Dale Benish of the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce (GRCC) in Michigan held a lovely dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s downtown Phoenix. In attendance at the dinner were Deane Foote, President of Foote Consulting Group; Dale Benish, Business Development Manager for GRCC; Saul Grohs, a Founding Partner of Location Advisory Services, Inc.; Paige Webster, Site Selection Consultant for Foote Consulting Group; and Don Rodie, Senior Director at Cushman & Wakefield in Phoenix. The dinner was held Monday, February 21, 2011, and was an “invitation-only” event for local site selectors.
Deane Foote, Dale Benish, Saul Grohs, and Paige Webster (pictured clockwise from bottom left) enjoy dinner at McCormick & Schmick's in Phoenix.
Emily at the new QC Inc. business incubator in Queen Creek, AZ.
Deane and I had the pleasure of attending the Grand Opening of Queen Creek’s new business incubator, QC Inc. on Wednesday (02/09/2011) evening. The facility, which is located at 22713 S. Ellsworth Road, Building A, looks absolutely amazing! There are great office spaces available, social networking areas, access to top-of-the-line office machinery, coffee bar, a privacy office, and a lovely conference room sponsored by SRP. Anyone in the Queen Creek area with a home or small business would highly benefit from QC Inc.! The incubator location actually houses the Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce, and has partnered with My Brother’s Office, an incubation hosting facility.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5:30 PM was held by the Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce, and included several speakers. The first was Kim Moyers, the Economic Development Specialist for the Town of Queen Creek, followed by: Mayor Gail Barney; Lee Ester of SRP; Marquis Scott, MEd., President/Executive Director of the Queen Creek Chamber of Commerce; and Jeff Cutler from My Brother’s Office. Foote Consulting Group received a mention as well, as we conducted the initial feasibility study for the incubator. We caught up with many of our fellow economic development contacts, and made some new ones too. Kim Moyers gave us the grand tour, and we dined on the awesome spread catered by a nearby smokehouse. It was a superb event. We wish QC Inc. all the best!
Brochures from the QC Inc.Kim Moyers talks about the QC Inc.Mayor Barney speaks to attendees of the QC Inc. Grand Opening
Deane was recently featured in Site Selection magazine for his participation at the Site Selectors Roundtable at the Mid-America Economic Development Council (MAEDC) 2010 Competitiveness Conference in Chicago. Deane, along with our associate Don Schjeldahl from the Austin Group, and others, shared their thoughts regarding the “ramifications of the 2010 elections on incentive programs and other aspects of economic development.” The article, by Ron Starner of Conway Data, can be found here: Changing Tax Climate Affects Plant Movement
Last week, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend my first Economic Development course with the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in beautiful Tucson, AZ. The course was five days, and while it was extremely beneficial, it was pretty intense! The days are full of lectures on subjects crucial to economic development, such as working with real estate brokers, marketing, social media, and so on. I took a lecture about sustainability in economic development that was really interesting. As most of you know, I am in charge of more of the “back end” aspects of our business; I think that taking the course helped me understand more about the “front end” of economic development. I am looking forward to continuing on to the Economic Development Institute to become a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD).
Check out our "winning" Powerpoint!
While at the course, I met some awesome people! Most of my classmates were from various communities here in Arizona, but there were a couple from other states as well. Part of the course was to split into teams and complete a case study. It was pretty challenging given the small amount of time we had for research and such, but it was a great learning experience. We created a strategic plan for a region, and created a sales pitch for a prospective company. Our team really worked well together, and we also had really good ideas. This was acknowledged too as we won the presentation portion of the assignment! If you click on the image to the right, it will allow you to view our awesome Powerpoint (in PDF version) – take a look!
I would like to thank everyone who attended the Tucson course – it was so great meeting you all. I would also like to thank Erik Glenn, our generous program director. Also, thank you to Ron Canham, President of The Canham Group, for giving us guidance and support. And last but not least, a big “thank you” to APS for sponsoring the course! I had a great time, and I loved staying in Tucson!
