Since the pandemic started there has been a noticeable quietness to the region’s economic development strategy.
During severe economic challenges, economic development organizations and communities retrench rather than embarking on new economic initiatives or expanding current efforts.
This happened during the floods of 2008.
One of the casualties of the pandemic was the elimination of the CEO and president position at ICR Iowa, the regional economic development joint venture between the Iowa City Area Development Group (ICAD) and the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.
We were uncertain if that organization was going to survive.
So we were pleased to learn that ICAD and the Economic Alliance agreed to a new five-year extension of the ICR Iowa joint venture that also includes some “modifications to more closely align the regional organization ICR Iowa with its parent boards.”
“Through a lot of challenge and change in the past year, the business leaders who make up all three of these boards were steadfast about getting this done,” said Todd Means, board chair of ICAD, in a statement. “A five-year extension represents a really strong signal about the importance of regionalism and the value of this partnership.”
It appears the joint venture will now focus on outreach, to bring people to the area rather than recruiting businesses and managing the regional brand.
“The very first action of the ICR Board after approval of this new agreement was to restart our outreach to bring people to this region,” said Lydia Brown, board chair of ICR Iowa, in a news release. “We’re going to focus on the greatest need and show success and strong outcomes.”
We agree that workforce should be the number one priority. Bringing people to the region is an important part of that, but we would also like to see a renewed effort to connect with the tens of thousands of college students who are currently being educated in the region.
That talent pipeline has never been fully realized and it’s a shame that many of these graduating students don’t understand the opportunity the Corridor offers them. That needs to change.
And finally, we would also like to see some clarity around the regional brand.
Avid readers of the CBJ know that we have been one of the most vocal critics of the ill-conceived ICR Iowa brand, which was purportedly to be used exclusively for external stakeholders, although many of these economic development organizations still reference the region internally as ICR Iowa rather than the Corridor.
So what is it going to be?
A poorly executed regional brand surely won’t help us be successful in either trying to recruit employees to the region or retaining graduating college students.
