IAMC INSIDER

op Groups and Top Deals are highlighted in this issue of Site Selection. These groups are being recognized for their extra ordinary efforts to bring various projects from pipe dreams to production. The teamwork between the groups, their prospects, their communities and the governmental/regulatory agencies is but one characteristic of these success stories. The host communities where the groups reside may be the primary benefactors of their efforts; however, we can all take note of skills, strategies, and resources employed by these top performers. To the extent we learn from these examples, we will all raise the level of our professionalism.

   Additionally, by highlighting these groups and their projects we are also making note of the profound impact that economic development professionals, as a whole, have upon their host communities. Whether a project is highlighted in this issue or not, and regardless of whether the project is a minor expansion of a fledging facility or the announcement of a mega facility, the work performed by the economic development professional has but one purpose: to enhance the economic vitality of the host community. Let us not forget that through the “multiplier effect” the impact of each business expansion or each new investment will ripple through the community, compounding its effects to the benefit of all.

   Providing the fertile ground in which the projects can grow takes the economic development professional down several paths. These paths may lead to the legislative halls of the government to lobby for needed changes, or to meetings with various agencies to securing funding for infrastructure development, or to public hearings as part of land planning, or to meetings to reconcile competing agendas, or to distant locations to search for new prospects, or simply across town to assist in the expansion of a home- grown industry. The paths traveled by the economic development professional can be long and tiring, frustrating and rewarding, but all paths traveled require integrity of character, sense of purpose, flexibility of tactics, diversity of talent, and dedication to achievement of objectives.

   To all of the economic development professionals who have brought projects from pipe dreams to production, you are to be commended for the many roads that you have surely traveled to make those projects successful.

Scott Reed IAMC Chair