The catch phrase "We Love This Place!" plays well in northern Nevada and for good reason.
Over the past five years, conditions in Northern Nevada have been among the best in the United States including a robust job market and a low unemployment rate that hovers near 3.7 percent,well below the national jobless rate.
Other areas of the nation have grown as well, but few can offer such a vital business climate and the truly outstanding quality of life we enjoy.
As a businessman and through my involvement with the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, I've experienced firsthand the impressive growth of the area and the importance of recruiting new business and expanding and retaining existing companies.
The community's economic diversification efforts are getting noticed.
In 2005, Northern Nevada was selected by Inc.
magazine as the No.
1 place to do business in America and was ranked the No.
3 best place to live according to Men's Journal.
So,with the consecutive record years of companies and economic impact EDAWN and others bring to our region will we ever get to a point where we have too much of a good thing? Will there be a time when our region's own success causes us to run out of land or depletes our resources? Are we going to wake up one morning and discover that all our efforts and successes have turned the Truckee Meadows into a place where we wouldn't choose to live, raise a family and work? We asked ourselves these questions at an EDAWN executive committee retreat a few years ago.
Shortly after, the organization initiated a plan to focus on marketing to businesses that met criteria that we felt would bring higher quality jobs to our area.
Many discussions later,we discovered that higher-paying, higher-quality jobs were only a part of what we envisioned for our region.
In addition to thinking of generating more quality jobs,we began to think of how new enterprises might also enhance our quality of life.
We referred to this ever-evolving concept as "Economic Development Plus." In December 2005, the EDAWN board of trustees unanimously adopted a resolution supporting Economic Development Plus, and thus, formally setting a new philosophy and raising the bar for how EDAWN conducts and measures economic development and its business retention and recruitment activities for years to come.
The timing couldn't have been better.
Through the economic initiative known as Target2010: Northern Nevada's New Economy, EDAWN and its key partners are identifying targeted industries that are best suited to our area in such areas as workforce skills, educational opportunities and existing resources.
These companies will bring higher wage jobs and opportunities to local residents and enhance our quality of life by giving back to the communities in which they do business.
A key component of Target2010 is the development of a Community Contribution index.
In simple terms it is a way to measure not just the economic benefits a company brings to our region, but also the community benefits.
The Community Contribution index will define the Economic Development Plus concept by tracking the direct social contributions companies bring to the community.
Such desirable contributions include factors such as:
* High wages
* Premium employee benefits packages
* Collaboration with the Nevada system of higher education
* Renewable energy
* Technology-based
* research and development
This concept of Economic Development Plus is revolutionary in the world of economic development.
The renowned national consultant conducting Target2010, AngelouEconomics, has completed more than 85 such studies for cities and regions worldwide, and northern Nevada is the first to pioneer the concept.
It's an exciting and progressive way for EDAWN and our partners to shape northern Nevada's future economic growth and quality of life.
It's also a significant shift in the way we do business and measure our success.
While EDAWN will continue to practice what's served us well in attracting top businesses to the region,we will begin to move away from focusing on pure economic impact represented by the number of companies, jobs and additional square footage of investment as a gauge of our efforts.
We will start to emphasize the community benefits that a company and its employees bring to Northern Nevada and its citizens.
One might suggest that a company doing business in Northern Nevada should not be judged on what it does today but what it will do to make the community a better place tomorrow.
Most of the baseline data used in the Target2010 study is generated by you, the members of our community.
If you haven't already, please take a few minutes to provide your perspective by filling out one or both of the surveys accessible at www.Target2010.org by tomorrow, Jan 31.
Please visit www.Target2010.org often over the next few months to stay updated on the progress we're making, review reports and give us your opinion on such key issues as our current business climate, quality of life, challenges facing the region,workforce and education and our future.
We will announce the project's findings in mid-July at an economic summit.
The Target2010 results will help direct this new concept of Economic Development Plus for the region.
Right now,we generally know where we want to go but the Target2010 findings will play a major role in getting us there.
John Breternitz is chairman of the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.
