Arthur EDC Presentation

1. Arthur EDC Presentation June 30, 2009

2. Who is ECIDC? 11 County Nonprofit Economic Development Consortium : Christian, Clark, Coles, Crawford, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Jasper, Moultrie, and Shelby Counties Foster a regional approach to economic development, provide support services to our membership and aid in current local and regional development efforts. I am here to talk more about those services that we can provide your community in order to assist with your efforts.

3. Market Analysis Services Market Analysis Services are comprised of gathering information and generating reports and analysis on the business and consumer climates for a specific study area, whether that be zip codes, municipalities, counties or specified miles or drive times from a specific site or store. Able to retrieve this valuable information through use of a GIS or Geographic Information System. Essentially all of this means is that data is linked to location for detailed analysis.

4. What Types of Analysis Available? Analyze customers in a stated study area and find out: Detailed demographics: age, income, educational obtainment, and the like Consumer expenditures: Over 100 categories of consumer expenditures can be obtained as a total spent as a population and average spent per household. Tapestry Segmentation: All neighborhoods are characterized as 1 of 66 segments. These segments are then analyzed and described by demographic and sociologic characteristics all the way to which television channels they watch.

5. How Can Info Be Used? The information can be used to aid current and prospective business owners and prospective ones as well as economic developers by allowing them to get a glimpse at their market and analyze their consumers to make informed decisions on: Services they should provide or products to carry Best methods for reaching their target audience Finding new or additional customers Potential for expanding operations into another community Researching the competition and evaluating if there is enough room in the market to support an additional retailer, restaurant, business of the same nature.

6. Community Leadership Dev. Training Built on a model utilized to bring connectivity to two counties, now utilize it to bring connectivity within a community, county, or region. Broke into 4 sessions, literature stating that sessions last 4 hours but can be done in shorter times such as 2 hour sessions or specialized to the community’s needs or can skip session 1-2 and go to session 3-4 or vice versa.

7. Community Leadership Dev. Training These four sessions are: Understanding Self-Utilize Real Colors Training facilitated by the U of I Extension to aid in identifying self and others characteristics. Understanding Team-Discuss keys of civility: trust, process, people, and dialogue. Community rating on civility and setting rules of how we will treat each other. Understanding Community-Asset mapping, both physical and human capital that your community possesses. Understanding Strategy-Learning how to link and leverage those assets to move your community forward with a plan of action.

8. Development &Training ECIDC works with other agencies to offer training and provide tools to our membership and economic developers in the area: Last year we provided Location One training, we always have informational speakers at our meetings that speak on resources available to our membership and this year we are hosting a community funding forum, where several local, regional, state, and federal agencies will speak about their program offerings and participants will the have the time to speak one-on-one with them about their specific projects. Travel around the region to speak on regionalism and other topics to groups such as yours and aid in the creation and sustainability of new and existing economic development groups.

9. Research & Resources ECIDC’s website houses an enormous database that is linked to many resources that can be found throughout the region or is provided to the region. I am also working on a Community Leaders’s Resource Guide that will go into printing soon and will be handed out at the Funding Forum on July 9th. It will then be available online and in print upon request. ECIDC also houses information about the individual countties within the region that is of interest to developers and community people alike. Soon the individual municipalities information will be listed as well.

10. Research & Resources I have contacts with most of the agencies that provide assistance in the areas of both economic and community development and often connect communities with the proper contacts for their needs. I constantly search for grant opportunities and pass along valuable information and resources to our membership.

11. Networking Events I would like to end in speaking about one of the greatest benefits to our organization, and that is the opportunity to meet, network, and troubleshoot with communities across this 11 county region. It takes so much time to recreate the wheel, therefore, you can learn successful strategies that are utilized by other communities in the area that can be tweaked to fit your needs and then launched. There are some great people in this region that enjoy partnering with others for the common goal of growing the area. We don’t operate within boundaries in this area, we share and therefore we grow. We have a strong network which allows us to help guide you to an appropriate mentor to aid in your efforts.