Southern Indiana Business Report
BEDFORD — The sixth annual Radius Indiana economic development course at French Lick Resort concluded last Thursday, providing community leaders from six Indiana counties with insights into the evolving field of economic development.
Participants in the Radius Indiana Economic Development for Community Leadership Program attended educational sessions on topics related to local economic development, networked with other community leaders, and built skills in strategic planning and community problem-solving.
“Radius acknowledges that the field of economic development is undergoing considerable change to reflect the evolving needs of our communities,” said Jeff Quyle, CEO and president of Radius Indiana. “This year’s course provided information on topics that are timely and relevant to the vision that today’s community leaders have, topics like housing development, downtown business vitality, and population attraction. We appreciate the participation of our speakers who shared so much information that educates southern Indiana’s local leaders on issues of importance to economic vitality.”
The program is the only course of its kind to be offered in the southern Indiana area. Since the first course in 2017, nearly 165 people representing 25 Indiana counties have gathered to learn from national and regional speakers about topics and skills including site development, business attraction, workforce, marketing, quality of place, business finance and incentives, and entrepreneurship.
The speaker lineup for the two-and-a-half-day course included:
- Lisa Abbott, Regional Opportunity Initiatives – Housing Development
- Jim Plump, Jackson County Development Corporation – Economic Development Theory and Practice
- Chelsey Manns, Manns Consulting – Site Development
- Matt Eckerle, Baker Tilly – Incentives
- Tim Conrad, Stimulus Engineering – Site Selector Prospective
- Michael Wilcox, Purdue Center for Regional Development – Quality of Place
- Jenna Dix, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division – NSWC Crane Update
- Jason Hester, Greater Columbus Indiana Economic Development Corporation – Business Retention and Expansion
- Michael Eggleston, Federal Reserve – Rural Prosperity
- Carol Rogers, Indiana Research Center – Community Data
- Wendy Dant Chesser, One Southern Indiana – Strategic Planning and Community Engagement
“The Radius Economic Development Leadership course is truly second to none. There are very few offerings for economic development training and this course fills a much-needed gap for professionals and elected officials,” said Manns. “Radius and the team are forward thinking and extend the invitation beyond the Radius region, which benefits everyone.”
The group also heard from five panels focused on Radius-based programs including Choose Southern Indiana and population attraction, Discover Southern Indiana and tourism, Spark Downtown and downtown revitalization, support for entrepreneurship and small business support, and economic development marketing.
This year’s graduates included city, town, and county representatives, consultants, realtors, defense industry specialists, economic development professionals, utility representatives, and marketing specialists.
“I would encourage anyone who’s interested or works in economic development to consider attending this program. The course motivated me to take a deeper look into the challenges we face and how to get better involved,” said Matt Burkett, Deputy for Small Business for Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division. “The course was very comprehensive and covered a wide range of topics around economic development. I’m not an economic development professional, but I now better understand the challenges, available resources, and points of contact for businesses I engage with.”
“Overall, it was a really comprehensive course,” said Brandon Queary of Paoli.
A presentation on affordable housing resonated with Queary, who is executive director of Orange County Habitat for Humanity.
“The need for affordable housing is something we’re going to be addressing for the next 10 years. And how do we, as the most affordable builder in the state, find funding to bring in that affordable housing to communities,” he said. “Other pieces I enjoyed were quality of place and seeing that rise to No. 2 when you look at employer attraction and what are some small things we can start doing to build some momentum.”
Another takeaway, he said, was his own participation in community development.
“Beyond my role at Habitat, as someone who wants to see my community thrive, how can I be active in the economic development process, take back what we’ve learned here and start applying it,” he said.
Randy Clark, a member of the Orleans Town Council, said the conference gave practical tools for elected officials to use in seeking project funds, data collection and enhancing public spaces.
“There are different shoe sizes for different communities, which means one size doesn’t fit all. We have to be able to pull from our toolbox the many different tools to fit our community,” he said.
Clark said Wilcox’s presentation on quality of place resonated with him.
“You have to have hope. My acronym for hope is Help Other People Excel,” he said. “We’re only stewards here for a short time. If we don’t help others excel and pass on our knowledge, we’re going to repeat the same mistakes we did 50 years ago.”
Corporate sponsors and scholarships helped fund the program, including generous support from Hoosier Energy, Frost, Brown & Todd, Banning Engineering, Smithville Fiber, Duke Energy, Clark Dietz, and Indiana Municipal Power Agency.
Those interested in attending a Radius Indiana course in the future should contact the Radius office at 812-277-9778.