The CLT Alliance hosted public and private sector members of our Charlotte delegation in Austin, Texas, for a week to learn from a comparable market. The cities have similar growth trajectories and it was valuable for participants to understand how Austin is addressing issues like transportation and economic development.
I was able to moderate a panel with members of the Opportunity Austin team and with Dell to learn about Austin’s approach to regional economic development. An executive from Dell, a homegrown company, offered insight about how they approach talent attraction and stay competitive with a high-growth market. We also heard their approach to work of the future, the rise of hybrid as well as remote models.
A key takeaway from the panel was that building out a best practice regional model takes a long time and requires the right team in place to build trust throughout a region. It took Opportunity Austin several years to gain the trust of their regional partners and develop a clearly-defined strategy around a full suite of economic development services to think bigger than just a regular recruitment-oriented model. This was imperative to their growth and yielded high returns. Those practices and strategies paid off and Opportunity Austin has closed more than 750 projects over a 15-year period. Recently, Austin has seen major announcements from Samsung, Apple, Tesla, and Google.
Approaching the economic development process as the regional consulting model that is helping with market entry is a key trait that best-practice economic development organizations share. It will be critical for our goals at the CLT Alliance. It was great to hear from Opportunity Austin and learn their story of how their practice came to be domestically and internationally known.
The fireside chat with Dell was great to learn about the importance of how companies who are founded in a city can grow to be the largest employers in a region. The value of investing in startups can far outweigh the model of going after the largest companies– better known in the economic development industry as “whale hunting.”
Company culture and commitment to a region can attract talent and influence the educational development of the next generation of workers as well. The expansion of existing employers, as well as a focus on workforce and education, can build the ecosystem to bring in new companies or have them wanting and needing to be in this market.
I felt the trip was enlightening and a great opportunity to see how economic development can be successful at a regional level. We also learned the importance of addressing challenges that come along with the growth. Building a comprehensive and competitive economic development ecosystem is no small feat, learning from existing best practices helps, and the Charlotte Region is well on its way.
