Upstate Colorado Economic Development
GUESTS
Ardin Wright brought his neighbor, Ray Kelsin, as a guest again. We were also pleased to have Susan Van Deren as a guest and potential new member. Incidentally, the front page story on the Rocky Mountain News last Saturday was a story about Susan’s sister who is an ultra-marathon runner currently training for running the Iditarod.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jody Niswender gave us an update on the 9 Health Fair which will be held on April 7.
PROGRAM
Eric Swanson brought our guest speaker last week. Larry Burkhardt is the President and CEO of Upstate Colorado Economic Development (UCED). Some of you may recall that Larry spoke to us about a year ago. UCED is a public-private non-profit corporation. It focuses on economic development in several ways. Larry said that one focus is on "primary employers". "Without primary employers, you loose community". They of course also focus on attraction of new industry. They work on establishing partnerships, and align with the State Office of Economic Development and International Trade,
Last year, there were 20 projects that UCED worked on in Weld County. Fifteen of these were for expansion and five were for re-location. These projects represented a total of 503 new jobs with a total investment of $503 million. They processed 75 leads. 24% of these were from companies and 24% were from Denver consulting firms that specialize in site selection. 44% of these leads represented manufacturing and 24% were for services and back office.
One of the assessments that UCED does is a regional worker survey. They focus on a center point of I-25 and Highway 34 and then go out to a 30 mile radius as an example. Within this area they evaluate under employment which is a measure of how readily a new company can "steal" employees already living in the area.
Some factors feeding the growth of business and industry in the area include education. (CSU is now the leading research facility in Colorado). Weld County has a good work force and reasonable land prices.
UCED participates in the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance consisting of Chambers of Commerce and EDC groups who lobby for or against legislation that effects business. Larry told us that they will soon have a powerful, interactive web site with GIS components to allow prospects to look at a variety of parameters about the area. He noted that 80% of all expansion evaluations are now done on the web. For more information go to www.upstatecolorado.org.
QUIZ
As I have been out for a while, I will start a new Quiz today. What is the second largest French-speaking city in the World?
Ardin Wright brought his neighbor, Ray Kelsin, as a guest again. We were also pleased to have Susan Van Deren as a guest and potential new member. Incidentally, the front page story on the Rocky Mountain News last Saturday was a story about Susan’s sister who is an ultra-marathon runner currently training for running the Iditarod.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Jody Niswender gave us an update on the 9 Health Fair which will be held on April 7.
PROGRAM
Eric Swanson brought our guest speaker last week. Larry Burkhardt is the President and CEO of Upstate Colorado Economic Development (UCED). Some of you may recall that Larry spoke to us about a year ago. UCED is a public-private non-profit corporation. It focuses on economic development in several ways. Larry said that one focus is on "primary employers". "Without primary employers, you loose community". They of course also focus on attraction of new industry. They work on establishing partnerships, and align with the State Office of Economic Development and International Trade,
Last year, there were 20 projects that UCED worked on in Weld County. Fifteen of these were for expansion and five were for re-location. These projects represented a total of 503 new jobs with a total investment of $503 million. They processed 75 leads. 24% of these were from companies and 24% were from Denver consulting firms that specialize in site selection. 44% of these leads represented manufacturing and 24% were for services and back office.
One of the assessments that UCED does is a regional worker survey. They focus on a center point of I-25 and Highway 34 and then go out to a 30 mile radius as an example. Within this area they evaluate under employment which is a measure of how readily a new company can "steal" employees already living in the area.
Some factors feeding the growth of business and industry in the area include education. (CSU is now the leading research facility in Colorado). Weld County has a good work force and reasonable land prices.
UCED participates in the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance consisting of Chambers of Commerce and EDC groups who lobby for or against legislation that effects business. Larry told us that they will soon have a powerful, interactive web site with GIS components to allow prospects to look at a variety of parameters about the area. He noted that 80% of all expansion evaluations are now done on the web. For more information go to www.upstatecolorado.org.
QUIZ
As I have been out for a while, I will start a new Quiz today. What is the second largest French-speaking city in the World?
posted by Windsor Rotary Club (link to this post)
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