Active and influential site selectors are a select few professionals. These individuals and firms tend to do business with people they know and communities in which they have a familiarity. As a core goal of the Partnership Business Development strategy, we are meeting key site selectors and telling them the story of northeast Indiana.
What we found in our discussions with them was that their impression or knowledge of northeast Indiana was neither positive nor negative. They simply did not have an opinion. Therefore, the Partnership set out to positively change that non-opinion. One of the best ways to do accomplish this is to bring them to our region and show them the infrastructure, available properties, education opportunities and introduce them to key people within northeast Indiana.
When hosting an individual or firm, we are careful not to annoy our guest with clichés and “fluff”, but rather inform them and tell our story. Our goals of hosting are to show them how the Partnership works and introduce them to our member economic development professionals. We look at selected greenfield sites and existing vacant buildings. We involve town managers, commissioners, workforce development and the State, higher education and key regional industry leaders. These events can last from a day to one week.
When hosting a site selector, we also request their candid insight and feedback on the work we are doing and the manor in which we are marketing our region. This feedback helps local community representatives to improve their potential to attract the types of investments they are seeking, or to perhaps recognize relevant market opportunities which they have overlooked or underestimated.
Hosting a visit is no assurance that a project will follow, but it is planting the seed that will hopefully lead to just such an outcome. Whether or not the consultants involved directly bring a client project to the area soon, the relevant knowledge they can share should help to improve investment attraction efforts.