Strategic Planning
Strategic planning for a community or organization envisions its future and develops necessary procedures and actions to achieve that future. This session will focus on the background understanding of strategic planning and its process, how to design & organize the process, and developing strategies and formulating action plans.

Entrepreneurship; Small Business Development
This session will provide an overview of the role of small business in the U.S. economy, creation of jobs, a brief profile of the small business creation process, and an introduction to the new and emerging areas of small business creation.

Managing an Economic Development
Organization
This session will cover the issues specific to economic development organizations such as; working with leaders, developing a vision for the organization and community, delegation of available resources to the right programs and the development of the most appropriate programs for that organization and community.

Attraction and Marketing
As an economic developer, it is important that you have basic knowledge of the marketing process and its benefits. This session will focus on the marketing process, geographic and economic considerations, suspects vs. prospects, and advertising & promotion. Also addressed will be market research and targeting.

Real Estate Development and Reuse
In this session, participants will be introduced to the land development process, with an emphasis on the role that the economic developer plays. Participants will learn about the various tools that are available at the local level, including tax increment financing, bonds, land assembly and eminent domain, in addition to the many federal programs available.

Financing
This session will focus on several key elements, including: blending of sources, capital availability, source of long-term financing, returns to the lender, and leveraging. Once we have a better understanding of the structure, we will then look at the two sectors in financing: public and private.

Workforce Development
Workforce development is quickly becoming the #1 focus for economic development organizations. A skilled and educated workforce is crucial in today’s economy. This interactive session will focus on the need for the creation of workforce development programs that address both community and business needs.

Community Development
This session will provide an understanding of the steps in the community development process, and the challenges of community development in economic development practice.

Retention and Expansion
Business retention and expansion is critical in today’s economy. The objectives of this session will include how to organize a business retention and expansion program. We will cover how to provide examples of programs and activities that foster the growth of existing business, to recommend strategies helpful in implementing a successful program, and identify valuable local resources.

Ethics for Economic Development
Incorporating ethics into professional standards is critical to the on going growth of the economic development profession. Ethical standards ensure accountability, transparency and integrity. Learn what your economic development organization should include in its ethics policies and practices.