Who you gonna call?

Who are your Economic Development allies?

You may be surprised at how many people you have helping you in your ED work.

I once did a flyer on that very premise. Called "Who Are Your Allies the flyers listed more than 25 categories of allies. If I rewrote that today, I bet I come up with more than 50 categories. The longer you work in this business, the bigger you network gets. That just because it seems that every project has a different set of allies on the team.

That's not to say you don't have your standard allies you call on all the time. But, rather that each project calls on you to dig deeper into your community resource base.

So, here is the start of that list. If it seems a little "Texas" sounding, that is because that is where I was working at the time with Gulf States Utilities, the electric supplier in Southeast Texas.

News media Television, radio, newspaper, magazines, local home pages,

Trade publications: Plant Sites and Parks, Area Development, Business Facilities, etc.

Advertising Agencies, Billboards, trade publications

Regional Planning Commission, Council of Governments

State Agencies State Economic Development Office of the Governor, State Comptroller, Agriculture Department (state and federal), (In Texas) the Railroad Commission, Highway Dept. , Attorney General, state education agen, Public Utilities Commission, Forest Service, General Land Office, state Water Board, stateParks and Wildlife (your agency titles may vary.)

Utilities Electricity, gas, phone, pipelines, city water & sewer department, private water and sewer, Internet provider (ISP's), Cable TV

Transportation Railroads, airports, airlines, ports, truck lines, bus lines, freight forwarder, express services, barge lines, ship lines

Business Groups Chambers, ED corporations, state and national chambers, foreign chambers of commerce, minority business councils,

Finance SBA, EDA, SETEDF, and banks, revolving loan funds, FHA, State Bond Commission, bonding attorneys, consultants

Federal Agencies Economic Development Administration, Department of Commerce, Dept. of Agriculture, SBA, Dept of Education, FHA, U.S. Forest Service, NOAA, USGS, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Railroad Commission, OSHA, Customs, Post Office, Federal Reserve, DOE, FTC.

We'll cover more in a future post.

--steve buser