Featured Upcoming Events |
The 2nd annual Guiding Lights Weekend The PSRC is proud to be a sponsor of the 2nd annual Guiding Lights Weekend – An Experiential Conference on the Art of Mentoring. Founded by Eric Liu, author of "Guiding Lights-How to Mentor and Find Life's Purpose," the Weekend brings together a unique roster of luminary teachers and mentors, from diverse professions for a playful, powerful experience of hands-on learning. Held during National Mentoring Month, the Guiding Lights Weekend encompasses three days of participatory workshops, public celebrations, creative panels and other activities. SAVE THE DATES: Prosperity Partnership Roundtable Field Meetings Building from the successful model of the Prosperity Partnership Eastern Washington Trip, the Prosperity Partnership will be hosting Roundtable Field Meetings, designed to both highlight important economic development efforts in the Puget Sound region and provide an opportunity for Partners to interact with business and government leaders and each other. The field meetings will happen quarterly, focusing on each of the four counties in turn. Additional details will be available soon. Prosperity Partnership Central Washington Trip The Prosperity Partnership Eastern Washington Trip this past year brought more then 50 government and business leaders from Western Washington on a tour of economic development activities in the eastern part of the state. In addition to learning about specific opportunities for collaboration and business growth, participants forged relationships with Eastern Washington counterparts that will have long lasting benefits for both sides of the state. The Prosperity Partnership will be leading another trip this year, visiting new parts of the state as well as reconnecting with colleagues from last year’s tour. |
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Prosperity Partnership E-Newsletter
Prosperity Partnership Set to Tackle 2007 Action Items As 2006 comes to a close, the Prosperity Partnership has had a successful first year of implementing the Regional Economic Strategy. By addressing 16 of the 18 First Year Action Items we laid our for ourselves, our coalition of business, government, education, labor and nonprofit organizations has helped move the Puget Sound closer to the goal of 100,000 additional new jobs by 2010 and long term prosperity throughout the region. This progress could not have been made without the active involvement and support of our Partners. As the Partnership heads into its second year of implementation, we have once again created a list of action items to pursue, and once again we need your help to see them through to successful completion. As you review the list (dowload list - .pdf), think about the ways that your organization would like to take part in the work we’re doing together. Here are just a few of the efforts that we’ll be undertaking in the new year. Action Item # 5 - Convene a taskforce on Foreign Direct Investment. Organizational Sponsor: Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle/Prosperity Partnership The Prosperity Partnership will form a task force composed of the four county economic development councils, the Trade Development Alliance and others to draft a strategy and action plan for attracting foreign direct investment and to identify specific investment targets. Our goal is to complete that document by May and begin implementing its recommendations immediately. Action Item # 10 - Create a Clean Technology cluster advocacy organization. Organizational Sponsor: PSRC/ CTED/enterpriseSeattle To foster the growth and development of the Clean Technology cluster – an emerging industry that includes green building and renewable energy – a group of government and industry leaders have created the Washington Clean Technology Alliance. The Alliance will help Clean Tech companies be more successful, resulting in more Clean Tech jobs, new and expanded businesses, and increased revenue. For the upcoming year, the focus will be on building membership in the new organization, holding events and outreach efforts, developing an organizational structure and developing a website and marketing materials.
Action Item # 11 - Create a Minority Economic Development Working Group to identify major economic development policy changes at the local and state level that benefit communities of color. Organizational Sponsor: Minority Economic Development Working Group/Prosperity Partnership The Prosperity Partnership will create a Minority Economic Development Working Group. This collection of leaders from communities of color throughout the four county region will identify specific, tangible policy changes that can be achieved at the regional and state level to improve the ability of minority businesses and minority economic development organizations to be successful. It will be chaired by Seattle City Councilmember David Della, Nate Miles of Eli Lilly & Company and Estella Ortega of El Centro de le Raza. Action Item # 12 - Develop a Seattle International Benchmarking Consortium to benchmark regional competition against international peers. Organizational Sponsor: Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle Building on the success of this year’s 2006-2007 Puget Sound Regional Competitiveness Indicators, the Prosperity Partnership wants to not only measure itself against the prosperity of its peer regions throughout the country, but also the world. The Seattle International Benchmarking Consortium will be a network of sophisticated city-centered metro areas that have found it mutually beneficial to compare themselves to each other, such as Barcelona, Dublin, Fukuoka, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Munich, Stockholm, Taejon (S. Korea), and Vancouver, BC. The PSRC and the network will set a deadline for each city/metropolitan area to submit the data in an agreed upon format. The benchmarking program may generate ideas for research or in-depth analysis between members or throughout the network.
Action Item # 14 - Develop broad consensus on a proposal to create a cultural funding district to support cultural institutions in the four-county region. Organizational Sponsor: Cultural Taskforce This year, the Cultural Taskforce, guided by its 13-member Steering Committee of cultural organization leaders, will focus on identifying key stakeholders with whom to share its draft proposal for celebrating and promoting arts and culture as a strategic economic advantage, and gaining their support for the proposal’s implementation. Specifically, the group has created a plan to increase access to cultural institutions for all of the region’s residents and to ensure the sustainability of our cultural organizations and resources.
Action Item # 16 - Create an ecosystem that can mix companies at different stages of development with available resources. Organizational Sponsor: King Co Business Relations & Economic Development Capitalization of companies, particularly those that are at growth points, is an important part of the retention of new and small businesses in our region. Sometimes, however, the problem is not lack of resources but a lack of awareness and connection between companies and resource providers. The King County Business Relations and Economic Development Department will be working with our Partners to make this ecosystem as efficient and effective as possible. If you have any questions about these Second Year Action Items or would like to find out more, please contact Eric Schinfeld at (206) 587-5063 or eschinfeld@psrc.org.
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