By Dean Whittaker As you know, because of the disruptive nature of the pandemic, your economic development organization is focused primarily on business retention. However, you also understand the importance of maintaining an aggressive business outreach strategy. For...
By Dean Whittaker With over four decades of experience in economic development, I am hard pressed to see a clear path forward for the clients we serve. Economic development organizations are struggling to re-start their local economies after having been shut down for...
By Dean Whittaker For the past two months, I have been part of a collaborative effort of a network of economic development professionals who’ve come together to create, distribute, collect, and analyze a survey to determine how businesses are responding to...
By Dean Whittaker The play the Music Man that I saw at the Goodman Theater recently reminded me of economic development. The play was written in 1957 and is about the misadventures of a traveling salesman posing as Professor Harold Hill, a music instructor, who...
By Dean Whittaker The Southern Economic Development Council (SEDC) Meet the Consultants conference was held in Chicago, March 20th and 21st. In the six panel discussions, we learned about the trends in site location of back offices, distribution/logistics centers,...
