The event. As far as regional attractions go, they are great multipliers for your local economy, especially for your service and retailers. So unless you already have a festival, agricultural fair or convention of Airstreams every year, it will involve creating a regular migration to your community through Tournament Development.

Tournament development in rural areas is difficult, as the capacity to fund and attract weekenders is difficult to get started . It takes political will, a development office willing to take a risk and a concept that works with the local socioeconomic culture to bring it all together. But if all of these issues line up in a positive way, the economic results are large for small towns and well worth that risk.

Problem: Not enough weekender traffic to a regional centre that you represent. The retail and service providers would like more tourists in town. However, there is not a great attraction already in place, or maybe the one in place is dwindling in its effectiveness in growing the economy.

Solution: Collaborate with few different organizations and throw a world-class event that has a loyal following/membership, and mend a few old grievances between community organizations along the way.

Why?

When looking at throwing an event, it is imperative that there will be people to show up, of course, but also as a development official, you need to attract people to town for the weekend. The real benefit to the local economy is participants not just spectators.

Spreading Dirt in the Hockey Arena

What was the culturally and socioeconomically appropriate event that will attract hundreds of weekenders? The answer involved  partnering with the Portage Exhibition (an annual summer agricultural expo and midway) and the Portage Regional Recreation Authority (Hockey Arena) and installing 450 or so meters of dirt on a hockey rink.

I could tell a few tales of logistics with cattle, cowboys and pancake breakfasts and three long days of work as an economic developer managing staff, both permanent and temporary, but let us just look at the EC Dev related stats, or results:

• 197 contestants came to town with local spending at approximately $33,000 spent in local shops and hotels over the weekend. This would include not only the contestants spending, but the spectators as well.
• Approximately 2,000 people attended over the course of the weekend, all of whom had an excellent time.

Rodeo Clowns

So it was a big win for the private sector; and it was a quantitative success for my economic development office as well.

A qualitative one?  Well…..
Rodeo of the Year

Douglas Barill

The post Tournament Development In Rural Manitoba appeared first on Development Studio.

Well, we know that downtowns are about people, moving to and fro between their work, services they require, and retail opportunities. If they are lucky, it is all within walking distance of their residence.
It works in rural areas as well as urban ones, especially western rural Ontario where the density of the downtown was laid in the early 20 century. When people lived exactly, in what we now call, a walkable community with the occasional horse and cart rolling by. Fast forward 100 years and we still crave that life, in fact, we are looking to get back to that lifestyle. The horse and cart have been replaced by cars and parking spaces, and as developers, Downtown Revitalization has become the tactic of getting people out of their cars, to walk about. 

Problem: So what if you are revitalizing a downtown in rural Ontario that has a storefront occupancy rate of about 60% in 2011 by the name of Blyth Ontario? The Blyth Festival has 30,000 tickets sold a year (to tourists) right on Mainstreet, but very few of those patrons spent much time or money in the greater community.
Solution: Extend the hours of the theater experience with street vibrancy!
How does one do so? Recruit, build, champion entrepreneurs that can fill the remaining 40% with a vibrant and complementary experience to the theatre; also—-create a vibrancy, with multiple services and retail opportunities to encourage coming early and staying late.

Downtown Revitalization starts with understanding what a community’s strengths are. Blyth understood its strengths and with some coaxing went with it. By the summer of 2012, we had two new start-ups; the Queen’s Bakery and Part II Bistro, whose business models targeted “extending the hours” of theater experience, Blyth had formed a business improvement area (BIA) and had tripled daytime foot traffic and quadrupled foot traffic in the 2 hours preceding curtain call at the theater. Blyth even rebranded the downtown (twice! but that is another post).

An architecture firm and private gallery even set up shop on the main street—-because of the walkability and a revitalized sense of place.

Why stop there? You could not find a table or room in the Bakery or the Bistro before the show four nights a week. We had run out of the sidewalk. So a few entrepreneurs; Peter Gusso, from “Part II Bistro”, Rick Elliot from the  “Queens Bakery” and I put on our tool belts, ordered some wood from the local hardware store and built out onto the street!

We called it a “Park-Let” and since we are not professional engineers we hired Stantec’s office in London Ontario; they worked with us and provided a stamped drawing and a simple, but poignant, comment of “cool”.  We built it in an afternoon in an alley behind the carwash, and set it into place with a tractor we flagged down on Mainstreet (YES really).

Why we involved Stantec:

1) For safety

2) I considered this due diligence as an economic development professional; taking it to three levels of government as it turned out,  for permission to place on Mainstreet.

As you can see by the photo we were successful in doing so. So the build took us an afternoon and the policy drafting, the changing of mindsets and addressing concerns took two months of writing letters and advocating as an economic developer.

Why go to all of this trouble? For two start-ups in rural Ontario?

First it was my job,  but more importantly, it bettered the community of Blyth!

The Quantitative results were: six more two top tables per hour per day throughout the peak hours of the festival season.

The Qualitative: A great sense of place! And people out of their cars ….The overall results, over two years of disruptive policy writing, development practice  and carpentry work? A downtown full and tourists and locals going to and fro between their work, services they require, and retail opportunities, extended the Blyth experience to one worth living, be if just for an evening experience or for life.

A great downtown revitalization project that continues today,

Douglas Barill

The post Park-Let? Rural Downtown Revitalization appeared first on Development Studio.

I was traveling last summer and stopped in to see the Kamloops Innovation Centre, or (KIC). The centre cranks out start-ups, which is inspiring in itself but is even more poignant  when witnessed. You should witness their version of business incubation too.
Kamloops Innovation Centre

I have often thought that we, in Ec Dev, are not hands on enough with local start-ups, in fact, we can, at times, focus on the business plan writing aspects of business development. The KIC, even though it is not really their mandate, has done a pitch-perfect job of the business development aspects of municipal economic development, for the city of Kamloops, and the region.

There is a  real “get to work” type melody that resounds through  KIC, and by the time I was back in Manitoba,  I had designed a few projects in the same key, per se. With the underutilized sections of our office and a few supporting collaborative projects, my crew and I, stepped up the beat within the parameters of a regional economic development office and got to work with some business incubation ourselves.

18 months later we had 26 entrepreneurs working with us…

And thank-you Dr. Lincoln Smith,  and KIC crew,  for carrying such a great tune.  Keep whistling while you work.

This is how it worked out for us at PRED:

Project Sprout:
“Getting Students Business Ready”
Project Sprout Will Help Grow Young Entrepreneurs
Co-work Space:
PRED Offering “Co-Work” Space To Entrepreneurs

Douglas Barill

The post Business Incubation, Co-work Spaces & Collaboration appeared first on Development Studio.

When you ask someone; What constitutes “local” food? Answers will vary. I say that because I always ask, and rarely do I hear the same answer. No matter what province, or state, I’m in. So let’s focus on what “local food” can do for your local economy.

From an Economic Development perspective, the local food movement will continue to have a significant multiplier in your local economy. Particularly if you represent a rural area in Canada or the United States, farmers markets are popping up everywhere as they are good for business expansion and the much coveted “community building” (again).
If it is such a proven model for development, why hasn’t everyone that can grow food, done a local food multiplier project?

Problem:

What do you do if the region you represent is one of the most agriculturally productive areas in Canada, but in the past has been primarily focused on large commodities for export?

Solution :

Well, it starts with research, meeting as many farmers as you can, showing them some great software from LightShip, and spreading the idea that awareness campaigns and food celebrations are some of the best tools economic developers have to grow the local economy.

Okay Douglas, what did you do though?

Well we threw a great big local food celebration where we sourced every aspect of the meal within 100 kms of city hall,  and called it the “BIG DIG”. We did this for 2 reasons:

1. In order to  show that you could have a great fall meal with entirely local ingredients.
2. To encourage participants to explore a great big mapping project that we called “Our Big Table”, which showcased where every ingredient of the meal came from and introduced every farm.

With the added use of short videos and social media pushes,  we introduced locals and tourists alike to the people that grew their food and encouraged them to eat local and grow their local economy.

Here is the result:

PRED Big Dig is a Hit

PRED Bringing People To The Farm

Promoting Local Food, Agri-Tourism

Douglas Barill

The post Local Food Multiplier, The Big Dig and Our Big Table appeared first on Development Studio.

There were a multitude of Economic Developers in attendance at a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) training course in the small town of Beausejour, Manitoba. Three of us, in particular; Vern May, Marilyn Crewe and myself, walked out with a big plan.

Problem:

Foreign Direct Investment strategies abound in mid-sized and larger cities in Canada. Manitoba ranked dead last in Canada, however it did have some activity in Winnipeg… but what about the rural areas?
The interior of Manitoba had a strategic advantage, especially in the ability to process agricultural commodities, but the three economic developers that walked out of the room that day knew there was NO ability to fund the implementation of an investment strategy.

Why? The regions we each represented had populations under 20,000 people. How do we get big city plans, big city FDI, and international awareness into Rural Manitoba?

Solution:

Collaboration between municipalities: Pool resources, funding, and get clever with a software application.

1) Collaboration – The three of us gathered two other partner communities along the Yellowhead Highway (16) and my office applied on behalf of 5 communities to the Federal Government for a $100,000 project.

2) Research – We contracted one of the best international site locator firms in the country to build capacity for us domestically and abroad – as well as give a great big report card on what can be done within the region to raise our profile.

Implementation is happening now,  and again LightShip mapping intelligence will be utilized.

Tip: The biggest challenge to a project like this is not the collaboration between economic developers,  it is elected officials asking the question  “why are we working with our competition down the road?”. This is a narrow view that focuses on the “assessed revenue” that comes with development to the municipality that it physically locates in, and must be managed. It fails to see that job creation is a regional matter – not to mention the resulting dispensing of disposable income at the local level.

What is that saying? A rising tide floats all boats… This is true, especially when it comes to Foreign Direct Investment and community collaboration.   

More to follow,

Strategic Approach to Development

Douglas Barill

The post The Yellowhead Investment Corridor; A collaborative approach to Foreign Direct Investment appeared first on Development Studio.

Problem: The community you are working in as an economic developer has a major tourism attraction at its core, but it is frozen solid from December until March. The typical above zero regional tourism opportunities drop along with the temperatures.

Restaurants, hotels, and your downtown niche retailers would like some great weekender traffic, even if the water in the lake is frozen into an ice sheet 40 cms thick.

Portage La Prairie, MB had a problem; a lack of experience tourism in winter months. One that the community could market to external markets that are broader in scope than sports tourism.

Solution:

Roll with it…literally, and bring 27 auto racers to town to race around the lake on kidney shaped ice track for two days on a cold weekend in February (yes, racing cars on ice)!

After the event, my economic development crew at the time interviewed each one of the racers and their families regarding how much they had spent in the private sector over the weekend (Ie. Hotels, restaurants, retail and gas stations!). On average each racer spent $743 over the weekend in local establishments (so about $20,000 after all). And that was just the racers…..

We had over 900 spectators per day; some local of course but over 50% of the license plates attending were from outside the political boundaries (based on simple walk by Ec. Dev. surveys).

I have quite a few anecdotal stories of the positivity for such an event from this -24C day. My usual, Economic Developer Local Ambassador habit of walking through crowds is instinct now. This is really just talking to complete strangers about the event, the town or some localized knowledge (a great restaurant for families, or where the local hardware store is). I find doing something like this always adds value to each participant in the conversation. On this day, it was no different. After an hour in the crowd, I noted a pattern; in these conversations, people who had relations in Portage la Prairie had heard of the event and had come for a visit that weekend to see family and join in on said event.

So? Success.

Quantitatively, it brought an economic boost, during the slowest retail season of the year (approx. $20,000 from the racers themselves + 1800 spectators spending).

Qualitatively, it brought “weekenders” back to the region (ages 5 to 85) to visit, and of course, speak about it later when they were back in their communities. This equates to regional experience word of mouth advertising.

So it was a way to utilize a what was a perceived negative, turning it into a multiplied positive for the economy.

And it was also a good time.

Fire on Ice Racing a hit

Douglas Barill

The post Ice Racing: a Tourism Attraction appeared first on Development Studio.

So there I was, drinking coffee with a former professor and mentor of mine at Thompson Rivers University Business school, close to 10 years after Graduating with my MBA. After our usual sly digs at each other, we sat down to trade stories. The way I see it we are both a little “mad” when it comes to our chosen professions, but it is what drives us.… So there we were.

I told him a few stories from the trenches of public economic development, and a few business development challenges that arose from helping so many entrepreneurs start their companies in 4 different provinces across Canada. All told with a glossed over humour and long viewed lens that only time could provide. I have always felt that while entrepreneurial roadblocks can seem like the “end of business” while in the midst of them; given time, you can always find humour in those dark moments — Especially if you made it through them.

My mentor told  me stories of a bureaucratic and academic routine and improving the lives of students attending the business school. The latter being of the utmost importance and the reason, I think, to put up with the former. He outlined some great successes and some failures. He glowed with pride as he spoke from across the table about his students’ successes after graduation, in both entrepreneurial ventures and gainful employment, not to mention a few with some incredibly bright futures. The realization I came to, is that he does what he does because he wants to make their lives better, and relishes in his past students’ success.

Perceived Drawbacks can have their Hidden Advantages

I guess right there is the advantage of a small university; professors take a student’s prospects personally – something I never realized back then while in school. I couldn’t resist, so I asked what he thought of my graduating year’s class (ten years after). He gave me a sly grin and replied. I remember your class as a “scrappy” group —-disruptive would be the word now—- with actual ideas.  Some of them, of course,  were “ridiculous and, of course,  would never work…. but at least you were thinking” I took it as a great compliment and a sly nod to the cohort I graduated with.

(Personally, I would rather have 27 ideas to work and edit it down to 1 as opposed to starting out with one idea….but that is another post.)

As we continued to tell stories, with a healthy injection of humour, about how far our individual experiences have come; I joked that we both are a little bruised, but a little wiser, and then my professor replied with a comment that hit home for me (always with a sly grin). It was about business school in general, and the case method of teaching/learning, and how important it is for students who have not learned from their own mistakes yet. He always said that you go to business school to learn from other people’s mistakes instead of making those same mistakes on your own, before you get out on your own and make different ones.
I jested that I didn’t understand that business school lasts a lifetime and my experience thus far has, looking back,  taught me that. Entrepreneurial bruises are just as important as the academic ones from school. He drove the point home with a quip, ” and make no mistake there will be more.”

So what do I do when I get back to my office? I shut my door and write this, as nod to a great mentor and a nod to everyone that has taught me a thing or two.

I have another idea…

Having met so many people across North America doing such great work, improving the lives of their customers, their community, and the local economy; we at the studio will  share some best practices. Thus, I am writing it down and plan on podcasting it out – soon to follow.

The Development Studio will now be expanding its services; we will take best practices in development across North America, on a case by case basis, and share as a tactical and hopefully aesthetically beautiful guide, to help you toward your goal of a better local economy, and personal success at the same time.

That is our goal for you, and we will get there.

On behalf of our crew at the Studio,

Douglas Barill

The post Business School, Economic Development & One Sly Grin appeared first on Development Studio.