Blog

Ken Poole and Mark White recently completed the first round of training that CREC will conduct for the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) in Thunder Bay and Sudbury, Ontario.  The training provides economic development practitioners with the knowledge and tools necessary to build a data-driven strategic growth plan for their community or region.  Through classroom discussion and case studies, these hands-on, interactive sessions demonstrated strategies for regional collaboration in response to current economic challenges and opportunities.

The next round of training for EDCO will be held mid-November in Kingston and Thamesford (London), Ontario.

Learn more and access the training agenda here.

The Windsor Star, a local newspaper in Windsor-Essex, Canada, recently highlighted CREC’s work for the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO).  CREC is creating a customized, two-tiered curriculum for EDCO that builds a case for collaborative regional planning and depicts clear steps for effectively approaching planning.  This curriculum is supplemented by case examples modeling how real-life planning has already been approached – to success and to failure – in Canada.

Access the article here.  Learn more about CREC’s work with EDCO here.

CREC CEO Ken Poole recently attended the kick-off event for Plan East Tennessee (PlanET) in Knoxville, TN.  Led by the Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission, PlanET is a 36-month regional planning process aimed at developing capacity to improve the quality of life for residents in the Knoxville region.  CREC will assist PlanET in creating and implementing an ambitious multi-jurisdictional plan that will integrate economic development, environment, infrastructure, and public health considerations into a comprehensive plan to address area needs.

Learn more about PlanET here.

On September 27, 2011, CREC CEO, Dr. Kenneth Poole, gave a presentation at the New York State Regional Councils Conference in Albany, NY. Among the wide array of featured speakers, including President Bill Clinton, Dr. Poole delivered a presentation about the metrics and approaches for measuring strategy effectiveness at the regional level. Hosted by NY Governor Andrew A. Cuomo, this conference was the first assembly of all members of the state’s ten Regional Economic Development Councils to address the urgent need for local solutions and new ideas to stimulate lasting job creation and economic growth.

To view the entire presentation, please click here.

September 13^th marked a milestone shift in how CREC partner, the Council for Community and Economic Development (C2ER), will deliver many of its future trainings.

“We are always looking to how we can best serve our clients across the country,” CREC CEO Ken Poole noted.  “Especially this past year, many of our fellow researchers are telling us that for training – facing budget cuts that prohibit travel, and ever more demanding schedules – they would love to have access to content available, 24/7, over the web.  So, we are responding, and evolving with the marketplace.”

CREC is supporting C2ER’s efforts to “digitize” and record many of its training modules, so that C2ER members can easily access them as their schedules allow.

Jason Parry, President of Parry Consulting Services and Market Research Team Leader for GrowFL, was the first to enter CREC’s new e-learning studio to record a digital training on “Market Research and Competitive Intelligence Fundamentals.”  The two-and-a-half hour session, set up by CREC staff, and captured in Adobe Captivate, will be made available to C2ER members in the months ahead.

For more information on C2ER’s trainings, visit their website at: http://c2er.org/events/Training.asp

For more information on presenter Jason Parry and the GrowFL Team, check out: http://www.growfl.com/about-growfl-team.html

On Tuesday, September 20^th, CREC CEO, Dr. Kenneth Poole, and Vice President, Mark White, will head to Chatham-Kent, Ontario to lead the region’s first workforce planning session.  The session, which will commence Phase II of the Municipality’s workforce project, will host several dozen of the region’s most critical stakeholders:  policy-makers, industry leaders, and interest group representatives.  This group, briefed on the results of CREC’s extensive data analysis of the region, will work together to set priorities for developing the region’s workforce, and eventually, setting action items for implementation of a full workforce development plan.

For more information about the Chatham-Kent Workforce Development Board, see:  www.ckworkforcedev.com

For more about Chatham-Kent, Ontario, check out:  www.chatham-kent.ca