REFLECTIONS ON IEDC 2019 - OCO Connect

REFLECTIONS ON IEDC 2019

With this year’s IEDC Annual Conference having come and gone, we’re back in-office reflecting on this year’s event, and deepening the conversations started both at the event and in after-hours networking.

IEDC is all about building relationships and facilitating interaction. It was a chance to catch up with our closest clients, meet future clients, and take a peek at what our competitors are doing. It’s also a chance to get a feel for the atmosphere across the US on the trends affecting economic development.

Whether in the panel sessions or on the exhibition floor, we met with thought leaders and practitioners who understand the essentials of delivering successful economic development. At OCO we continue to pursue the cutting-edge position of being an economic development consultancy that stands at the forefront of thought leadership and successful implementation.

The theme of this year’s conference was highlighted as “Innovation, Talent, and Place”, perhaps replacing the old economic development mantra, “location, location, location.” Not to say that location is no longer important, but there is a new consideration of the driving forces that push companies to expand, and both talent and innovation are urgent priorities that set the blueprint for location.

Instead of merely establishing an attractive location, economic development organizations are asking the question “what type of business clusters do we want to attract?”, and “what are the best practices for bringing the necessary talent to support these clusters.”

At OCO we embrace the opportunity to help answer these questions and support economic development organizations in their efforts to cultivate talent and find their place in a competitive world. We are embedded in key global locations to best provide the resources for identifying new markets, dynamic companies, and helping clients answer their unique questions concerning the concepts of talent, innovation, and place.

If you would like to develop a conversation with OCO to answer the question “what makes best sense for us?”, please reach out to any of our team members. We would love to share our insights with you, and to elevate your economic development capacity to greater heights.

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