Governor’s Conference to focus on rural communities
Sunday September 09, 2007
GREG MENZA
Staff Writer
from: The Daily Herald in Columbia, TN
Educating economic developers from across the state about new incentives and introducing new opportunities for rural communities will be major topics of the 2007 Governor's Conference on Economic and Community Development in Nashville Wednesday and Thursday.
The theme of this year's conference is "From Paper to Power" and will feature keynote speeches by Gov. Phil Bredesen and Oreck President and CEO Tom Oreck. Also on the agenda is Maury Alliance President Frank Tamberrino, who will take part in two panels and present awards to several Tennessee Main Street program directors including Kristi Martin of Main Street Columbia. Sessions on a variety of topics important to community leaders involved in business recruitment and job creation will be a key ingredient of the conference.
"We'll be talking a lot about rural county economic development and spending a lot of time on the kinds of things we can be doing in that area," Bredesen said. "There are a lot of incentives to take advantage of, and sometimes local officials are not aware of them."
Bredesen cited the Rural Opportunity Fund set up by the last session of the Legislature as an example.
"The fund provides a way of leveraging private capital to get some money into the hands of companies that are looking into locating in rural communities," he said.
Bredesen said the model to be used emphasizes a four-step process: 1) developing a skilled workforce; 2) investment in infrastructure; 3) fostering innovation and 4) having local leaders getting more involved in the marketing and promotion of their communities.
"These are the kinds of things that can be done to bring in businesses to a community," he said. "The background here, is that creating good paying jobs for our rural areas has been one of the most persistent challenges I've faced as governor. We have a great record in urban and suburban areas - Expansion magazine recently noted Tennessee is at the top of their list of the best states for business - but the rural communities have not shared in that. We're going to be spending a lot of time on the things we can be doing in that area."
The conference schedule includes two sessions entitled "What Exactly Are Tennessee's Incentives?" led by Tennessee Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr and ECD Business Development Administrator Kingsley Brock. In addition to the discussion of incentives, conference attendees will be given information on the best way to apply for the wide variety of grant and loan programs available through ECD. Community leaders also can learn how to market their communities to international investors as a site for a new plant or business, as well as how to help their local businesses grow through accessing foreign markets.
In October, Bredesen and ECD Commissioner Matt Kisber will lead a nine-day trade mission to China after attending meetings a few days earlier in Japan.
"We've been very successful at attracting Japanese business to Tennessee as is evident in Maury County in Mt. Pleasant," Bredesen said. "The China trip will be mostly casting bread on the waters to bring some of that business here."
Attendees will also hear briefings from site selection consultants representing such firms as Plante, Moran, PLLC, Cushman & Wakefield and J.M. Mullis.
Tamberrino recently returned from Los Angeles where he spent time with several site selection representatives including those from Cushman & Wakefield.
"Meeting with folks like those is an important ingredient to attracting new business," he said. "The Governor's Conferences provide excellent opportunities to network with many of the decision makers who will determine where a company settles as well as others from around the state to find out what they are doing."
Hickman County ECD Director Daryl Phillips agreed.
"I've been attending the conference for years," he said. "It's a great opportunity to gather together and network with peers, exchange ideas and collect information. They also bring in talented speakers with ideas to help us evaluate and improve strategies for building our business communities."
A full schedule and session descriptions for this year's conference are available at http://www.tnecd.gov/.
