As we soon enter Summer 2021, the American South is hot... and in more ways than one, particularly in Blount County, Tennessee, when it comes to rural economic development.
Marketing rural communities for economic-development success requires sophistication in approach, creativity and true collaboration among diverse stakeholders... and that's just part of the "secret sauce" that has placed Blount County, Tennessee (located immediately south of Knoxville, in the eastern part of the state) in a position of competitive strength.
Kelly Fletcher and Mary Beth West speak with Bryan Daniels, President and CEO of the Blount Partnership, about his own rural roots in East Tennessee, his pathway to leadership and his team's tried-and-true, long-term strategy of bringing authentic "Partnership" to Blount County's industrial recruitment, tourism development and quality-of-life mantra.
According to IEDC, "the Blount Partnership is a five-star accredited Chamber of Commerce by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and is the only Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO) by the International Economic Development Council in the state of Tennessee (#58 worldwide)."
Show Notes
In this chat with Kelly Fletcher and Mary Beth West, Blount Partnership President / CEO Bryan Daniels, CEcD, discusses:
- The old versus new model of marketing rural communities successfully
- Ways in which Blount County, TN has differentiated itself as a top quality-of-life community
- Blount County's true partnership-driven approach, with collaboration and cooperation among municipalities, elected officials and business community leaders
- How Blount County is taking a role at the international level to help drive thought-leadership and best-practices (with Bryan Daniels serving on the board of the International Economic Development Council, which will bring its conference to Nashville, TN, later this year)
- https://www.iedconline.org/index.php?src=directory&view=staff&srctype=detail&refno=804&category=Board%20of%20Directors
- How local, high-quality workforce development remains the most critical driver of attracting and retaining employers to a local community
- Ways in which today's social-responsibility discourse is informing the site-selection process... with some corporations including as part of their due-diligence a request for the voting record of local electorates as a criteria point for moving a headquarters or base of operations to a new community
- Rationale for rural communities to take a proactive stance versus a reactive stance in their econ-dev approach:
- Proactive: Driving site-selection visibility and relationship-building from the front, with a rural community sending its own delegations overseas
- Reactive: Relying entirely on one's state department of economic development to send site-selection leads to the local level
Learn more about moving your business to Blount County, Tennessee -- The Peaceful Side of the Smokies:
Blount Partnership: https://www.blountpartnership.com/
Connect with Bryan Daniels: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-daniels-b597283/
Follow the Blount Chamber on Twitter: https://twitter.com/blountchamber
Smokies Vacation: https://www.smokymountains.org/
Peaceful Side of the Smokies / Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peacefulsmokies/?hl=en
Site-Selection / Pellissippi Place: https://blountindustry.com/our-region/sites-and-buildings/pellissippi-place/
Follow Fletcher Marketing PR on:
On Twitter: @fletcherpr
Follow Kelly on Twitter: @KDFletcher
Follow Mary Beth on Twitter: @marybethwest
What is Ms. InterPReted?
Public Relations stands as one of the most misunderstood, misinterpreted areas of business and organizational management. With Fletcher Marketing PR Founder and CEO Kelly Fletcher and Senior Strategist Mary Beth West, we’re here to turn around PR’s own bad PRess, cut through the nomenclature, and demystify public relations as the best pathway to create, grow and amplify the roots of positive management, communications, culture and careers -- for success that matters.