Strategies that Work: Reinventing Local and Regional Economies

Thursday, September 6, 2:30 - 4:00 pm EST

Questions? Please contact [email protected]

http://www.iedconline.org/?p=Reinventing_Economies

Many communities and regions have experienced economic decline over the past several decades. As industries shifted and major companies closed their doors, communities were left with the choice of either diversifying and reinventing their local economies or continuing to experience an economic regression. Our first web seminar speaker, Gerald Gordon Ph.D. interviewed nearly 70 key stakeholders including elected officials, university presidents, chamber executives, economic development professionals, and leaders in communities around the country to identify strategies that have worked to reposition and reinvent local and regional economies. Speaking second, Robert Wooldridge will present a case study of how Pittsburgh and its region successfully conceived a plan to drive entrepreneurship leading to the diversification and change the direction of the local economy.

Join IEDC's Sept 6 webinar to learn strategies to make your community more resilient to the ebb and flow of the national and global economies. In this session, you will:
• Discover proactive strategies to forestall economic difficulties.
• Gain insight on the critical factors that lead to a turnaround in a local economy.
• Understand characteristics of communities that are resilient to national and global economic fluctuation.
• Hear both positive and negative experiences of cities and regions to showcase the lessons learned.

OUR EXPERT SPEAKERS INCLUDE:

Gerald L. Gordon, Ph.D., FM, HLM
President and CEO
Fairfax County Economic Development Authority

Dr. Gordon is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Economic Development Authority in Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the largest office space markets in the United States. He has been with the FCEDA since late 1983. In that time, office space in the county grew from 32 million square feet to more than 115 million square feet and jobs in the county grew from 243,000 to more than 600,000. As a result, the real estate tax rate has decreased from $1.47 to $1.07. Dr. Gordon has also worked for Arlington County, Virginia, and the United States Department of Labor. Dr. Gordon was instrumental in creating the Emerging Business Forum and bringing the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology to Fairfax County. In 2005, the FCEDA was named by Site Selection Magazine as one of the Top Ten Economic Development organizations in North America. In 2007, Time magazine called Fairfax County "one of the great economic success stories of our time." Dr. Gordon has taught at the Catholic University of America, the University of Maryland, George Mason University, and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Robert Wooldridge
Director
Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC)
Carnegie Mellon University

Bob oversees the CTTEC team and all elements of the licensing and start-up commercialization processes within the center. He spearheaded the reorganization of CTTEC after becoming director in 2002. Under his leadership, the center went from a $2M loss to break-even in three years. During his time at Carnegie Mellon he has personally negotiated over 150 license, research, and other complex agreements with companies ranging in size from start-up to multinational. Bob also developed then implemented new spin-off guidelines in 2002 which were designed to both encourage entrepreneurship and facilitate investment; on average, the program resulted in a 250% increase in the number of new companies per year and a reduction in the time to spin-out by 60%. Bob has been personally involved in the formation of several dozen CMU spin-offs. Bob has previously served as a member of the board of directors for a number of startup companies and entities including Mediasite, Inc., Wisdom Technologies Corporation, Carnegie Interactive, Inc., Chromodynamics, Inc., Carnegie Technology Holdings, and the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association.

http://www.iedconline.org/?p=Reinventing_Economies