WEEKLY UPDATE      March 16th, 2007

SURE'IN U BE LOOKIN FORWARD TO ST. PATTY'S DAY ...tomorrow. So, too, will PCDA as our own Tim, "wee lad" Burg travels to Florida, along with our friends from Stillwater and other Oklahoma communities, to participate in the three day CFO Rising trade show. This was the show where we first met Host Analytics and Ardmore met Dollar Tree. A WEE BIT OF WORK THIS WEEK ...do you suppose St. Patty had a My Space account? More to the point, this week has kept us developing several pots 'o gold for Ponca City. We met with a company on Wednesday that made a proposal to us, (it's usually the other way around). Big project and we're doing the math right now. Another project had the final agreements developed, (small and mighty project) and will be the subject of an upcoming PCDA special meeting. Another even smaller one is getting signatures on their agreement. PCDA also had the opportunity to meet the new Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce, Natalie Shirley, a #$%&* graduate of Blackwell High. The OK Gateway meeting was also held today and the new workforce study for the region was distributed along with a marketing discussion. IT'S WORKING ...you may remember us talking about our new Executive Pulse business retention and software system to tie in our partners better to the needs of existing businesses. It's not quite fully operational but we've already had success as the system identified two companies that needed services and connected them. We should be able to bring in our partners in April and that should greatly expand what the new system can do to grow jobs. BIG P MEETS BIG D ...in addition to just talking to companies and finding out about their needs, PCDA works to actually meet those needs where possible. Many of our manufacturers have identified marketing assistance as a primary need. To address this, PCDA will sponsor a booth at the Dallas AmCon trade show, (contract manufacturing) in May. Two Ponca City companies are already signed up to attend, (they just pay their way as PCDA pays the booth costs). This allows them to help sell their products and services while PCDA sells Ponca City. A third company dropped out saying they had too much work and couldn't afford time away. THEY'RE WORKING ...the people that really produce the results had a couple of interesting milestones this week. One Ponca City company installed a piece of equipment that cost them over $1 million to help them meet their mushrooming orders. Machines take people to run them and this company has been adding Ponca Citians as well as machines to their steel and metal oriented line, (up approximately 100 employees in the last year, assisted by PCDA). Another was working a trade show in Las Vegas where they actually ran out of marketing materials after writing large volume orders. They are expanding with the help of PCDA. UPCOMING.... Sun-Wed, 3/18th-20th: CFO Rising Trade Show with the Department of Commerce, Orlando Tue or Wed, 3/27 or 28, (TBA): PCDA Board of Trustees Special Meeting 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