WEEKLY UPDATE      October 26th, 2007

"BUILDING INNOVATIVE NETWORKS" ...was the takeaway from this week’s Oklahoma Economic Development Council annual meeting held in the tiny hamlet of Oklahoma City. Chris Engle from a leading consulting firm in Austin, TX said that community futures will be determined by building an innovation infrastructure rather than industrial recruitment which marked the old version of economic development. Ed Morrison, who skyrocketed to fame as a result of his appearance last year at the World Famous, Highly Anticipated Ponca City Economic Development Conference, (next one: February 29th) said that the key to success in the future is to build networks and move away from the top down, old economy hierarchies of the past. Put them together and you’ve got marching orders to "Build Innovative Networks". CAN THE SOONER STATE START THINGS SOONER?? ...visiting wise man Bill Millett, a nationally known speaker on the link between early child hood education and economic development spoke to the Rotary Club and friends, on Monday. Millett’s message is simple: if we want to build a productive workforce for the future, we need to start sooner in life. The nation, and for that matter Oklahoma, can’t afford the inefficiencies of having 30% of our kids be economically irrelevant when they don’t finish high school. Truth be told there was no real recipe for success delivered by Millett but it was, as one Rotarian said, a “call to arms.” THE COMPANIES WE KEEP ...one of the points stressed this week at the various gab fests was that business recruitment and expansion, (BRE) is becoming more and more critical every day. We’ve been waiting for that message and must humbly assume that the fact that we were named the “2007 Business Retention and Expansion Program of the Year” was the sole inspiration for consultants to understand this new reality. We confess to some recruitment and to that end continued our work this week with one company that came from out of state while another continues to line up their ducks. We also met with a local company considering expansion, set up a meeting next week with another considering expansion, and have yet another meeting set up next week with a local company considering (guess what?) expansion. SPREADING THE WORD ...is what marketing is all about. If you cruise I-35, you’ve seen new billboards with a simple message designed to let the world know where success awaits them. We also did a photo shoot yesterday with several of our companies for an upcoming marketing campaign. Our drop-out outreach is starting to generate results as the first such person was “plugged in” this week to the training and job resources available to them. PCDA and Pioneer Tech were in Oklahoma City on Wednesday at a job fair letting people know about available jobs in Ponca City. Marketing, too, must be agile and adapt to new realities. UPCOMING.... Sun. Oct. 28th-Tue. Oct. 30th: Corenet Global (PCDA co-sponsor for site selectors) Atlanta Tue. Nov. 6: Tonkawa Development Authority meeting, Tonkawa City Hall, 7 am Tue. Nov. 8th: PCDA Trustees monthly meeting, 7:30 am, Chamber Conference Room Ponca City Development Authority 102 S. Fifth Street, Ste. 3, Ponca City, OK 74601 580.765.7070/580.765.0969-fax Or E-Mail - David Myers CEcD - Executive Director Visit Ponca City Development's Latest News Archives © www.goponca.com - Ponca City Development Authority - Ponca City, Oklahoma