Dickinson Area Economic Development Alliance Newsletter

November 2018 Newsletter

Heavy Metal Tour Success

Education, community and industry partners came together for a Manufacturing Day event on Friday, October 12 at Bay College West Campus as a part of a campaign titled "Heavy Metal Tours". The purpose of this campaign is to proactively educate students and the community about the skilled trades and technical career opportunities that exist locally.

330 high school freshman students from Kingsford, Iron Mountain, Norway, North Dickinson and Florence participated in a round robin of hands-on activities to simulate the skills that manufacturers are seeking. Participating businesses included Lakeshore Systems, BOSS Snowplow, Systems Control, Loadmaster, Verso Corporation, and CCI Systems. A survey of students captured baseline data regarding their perceptions of technical and skilled career paths. Survey results and a video recap of the event can be viewed at HERE.

The Alliance, Bay College West, Northern Initiatives, the Dickinson-Iron Intermediate School District and Michigan Works! all contributed time and resources to make this a successful event for the students. "We need to inform our students and their families that technical and skilled trades' careers offer excellent wages. There's huge opportunity to grow and you don't need to put yourself into years of debt," said Gina Wollner, Manager of Business Development at Bay West.

Manufacturing Day is the first event within a larger effort to educate the community on our workforce shortage and the opportunities that exist for young people.

For more information about the Heavy Metal Tour, please visit www.heavymetaltours.com.

Thanksgiving Eve Talent Attraction Event

The Alliance Talent and Education Task Force has put together an event on the evening before Thanksgiving to share information about the career opportunities in the area with visitors who may be intrigued with the idea of moving back to our area. Brand Ambassadors will be stationed at a number of local venues where visitors typically gather. The Ambassadors will be armed with talking points to engage in conversations with potential talent that may not be aware of the broad list of career options that exist in our area.

For more information, visit www.daeda.org/why or contact Lois Ellis .

Bay West Social Media Training

Bay West is offering an online social media training targeted for businesses and individuals to learn how to navigate and communicate in the digital world with Instructor Joanna Wilbee-Amis.

Social Media Marketing (BUSN 264) focuses on the creation and implementation of a social media marketing campaign and evaluation of its success. Students will learn best practices to develop the skills needed to connect business objectives with social media strategy, platforms, and tactics. Emphasis is placed on evaluating, creating, and integrating social media tools to meet marketing objectives to improve business.

For details and registration, please visit click here.

Loyal to Local Ad Package Winner

2nd Quarter Winner, Gary Thomas, and the team from the Miller Agency in Iron Mountain, receiving the certificate from Rich Mortl.

The 2nd quarterly winner of a $500 advertising package from WJMN TV Local 3 was randomly drawn from the 111 participating businesses in the Loyal to Local program. Congratulations to The Miller Agency who was the lucky winner! A special thank you to Steven Losiowski, Account Executive at WJMN TV for donating these advertising packages.

Did You Know?

POLICOM recently released their annual Micropolitan Statistical Area Rankings and Dickinson County came in at 139th out of 550 Micropolitan areas across the nation, up from ranking 148th in 2017. Economic strength is the long-term tendency for an area to grow consistently in both size and quality. Once looked upon as quasi-rural areas, a Micropolitan Statistical Area must have an urbanized area (city) with a population of at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000.

POLICOM specializes in studying the dynamics of local economies. The highest ranked areas have had rapid, consistent growth in both size and quality for an extended period. The lowest ranked areas have been in volatile decline for an extended period.

More information is available at POLICOM economic strength rankings.