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New Websites Emphasize Hutchinson’s Many Assets

Monday, October 15, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Hutchinson, Kansas and the larger Reno County area recently launched three new websites to promote the region. The sites will serve as a valuable promotional tool for businesses, economic development and tourism. An online portal combines the sites into one user-friendly and comprehensive resource with a wealth of information for businesses and site selectors as well as potential residents and visitors. The sites were developed for three different organizations with distinct, yet related, missions: the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce; Visit Hutch, the Greater Hutchinson Convention/Visitors Bureau; and Greater Hutch, a partnership for economic development in Reno County. The Hutch...

Workforce Attraction Toolkit: Beating the Workforce Woes

Friday, October 12, 2018

By Golden Shovel Agency Worker scarcity permeates almost every conversation in political and economic development circles. For the last three fiscal quarters, analysts predicted the unemployment rate reached the lowest possible level; now, analysts wonder how low the rate can actually drop. One headline earlier this year stated “2018 Too Many Jobs and Not Enough Workers”. At the most basic level, this defines the problem communities’ face. Tight labor conditions have always existed in specific sectors. For example, shortages of programmers created difficulties for software companies. But programmer shortages didn’t affect retail or light manufacturing or healthcare. The difference with this tight labor market...

York County Development Corporation Receives Excellence in Economic Development Award from the International Economic Development Council

Tuesday, October 02, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release WASHINGTON, DC (October 02, 2018) – York County Development Corporation received a Bronze Excellence in Economic Development Award for York County Educational Partnerships, a project in the category of Partnership with Educational Institutions of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC). The honor was presented at an awards ceremony on Tuesday, October 2, during the IEDC Annual Conference, which was held September 29 – October 3, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. “It is an honor to receive this award on behalf of York County Development Corporation. This initiatives show that with dedication, a team of partners can come together and...

New Website Highlights Western Iowa’s Business Assets

Monday, September 10, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Carroll, Iowa – Western Iowa Advantage has launched a new website that will serve as a valuable tool for economic development. The comprehensive online portal highlights Western Iowa’s many business advantages. “The primary purpose of the site is to let site selectors and real estate professionals know that Western Iowa has a story to tell. It is a story of long term and innovative business success, while maintaining a comfortable lifestyle,” said Shannon Landauer, vice president of Western Iowa Advantage. The user friendly site simplifies the process of delivering details and custom reports on an array of pertinent topics...

VR Technology Brings Economic Developers and Site Selectors Together

Monday, September 10, 2018

Economic developers face an uphill battle to get site selectors and executives to visit their community and tour available properties. With site selectors scouting locations throughout the country, and potentially the world, it can take months or years of concerted efforts to arrange for a FAM tour. VR technology is solving this problem by making it possible for site selectors and executive to visit communities in the virtual world. Minnesota-based communication firm Golden Shovel recognized the potential for virtual-reality to bridge the gap and make these connections possible. In 2017, the firm launched a new service, PlaceVR, making it possible...

New Website Illustrates Development Opportunities in Pasadena, TX

Tuesday, September 04, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Pasadena, Texas – The Pasadena Economic Development Corporation (EDC) has launched a comprehensive new website to highlight the region’s many business advantages Pasadena, Texas is located just 20 minutes from Houston, the nation’s fourth largest city. Its residents enjoy an excellent quality of life. Its proximity to a vast transportation network, including major airports, freeways and rail systems, makes it a prime location for development and redevelopment. With this new online portal, Pasadena EDC has rebranded itself. The economic development agency’s website is a one-stop-shop for those interested in learning more about Pasadena. “We wanted to provide site selectors,...

South Dakota Prairie Gateway Site Showcases Opportunities

Tuesday, August 07, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Sisseton, SD - The South Dakota Prairie Gateway just launched a new website that illustrates the many economic development efforts and business opportunities in eastern South Dakota. South Dakota Prairie Gateway is a partnership to promote economic growth in the state, with a particular focus on the eastern region. Member organizations work together to attract businesses and develop their local economies. The website is one of the products of that collaboration. “This website partnership showcases the different and yet similar economic development efforts in the area and provides quick links to these partners via links to their websites,” said...

Five Steps to Strategy

Thursday, August 02, 2018

Building a framework in five steps that you won’t snore over. Every economic development director has created or discussed a strategic planning document. This process is critical to building a successful plan. And, getting started doesn’t need to be a formidable process that is overwhelming--start small and build on the success of each stage. Your organization's strategy should start with five basic components: purpose and goals, advantage, target, marketing, and lastly, niche. These components, if built correctly, can provide a solid framework for use in grant writing, business attraction and workforce campaigns as well as internal stakeholder communication. Purpose and Goals Why does a...

From the Archives: Five Strategies to Make Your Economic Development Content Marketing Stand Out in 2018

Monday, July 30, 2018

It’s past the halfway point for 2018, how many of these strategies have you implemented? Enjoy one of our archived articles for strategy development. ------------- Published by Golden Shovel 12/19/2017 The 2017 calendar is running out of days and there is a steady supply of cookies and eggnog in offices all over the country. This time of the year brings people together for conversations and optimism for the coming year. It is a special time of the year. It is also the right time to review successful content marketing strategies to be utilized in 2018. Before going to the big whiteboard and mapping out...

Midland Development Corporation Launches New Website

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Midland, Texas – The Midland Development Corporation (MDC) has launched a state-of-the-art website that displays the organization’s services and touts Midland’s many advantages and amenities. Midland has an auspicious location about halfway between Dallas and El Paso, Texas. It’s the third fastest growing metro area in the nation. MDC’s new online portal includes a host of innovative tools, yet is easy to use and optimized for mobile devices. “The Midland Development Corporation is proud to release a website that highlights our organization’s role in the community, and provides a wealth of information about living, working and doing business in...

With Oculus Go, VR for Economic Development is Ready for Business

Thursday, July 19, 2018

By Aaron Brossoit Golden Shovel Agency unveiled PlaceVR in Toronto at the 2017 International Economic Development Council’s Annual Conference. Our team showcased the first 360 videos of familiarization tours and site tours to the industry. For economic development professionals promoting their regions, these spherical videos are the best way to virtually bring people into a region or community. In September of 2017, however, the VR viewer options that were available for showcasing the videos were still limited. There were the top quality systems like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and the Playstation VR which presented a great VR experience, but was burdensome...

Why Some Economic Developers Find “All” The Deals

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

It is no secret that new introductions and relationships are fundamental to the success of an economic developer. Having the ability and tools to build a robust network of key industry contacts is critical to the success of failure of many of the economic developers I know. Conferences and tradeshows provide popular gathering events for people to come together and trade contract information. But there is another gathering place for economic developers and business owners: your website. Your website is attracting people every day. Have you reviewed the website traffic to see who’s visiting and how you can attract more visitors? With...

Using Data and Storytelling for Industry Attraction

Thursday, July 05, 2018

We’ve all heard the importance of data, and storytelling, but we haven’t spent much time working on storytelling with data and hard numbers. Communities have to not only have tangible numbers to show industry and site selectors, but they also have to have a compelling story for why the industry would want to move there. Let’s examine what you could be doing better to tell your community story. You are not a marketer. As an economic development professional, you wear many hats. But the most important hat you wear is the leader. Too often economic development directors try to lead and try to...

Violet Township’s State of the Art Website Aims to Attract Industry

Monday, June 25, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Pickerington, OH – Violet Township has launched a new website, which will serve as a valuable tool for the region’s economic development. The online portal showcases the area’s many business advantages and aims to attract business. Site selectors for large projects, small business owners looking for a place to start up and existing business looking to expand will all find helpful information on the website. It features available sites and buildings as well as details on the area’s infrastructure and three distinct growth corridors. “This state of the art website tells the story of Violet Township and will...

Now What? Why Site Selectors are Looking Past Your Community.

Monday, June 18, 2018

So your community didn’t get on the finalist list for Amazon HQ2, now what? The site selection process is changing and adapting with the trends in business. While it may still be important to look for potentially large company relocations, many good business expansions can occur with small to mid-sized companies. But gaining the attention of these businesses requires some creative approaches. Incentives don’t matter as much as talent Workforce, workforce, workforce. The ability for a community to attract and retain a workforce is ranking at the top of the incentive list. Business owners may still be interested in traditional incentives, but...

Attracting New Industry Through Advanced Marketing Strategies

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Northeast Kentucky Development has officially launched this week, a organization that aims to attract new businesses into the 12 county region, which will serve as a valuable player for the region’s economic development. The development organization will highlight available sites, buildings, and resources available for new and expanding industry into the area, primarily in Aerospace and Automotive. Sam Howard, Managing Principal of Northeast Kentucky Development says he started the organization to provide the region with a voice. “Counties within the region are typical of rural Kentucky. We have an abundant availability of land at a reasonable cost. We have a workforce...

Golden Shovel Agency Partners with Barber Business Advisors for Economic Growth

Thursday, May 17, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Barber Business Advisors and the Golden Shovel Agency have agreed to a strategic partnership in which the two firms will jointly offer consulting services to economic development organizations nationwide. The announcement was made while representatives of the two firms were attending the Consultant Connect ECONOMIX conference in Frisco, a Dallas suburb. BBA is based in Dallas and Golden Shovel is based in Little Falls, Minnesota. Representatives of the two firms attending the conference said the partnership is designed to bring additional services to communities that seek to market their locations for business attraction. “Promoting the economic development narrative of communities...

Golden Shovel Agency partners with Kentucky Association for Economic Development

Monday, April 30, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release LITTLE FALLS, MN, April 30, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ --Promoting your community’s economic development narrative has never been so important. Social media and virtual reality video advancements give economic developers an astounding arsenal of communication tools. Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency, announced earlier this month the new partnership with Kentucky Association for Economic Development (KAED) and Golden Shovel. The partnership hopes to bring more services to the communities in Kentucky including communication and marketing; while also working with KAED to craft success stories for the members of the association. Best practices in communication and marketing will be highlighted by...

Addressing The Child Care Shortage: Lee Container offers unique employee benefit

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

A Centerville company is gaining statewide attention for a proactive new benefit it’s offering to employees. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds was on hand for an October 31 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new daycare facility in Centerville that will largely serve children of Lee Container employees. While chatting with Lee Container President Robert Varnedoe at a governor’s deer hunt a few years ago, Gov. Reynolds gave early encouragement for his idea to open a day care in Centerville. At the ribbon cutting, she praised Lee Container’s efforts and the impact such actions can have on overall economic growth. “We want to acknowledge how...

Montgomery County Development Corporation Launches Marketing Initiative

Friday, March 23, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Red Oak, IA - Executive director, Shawnna Silvius is committed to raising the awareness of Montgomery County, IA and to expanding economic development and growth of the region. The communities of Montgomery County have already begun launching downtown development initiatives, working to establish gap funding to spur housing, industrial and business development and pairing with local school districts to expand workforce training and improve workforce and business attraction. To ensure the success of the new economic development programs, the Montgomery County Development Corporation Board of Directors partnered with the national communications firm, Golden Shovel Agency. The Board recognizes the...

What's Wrong with WordPress

Friday, March 09, 2018

There's been a war on security, cyber security, and if you have a WordPress site you might be at risk, like the 50,000 users who have recently been hacked (don't believe, us? read here). But that's only one of the reasons why a WordPress site might not be the best fit, especially in Economic Development. Another key concern is it's code quality, an integral issue is the quality of the WordPress code itself, such as old use of versions and contributors who did not follow the strict structural standards. If that still doesn't have you convinced, let's bring up another topic...

National Economic Development Week 2018

Tuesday, May 08, 2018

The Golden Shovel Agency Team is excited to celebrate National Economic Development Week, May 7th through May 11, 2018. This is a fantastic way to increase awareness to the hard-working economic developers across the United States and especially to our clients who are committed to increasing awareness to their communities. Thank you for building our communities and helping the next generation succeed. Economic development, by definition, has the goal of improving the well-being and quality of life for any state, region or community by expanding the businesses, expanding the workforce and growing incomes so the tax base can be expanded. In...

Golden Shovel Team Presenting at 2018 CALED Annual Training Conference.

Thursday, March 01, 2018

By 24-7 Press Release Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency will be presenting during the 2018 CALED Annual Training Conference in Monterey, CA March 14th - 16th. LITTLE FALLS, MN (Golden Shovel Agency) –- Monterey, CA will be a Economic Development dream for leadership this March as the 2018 Annual Training Conference kicks off. Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency, looks forward to building relationships at the conference. “Training conferences are always a great place to engage with Economic Development leaders,” said Brossoit. “There are always key connections to be made.” Aaron Borossoit will be presenting at this years Annual Training Conference...

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