|
Article Printed in
Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce
2005 Leadership Conference Executive Summary
July 2005
Five-year, $5 million effort to make the region a contender for attracting good jobs
Boise Valley leaders are passing the hat to collect $5 million to promote the region and keep established businesses from moving away.
“This effort shows this regions is very, very serious about remaining a contender – globally and nationally – for good jobs,” said Nancy Vannorsdel, president and CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce.
The effort, known as the Valley Initiative for Prosperity Campaign (VIP), has been drafted with the assistance of Howard Benson, founder and CEO of National Community Development Services in Atlanta, GA. VIP is a five-year marketing program to generate jobs and attract capital investment, as well as retain existing businesses. The Boise Valley Economic Partnership, a division of the Boise Metro Chamber, will administer VIP.
VIP will have these goals:
- Attract 25 new companies in the “best fit” target profile, such as computers and electronics, recreation equipment manufacturing, health care, bio- and nano- technology, finance, arts and entertainment and building materials.
- Create 5,000 targeted, incremental, primary jobs that pay 30% above the Idaho average.
- Generate 7,500 secondary jobs as a result of the primary jobs created.
- Bring $650 million in new capital investment in the form of new plants, equipment & facilities.
In developing the plan, Benson interviewed 72 local leaders to assess the effectiveness of existing Boise Valley promotional efforts and how they could be improved.
“We’re convinced a goal of $5 million is feasible and attainable,” Benson said. “I think you have good momentum and you have asking rights.”
However, Benson said there’s been a tendency to hit up a few large companies to help with economic development projects. Newer, small- and mid-sized companies will need to step up to the plate.
Jason Crawforth, president and CEO of Treetop Technologies Inc. of Boise, said mid-sized companies, such as his need promotion more than anything, while large companies need tax breaks and small one need investment. Crawforth said he, the state, the chamber and 16 other tech companies recently ran an ad in the Wall Street Journal the profile of Idaho tech companies, and Treetop in particular.
However, companies will expect to see meaningful results and getting them to ante up for VIP may be challenging.
“Medium-sized companies like ours are trying to make payroll-I have 285 people to feed every month-so we don’t have discretionary income to say, “Here’s $5,000 to this new initiative,” Crawforth said. “I need to know how this is going to help me sell my product. I could run an ad in the Journal and close a couple of million dollar deals.”
Benson agreed, saying it will be important for VIP to regularly assess how well it’s doing meeting its goals to satisfy donors.
“There has to be more than an extreme warm glow of satisfaction when a donor writes a check,” Benson said. “You have to be able to show them a quantifiable return on investment.”
|
