arrived at two topics for detailed discussion: 1) economic development “under attack” from stakeholders who don’t understand it, and 2) keys to successful public-private partnerships. Then, in breakout sessions attendees discussed why the topics are important and who is most affected (description) and then action items to address the topics (prescription). As always, we took lots of notes and the excellent discussions and ideas will appear soon in the next Janus Journal.

In addition, we had two separate discussion panels, one featuring site consultants and the other corporate executives. Like previous Rabun Forums, the consultants and executives stayed longer to enjoy more small-group networking and learning. At the final Wednesday morning session, we held an impromptu joint panel discussion with both the consultants and executives with great audience discussion. That’s another unique aspect of the Forum – the program is not set in stone; we adjust it in real time to get the most benefit based on the attendee and guest discussions. Thanks to our sponsors Enterprise Florida and Batson-Cook for their generous support.

Perhaps most importantly, the Forum at Watercolor demonstrated what we really knew all along – while the nice mountain and lake venue in Rabun County is great, what makes participants enjoy the Forum so much and want to come back again and again is the unique attendee-driven program and unsurpassed peer-learning and networking. We now know the Forum travels well, so let’s hit the road!

Following the sixth annual Rabun County Forum June 8-11, we will hold a Forum in New York State in the Fall (details will follow shortly on venue and dates). Great interest has been shown in scheduling a Forum in the Rocky Mountain states and some other locations in 2015. We’ll keep you posted as plans develop via email and our web sitewww.janusinstitute.org.

No matter where we go, we will always remain true to what has made the Forum so rewarding to participants:

• Great peer learning and sharing in an informal “safe” way;
• The participants (economic developers) are the program;
• Relaxing, scenic venues;
• Networking and learning with key economic development constituents including site consultants, corporate executives, elected officials, and others;
• A feeling of contributing to and advancing the practice of economic development.

Plans are also under way to grow the non-profit Janus Institute as a unique organization improving the knowledge base and practice of economic development through further organizing and disseminating the ideas and best practices from the Forum in conjunction with partner Conway Data Inc. Many, many people have helped grow the Institute and Forum because they believe in its unique approach. We are very thankful to all of them and acknowledge that we could never have gotten this far without them. We look forward to your joining us at a future Forum and becoming a part of the Janus Institute family.

By Robert Pittman, Executive Director, The Janus Institute

Perhaps the most common yet puzzling theme underlying many of the discussions the past five years at the Janus Forum is why some communities work together and move forward while others do not – or to put it more bluntly – why some communities fuss, feud and flounder. Based on my work with communities and the shared experiences of Janus Forum attendees, I believe that the answer is both simple and very complex.

The simple answer in my opinion is that good community development forms a solid platform for good economic development. Community development is often a very misunderstood term. Some people define community development as helping improve lower income neighborhoods in urban areas. This was a common definition in the 1960s and 70s when suburban flight contributed to urban blight. This certainly qualifies as community development; however, it is only one small part of a growing field that encompasses so much more.

It is common (and helpful, I believe) to think of economic development as a product and a process. To be successful in recruiting new firms, retaining and expanding existing ones and growing start-ups, a community should have a good “product” – available sites and buildings, good labor force, good education, quality of life – the list goes on depending on types of companies and industries. But so many site selection factors are more community development than economic development. The latter certainly encompasses enough things to keep most people in the profession plenty busy, but think about the myriad of factors that go into any location decision and in most cases most of them involve the entire community. An economic developer is certainly not expected to provide good transportation, utilities and city government (I certainly hope so!). The developer can and should advocate for these things, but ultimately, to be successful in economic development, the community as a whole must work to make itself – and I hate to use this phrase because it has become so trite, but it is true — a good place to live, work and play.

Community development is so much broader than even providing a good physical presence and infrastructure – it also encompasses, like economic development, a process. Even if economic developers have a good product to sell, they must have a good process – a good strategic plan and marketing program, adequate staff and budget, good subject experts to work on a prospect team, etc. After that, it does take a village to close a deal. You could even argue that, on the recruiting side, economic developers should be judged more on how many bona fide prospects they get to look at the community, not how many jobs are created. The individual developer usually has a lot more control over the former.

This brings us to the process of community development. In order to provide a good physical place, a community has to work and plan together well. And, in most cases, to provide a good economic development process– adequate staff and budget, all jurisdictions and development organizations working together, etc. – community stakeholders from the public and private sectors also have to be able to work together well.

So, the short and simple answer to the question of why some communities are more apt to move forward is that they practice good community development alongside economic development. Of course, some communities have natural advantages such as location on an interstate highway, a port, a great climate, etc., but if these factors were of such overriding importance we wouldn’t see development in places that don’t have them, but that is not the case.

The complex part of our answer to why some communities are more likely to move forward involves how to foster and maintain good community and economic development processes – and that includes the overarching topic of good leadership which is a perennial topic of discussion at Janus Forums. So I’ll stop here and invite you to share with us what you think economic developers can do to help create good community development. Feel free to respond to this column and join the debate!

By Randy Simpson

To take a page from Robert Pittman’s playbook, the view from my porch faces south and overlooks the transition from the Appalachian Mountains to the fertile lowlands that in the early 1800’s were home to the Cherokee Nation in the northwest quadrant of Georgia. Perched near the southern end of the Cohutta Wilderness, our home is sited to afford a view on a clear day of three lakes progressing in size from 4 to 3,500 to 13,000 acres. Each has its own character and offers different functions ranging from pure recreational entertainment to flood control and power generation.

Looking off my porch and reflecting back to my experience at the Janus Forum held in 2013 at Robert’s porch in northeast Georgia, I am reminded of the diversity in the group of attendees. I am referring to diversity in the sense of size, attributes and purpose of the communities that they represent and promote in the never-ending quest for attraction of new businesses. This diversity is not unlike the different lakes in my view; each community has its own inherent resources and collection of strengths and weaknesses.

As I facilitated discussion and interaction in the aerospace workshops, it became clear from the outset that despite the differences represented by the participants, all shared passion for the exchange of ideas and the resulting growth in understanding what success looks like and the actions that work to achieve the success. Real people sharing real stories about their own experiences, including both success and failures in attracting businesses to their communities, is the essence of what I experienced in my three days at the forum.

And the elephant in the room? By the third and final session, I had to ask this question of participants: how is it that you can so freely share with each other your secrets of success and lessons learned in failure when in many cases you either are or will be competing with each other for the same business to choose your community to call home? The answer was nearly unanimous … you win some and you lose some, but in many cases you win even in a loss when you consider geography trumps city, county and state boundaries in the quest for providing jobs in your community. A win in a neighboring county or state can dramatically improve job opportunities in your home community and generate the trailing benefits of economic turnover as dollars paid in salaries change hands many times over at the local grocery, gas station, restaurant and on and on; my own experience has been up to 6x the benefit of a dollar paid to an employee.

My major takeaway? Development of local and regional alliances that leverage strengths and offset weaknesses in attracting new businesses of all types is a key competency that needs to be promoted to assure success. This requires a commitment from local and state political leaders to work in partnership with educational and business leaders to think outside the traditional boundaries of city, county and state lines of “ownership.” I recommend that future Janus Forums include political, education and business leaders in focused sessions on the competencies required for the successful formation of strategic economic development alliances.

Randy Simpson has over 30 years of experience providing strategic direction and leadership in the Aerospace and Defense industry. He is an experienced leader, versatile team member and mentor.

Janus Fellow, Robert Ingram, has been actively involved in the economic development profession since 1973 at the local, regional and state levels. He has also served the profession as an elected official, and in university and volunteer roles.

Robert is a former Mayor, Economic Development Assistant to the President of the University of Southern Mississippi, President of both the Mississippi Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives and the Mississippi Economic Development Council (two organizations which he helped merge into one), and Chairman of SEDC. He has also been active in supporting the Masters of Economic Development program at Southern Miss for the last thirty years, currently serving on its advisory board, serving as a Reflective Practitioner for courses related to Recruitment and BRE, and mentoring students as they move into the economic development profession.

As a practitioner, Robert has served in Pike County, Mississippi; formed, organized and led Rankin First EDA and EDF; helped organize and led marketing efforts for the Metro Economic Development Alliance (Greater Jackson Alliance). His final career stops were as President/CEO of Greenwood/Leflore EDA and EDF, and the Baldwin County (AL) EDA. He began his economic development career as a Marketing/Existing Industry Specialist at the Mississippi Research and Development Center, a comprehensive economic and community development support center and think tank which served the State of Mississippi for two decades.

Robert is an Honorary Life Member of both MEDC and SEDC and was the first Janus Fellow, which reflects both his service to the profession and his work in helping Robert Pittman organize and grow the Janus Forum. “Being a part of the development and growth of the Janus Forum has been a highlight in my career. Devoted solely to improving our profession by focusing the attention of a small group of diverse and extraordinary economic developers on issues critical to the future of this profession – and doing it in a very relaxed, informal setting – the Forum is unique in both purpose and execution. And with the addition of new venues, more and more professionals will have the opportunity to participate”.

He twice led economic organizations that were recognized by Site Selection Magazine as Top Groups Honorable Mention, and led the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance to recognition as a Top Group. He credits his wife, Barbara, for much of his success and is proud that both of their sons, Robbie and Michael, are involved in the Economic Development profession.

Robert is semi-retired and provides “consulting lite” services through his firm, Common Sense Economic Development, LLC, often in partnership with the Janus Institute. He continues to teach, mentor, and provide leadership to the economic development profession – usually with a heavy dose of humor, always with sincerity and with a love of helping others.