Growing The Development Culture

Growing The Development Culture

"Getting There..."  Dr. Dana Richardson,   Eco Dev

You’ve seen the movie, “Hoosiers,” starred Gene Hackman as the coach who took a small town ball team to state?  “Yeah, figures Dr. D that you’d choose a basketball movie story seein’ as how our boys are in the playoffs for football, genius!”  Yes I know, but some quotes are too good to pass up! Be they football, like Denzel Washington, talking to the team as Coach Boone, of “Remember The Titans,” at Gettysburg, “this is hallowed ground.” Or, Gene Hackman, taking his boys into a gym at state that’s huge, asking them to measure the basketball key, remember that?  They measured the net, they measured the key, and his statement was, “I’ll think you’ll find that the measurements there are the exact same ones we have back home.”  His point was; it isn’t the size the opponent, it’s the heart of the competitor, and it’s how you compete; whether we win, lose or draw (can you have a draw in football?) – If our athletes play their hearts out and play with good conduct and athletic manners of combat in football, they are winners.

THEY ARE ALREADY WINNERS- GETTING THERE!

  Economic Development carries in the program an idea that somehow we’re going to make businesses happen, education get better, the infrastructure of the community get better, the way that the community reports itself to the outside world, become enhanced.  In short, the expectations for a good economic development program need funds; and what we tend to believe is that those funds will always come from the Federal Government, State government, or some other source of grant money.  Here’s a shocker- they usually don’t.  In major cities which have huge economic development programs, the majority of the funding comes from the city leaders.  Grant money can happen, and we’ve been fortunate to have grants approved, but we’ve been unfortunate to then have the agency approving the grant, not receive enough money to fund the grant?  Interesting concept; that one is; sort of like, ordering a Cheeseburger, like everybody else, but only being able to watch other people eat it? Isn’t there a better solution, in order that, our community can continue to grow, continue getting there? 

  Did you catch that, how we report ourselves to the world sentence?  You may have thought “internet,” O.K., think “internet” as T.V.; see it?  How powerful is the impression left by the first contact with a website?  In the case of Universal Studio Orlando (http://www.universalorlando.com/) it’s pretty powerful – Harry Potter is front and center; and who, could forget Harry?  In the case of NASA a lot of really cool things are going on no matter what page you click to (http://www.nasa.gov/).   If you type in Lafayette Louisiana, you get this (http://www.lafayettela.gov/) web site that is aimed at you communicating with them, and visiting them; hmm, that’s interesting, wouldn’t you say?  So what about Springhill, what do people see if they type into the search engine Springhill Louisiana?  It is in the top three on Google as a web site, great, but it’s behind, Wikipedia and North Webster Chamber of Commerce?  Is North Webster Chamber of Commerce, Springhill?  No but we have a nice link middle of their screen; but would a person have to want to find Springhill to use this?  Here’s the point; surfing facts tell us that when an executive is looking for a new community to come to, they go to; Google, and they search for the community- the question you need to ask yourself is, are the sites that they’re finding about us influencing their choice?  Is there any possibility that we might make our site better, more attractive, more welcoming and more inviting to them to contact us?  When those executives click on your page you have 7 seconds to impress them,  or they’re gone!  We need to perhaps think about what it is that we want to show them, so that, when it comes to getting them here, we’re getting there!  

Your Opportunity Is Looking Right At You

YouTube presents you as a television channel.
This truth is sobering, especially if nobody
watches, then, it's very sobering.

It might mean you don't post a video worth taking
in, or, it can mean that your video is fine,
it's just not what certain people want to
look at, so they don't talk about it, hence
the term "social media."

But knowing social media and doing social
media are two different things.  Just as
knowing about grants, and then writing
grants, are two different things.  But both
are necessary, it's really a question of
which you want to do?  If you'd like
to do some research and get into making
money from that- we believe that we
have a great key that will unlock the
doors you need unlocked to get such.
If you'd like to get into grant writing-
we believe we have the best opportunity
going to break into the field, and we'd
love to chat with you about it.

Dr. D - 310-846-8096