Since 2005, I have helped communities across the Southeast engineer their economic development success.
It’s What I Do.
Does your community need economic development or community planning technical assistance? Let’s work together to reach your community’s full economic development potential, improve quality of life, and create thriving a place to live and do business.
Strategic Planning
It all begins with a plan. Strategic planning sets the vision and future direction in a community. Whether it’s redeveloping buildings in a historic downtown, identifying uses for an underutilized site, planning for streetscape improvements, helping small businesses, or tackling housing challenges, a strategic plan will help define your priorities and provide guidance on the resources available to achieve your community’s goals.
Workforce Development
How skilled is your workforce? Are the labor needs of your local economy being met? If you need to better understand the gaps in your workforce pipeline and how to fill them, a labor market and workforce analysis can help answer these questions. Along with recommendations for workforce solutions, a workforce analysis can coalesce the right partners to ready a highly skilled, and available supply of workers to meet the needs of your community.
Economic Recovery + Resilience
It’s not if, but when. At some point, every community will experience some form of economic or community disruption. Communities are on the front lines of disaster response, so it’s imperative to be prepared before the unexpected happens. Have a plan to mitigate your community’s disaster risk, prepare for an active response, and re-gain economic recovery with an economic recovery and resilience plan.
Visioning
What does your organization want to be and how will you get there? Visioning is the fundamental step that can help establish your organization’s economic and community development goals, and get everyone on your team on the same page. If your organization needs to define its strategic direction, a visioning process will set the foundation. This process will present a clear picture of long-term success and why it matters to your community.
Regional Competitiveness
How does your site stack up? Underutilized properties are an enormous untapped resource, but with an analysis of a site along with the region’s competitiveness, these properties can be converted to tax revenue generating assets, capable of leveraging financial investments elsewhere in the community. By analyzing the region’s strengths, the site’s physical assets, and a review of the site’s potential risks, a community can develop an informed and targeted approach to marketing the site.
Speaking Engagements
Need a speaker for your event who is well-versed on any of these topics, or other economic development or community planning issues? I have spoken at professional associations, economic development conferences and courses, national conferences, and served as a subject matter expert on panels. Please contact me to schedule some time to connect!
“There are dreamers and there are planners; the planners make their dreams come true.”
— Edwin Lewis Cole