When I arrived in Tennessee in the summer of 2004, Phil Bredesen was still in his first term as our governor. Earlier this week, watching the gubernatorial debate at Eastman's Toy F. Reid Employment Center, I couldn't help but think of how fortunate we have been historically to have such a history of strong governors, both of the "R" and the "D" variety. Especially when it comes to economic development.

 

The NETWORKS staff and our extended team have registered to attend the Governor's Conference on Economic Development later this month. This will be the last such conference for Governor Bill Haslam, whom I consider to be the most effective economic development governor under whom I have worked. Supported by a pro-business legislature, he passed revolutionary programs, not the least of which is the Tennessee Promise, which mirrors the Educate and Grow program we had enjoyed for nearly a decade in Sullivan County. And Tennessee's economic health has prospered. While Governor Haslam and both candidates from whom we will choose in less than a month have acknowledged a great disparity of economic growth between our urban and rural regions, our state's forward thinking on education and workforce training stands to be the great equalizer on which those of us in Tennessee's less populated areas will depend.

 

Education is not a silver bullet and there are no quick fixes. As a colleague of mine in one of the state's most prosperous counties likes to say, "Economies do not turn on a dime like a race car; it is more like a large ship. It takes time." As frustrating as that can be, it is impossible to argue. While economic developers know, understand, and begrudgingly accept this, no group of people lament this truism more. Two reasons stand out for our frustration: people who need jobs (or better jobs) now, not just over the long haul, and it's easy for leadership, citizens, and stakeholders at every level to lose faith - and sometimes interest - in the mission without seeing and celebrating some really good news from time to time.

 

Several years ago, while working for a regional EDO in another state, I coined the phrase that economic development is a long-term commitment fueled by quick-term wins. We have enjoyed many of those over the past few months and even years. Just this quarter, we celebrated Anita's Snack Foods opening its facility in Gateway Commerce Park in Kingsport, Miyake's new plant in Phipps Bend Industrial Park in Hawkins County, and groundbreakings for major site development projects at Aerospace Park and BTES's Bristol Business Park. We also held our fifth annual Northeast Tennessee Red Carpet Tour, bringing in nine of the country's top site location consultants and TNECD and regional economic development partners for what has become known as one of the top familiarization tours anywhere. All in all, a pretty busy quarter.

 

We also began the work as set forth in our Board of Directors Strategic Planning Retreat in June. The three commitments we made are:

 

Expect to see much more on these initiatives in the upcoming months.

 

In between all of these things, we visited consultants in some of our key markets with trips to Greenville, SC, and Dallas. We also participated in the Education 2 Employment Summit, led by the First Tennessee Development District's Lottie Ryans. It was a great way to connect educators, business, and economic developers. I was proud to be a part of it - being on a panel with colleagues Mitch Miller of NeTREP, Matt Garland of the Greene County Partnership, and Marshall Ramsey of Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce, moderated by the Kingsport Chamber's Miles Burdine - and I hope this becomes an annual event.

 

When I look back on the past three months, I go back to the governor's race and our state's history of great leadership, particularly in our highest elected office. We have had governors from both parties demonstrate that being a steady, fiscally responsible, cerebral decision maker and an innovative, creative problem solver do not have to be in conflict or even mutually exclusive. And we can certainly move our state, region, or our own respective organizations forward at a greater clip when we maintain civility, respect, and open communications. I think these truths are more than just a preferable way of tackling the challenges of economic development; I think of them as necessary.