Religion and Economic Development

By Dean Whittaker Economic development agencies often team up with local businesses, leaders, and organizations to promote economic, political, and social well-being within their region. But, perhaps, their greatest ally for promoting community matters is left...

Predicting the Future

By Dean Whittaker Where does the future come from? How can we predict what will happen next? Does history repeat itself? My quest to predict future began with a question. Why are there cycles in things? We see cycles all around us – repeating patterns of events...

Looking for a Future?

By Dean Whittaker For the past three days, I have witnessed an amazing example of community leadership. A group of our community leaders in West Michigan determined that the business model on which our community is based is obsolete and no longer provides the future...

iPad 2 – Will it Replace my Laptop?

By Dean Whittaker The iPad is becoming a constant companion for the mobile economic development professional.  It is providing the platform for a wide range of applications that allows us to respond to our clients needs faster and do our work more efficiently as well...