I’d like to wish all the great moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day weekend! I hope you all get the chance to relax and enjoy some pampering from your kids this weekend.

Here’s a look at some of the things the Midwest Partnership has been up to the past few weeks…

Business Recruitment

·         Began making calls on leads provided by the state Economic Development Authority regarding my upcoming trip to Atlanta for the American Wind Energy Association conference. The state is attempting to visit with a big chunk of the 900+ vendors participating this year. We are representing Western Iowa Advantage and will be promoting our region to various wind energy manufacturers and providers.

·         Followed up on a lead from the state for an auto parts manufacturer in the initial phase of site selection. Their core business revolves around steel forging.

·         Maintained contact with a business considering a project in Audubon County. Provided updated information on sites fitting their needs and restated our interest in working with them.

Existing Business

·         Began discussions with WHO radio regarding the possibility of developing an advertising package for our businesses that would provide them the opportunity for ads at a reduced rate. We are meeting again next week to put details together on what that may look like. We would like to work with the local radio stations on similar programs. 

·         Put together some labor/wage information together for a local business.

·         Conducted 6 more business visits.

 Public Relations/Partnership

·         Staff attended Iowa Economic Development Authority Business Retention and Expansion workshop, the Iowa Smart Conference, and Get to Know IEDA session last week

·         Gave a presentation about MWP to the Audubon Lion’s Club

·         Attended Region XII’s meetings for the Connect Iowa Program in Audubon and Greene Counties

Schedule for Next Week (tentative and subject to change)

• Continuing business visits in Guthrie County
• Western Iowa Advantage monthly meeting
• Staff attending the Southwestern Business Conference and Expo in Creston
• Expanding Entrepreneurs Monday 5:15-6:15 at RVP 1875 in Jefferson
• Guthrie County Connect Iowa meeting at 1pm Tuesday in the Courthouse meeting room. We encourage anybody interested in the internet capabilities of the county to attend.
• GCDC Board meeting with IEDA director Debi Durham attending Wednesday 11:30am
• Stuart Enterprise for Economic Development meeting Thursday 7am
• Valley Business Park meeting Thursday 9am
• Audubon County Economic Development Board meeting Friday 7am

Sincerely,

 Dear friends,

Over the past few months we’ve conducted almost 30 business visits as we continue to strengthen our relationships with businesses and learn more about who they are and what they do. It has been great to meet a lot of incredible people doing great things in our communities. We’ve also gotten a better understanding of how we can help them which will help us to continually refine our services. We’re looking forward to the rest of our visits and the opportunity to present our findings in the next few months.

I’d also like to note how important our stakeholders like you are in this process. While these visits are great and help us to build relationships, we will never be able to be everywhere or know everything going on with all the businesses in our 4 counties. That’s where you come in, if you have a good relationship with businesses and know of any issues or successes they have, please let us know. We’d love to help them with the problems and get the word out about their successes. We all need to work together to promote and encourage our businesses, thanks for all of your help in that mission.

Here’s a look at some of the things the staff were doing the past few weeks…

Business Recruitment

·         Maintained contact with business considering a project in Audubon County. Provided updated information on sites fitting their needs and restated our interest in working with them.

·         Worked with partners at Valley Business Park to develop an ad to put into Trade & Industry Magazine to promote our site better. The magazine goes to over 25,000 businesses in and site selectors in our target industries.

·         Attended a meeting with the state Economic Development Authority regarding my upcoming trip to Atlanta for the American Wind Energy Association conference. We are representing Western Iowa Advantage and will be promoting our region to various wind energy manufacturers and providers.

·         Continuing discussions with group looking to buy the MicroSoy facility in Jefferson. We are helping them with financial assistance programs and the options they have to fund elements of the project. Their goal is to be up and running in June with up to 10 jobs this year. 

Existing Business

·         Finished most of our business visits in Adair County and have moved into Guthrie County. We plan to finish in Guthrie in the next few weeks and will then move into Greene County. The visits have continued to go well and we really appreciate our business’s being so open with us. Many have expressed their interest in MWP activities and helping with community initiatives as well, which has been very encouraging.

 Public Relations/Partnership

·         Staff conducted 9 Business visits

·         Attended the Adair County Hospital Board meeting

·         Attended Guthrie Center Economic Development meeting

Schedule for Next Week (tentative and subject to change)

• Continuing business visits in Guthrie County
• Sarah will be attending the PDI/ IEDA Business Retention & Expansion workshop
• The whole staff will be attending the Iowa SMART Economic Development Conference Thursday, it is a great event led by the State and our utility partners. I’d encourage anybody interested in economic development or good ideas to make your community better to attend. Get a hold of me if you’d like to know more.

Sincerely,

• Chad Schreck, Executive Director 
• Tel: (515) 523-1262 | Cell: (641) 757-1635 | Fax: (515) 523-1397
• www.midwestpartnership.com 

 Dear friends,

We’re continuing to proceed with our Business Connections program and have conducted about 15 visits in Adair County to this point. The process is going very well and we really appreciate the openness of our businesses. To this point we’ve been pleased to see positive trends as most of our businesses appear to be doing well. We’ve also identified a few areas that appear to be of some concern such as internet availability/speed and the quality of our roads. We will be creating reports and releasing some of our findings in the coming weeks. Up next is Guthrie County.

Here’s a look at some of the other things the staff were doing the past few weeks…

Business Recruitment

·         Continued researching possible sites for a concrete facility near Adair, we hope to show the client a few options in a couple weeks.

·         Got a lead on a potential project in Audubon County, researched information they requested and provided it to the company. We will continue discussions and providing them with what they need, it looks like we are one of 4 counties being considered. (The hardest part of these reports is not being able to tell you who these guys are, but it’s very early J).

·         Continued background work on potential garbage truck manufacturing opportunity with a Iowa Company partnering with a major European manufacturer. They are seeking a community willing to provide/build a 100,000 sq. ft facility. In turn they would provide 300 jobs, pay property tax/ interest on bonding, and invest $30+ million in the project. To this point they have stated that sites in both Audubon and Adair Counties look like great fits for their needs, but have not given us much to this point. We’ll continue communicating and see if there is anything we can do.

·         Continuing discussions with group looking to buy the MicroSoy facility in Jefferson. We are helping them with financial assistance programs and the options they have to fund elements of the project. Their goal is to be up and running in June and up to 10 jobs this year. 

Existing Business

·         Worked with Greene County Development Corp in setting up a Manufacturer’s Roundtable to discuss workforce recruitment and retention issues. Most of the county’s major employers attended, as well as representatives from ISU, DMACC and Iowa Central. It was a great meeting for leaders to discuss their workforce issues and needs, and for the schools to discuss ways they can work with them with training programs and other assistance.

·         Held the 3^rd meeting of the Expanding Entrepreneurs group in Jefferson. About 10 small business owners participated in the roundtable event with discussions this month focused on creating a web presence through networking, facebook, websites, etc.

·         Continued business visits in Adair County

 Public Relations/Partnership

·         Did a presentation about MWP for the Jefferson Rotary

·         Attended the Western Iowa Advantage Annual Dinner, great program to unveil our new logo and branding. We also had a great keynote speaker in Michigan State Extension Director Dave Ivan on How to Make Small Towns Cool. We’ll get that up on our website, it has a lot of great examples of real world communities making great things happen that we can emulate.

·         Attended the GCDC monthly meeting

·         Attended the Stuart Chamber meeting

·         Valley Business Park Meeting, approved a new ad for the location in a site selector/ trade publication to improve awareness of the site

·         Attended the Audubon County Economic Development monthly meeting

·         Attended Guthrie Center Economic Development meeting

Schedule for Next Week (tentative and subject to change)

• I’ll be in Kansas City attending the Heartland Economic Development presented by the Institute for Decision Making and UNI Sunday-Thursday. Feel free to contact me by email and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
• Sarah will be attending the Stuart Enterprise for Economic Development (SEED) monthly meeting, Western Iowa Tourism meeting, and covering for me, feel free to contact her with any immediate issues.
• Audubon Chamber is holding their 1^st Business to Business Roundtable event on Friday at the ACED office from 12:30-1:30

Sincerely,