NPPD’s Economic Development team recently wrapped a free five-week webinar for local economic developers featuring nationally recognized economic development consultant Janet Ady of Ady Advantage.
The series covered topics such as the site selection process, business retention and expansion, capacity readiness and rural economic development post-COVID. The series highlighted best practices and benchmarked participants on their organization’s capacity readiness.
“Janet brought a wealth of experience and an unmatched understanding of current trends to these webinars,” said Mary Plettner, NPPD Economic Development Manager. “We are so pleased to be able to connect our local economic developers with Janet and her extensive knowledge of what works in rural America.”
This is the second time NPPD has provided free training from Ady Advantage, designed for both seasoned and new economic developers. All gave positive feedback for the series.
“I especially appreciate the timeliness of the research presented today on assessing post-COVID results,” said one participant. Another remarked, “This confirms our strategic direction to work on housing/workforce development projects.”
Another participant planned to share the knowledge gained with local leadership. “I better understand how far we need to go to be able to proactively pursue what is most needed. It will make informing and enlightening our leadership much easier.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to alter plans for economic developers and the NPPD Economic Development team, look for more webinars coming in 2021.