News

ARTICLE
Date ArticleType
7/1/2008 Economic/Community/Chamber
Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce Launches Regional Menu of Services Program for South Central Kentucky

Contact:
Jessica M.L. Thompson, Communications Director
270-781-3200; jessica@bgchamber.com

 

BOWLING GREEN, KY-The Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce held a press conference today at the Chamber

     
headquarters to announce the new menu of services program that the Chamber launched today in conjunction with its revised South Central Kentucky Marketing Plan.

 

Doug Gorman, chair of the 2008 Chamber Board of Directors, summed up the excitement surrounding the menu of services, saying, "We've been waiting for this day for awhile now as we anticipated the great response for our new program, which the Chamber has spent months crafting and has started presenting to the other counties in South Central Kentucky."

 

The menu of services program creates a win-win situation for all counties involved, according to Gorman and others at today's news conference. "This component of our revised South Central Kentucky Marketing Plan will help us to improve and expand our marketing efforts and techniques to recruit more business from around the world and to assist our existing industries," said Gorman.

 

The menu of services program was created to deepen the marketing of South Central Kentucky to site selection professionals and industries, informing their decisions to locate business here in the region. While this is the primary goal of the program, it will also

 

  • Provide excellent, cost-effective economic development services to the surrounding counties that do not have full-time economic development professionals of their own.
  • Deepen the Chamber's ability to increase the competitiveness of the area counties, involving all organizations and officials in economic development efforts in the region.
  • Drive the economic development success of the entire South Central Kentucky region with a commitment to industry attraction, as well as to assist in current industries' retention and expansion plans.

 

To accomplish these goals, the Chamber developed an a la carte menu of its economic development services, which Chamber staff has begun to present to the surrounding counties. The services include

 

  • Economic development administration
  • Business attraction
  • Business retention and expansion
  • Strategic planning
  • Product development

 

The counties and organizations are able to select specific services from the menu-whether all or just a few-to add to their economic development efforts. To date, Butler and Edmonson Counties have agreed to services offered in the program, with Allen and Logan Counties taking advantage of the enhanced marketing package. The Chamber staff will continue to meet with the other counties and their industrial development organizations through the next several months.

 

"The menu of services provides all counties in our region with the opportunity to enhance their economic development efforts," said Chamber President & CEO James N. Hizer, CEcD. "Overall, we want to provide all of our regional partners with the same level of economic development expertise so that we can be a collective force in attracting, retaining, and expanding industries in South Central Kentucky."

 

To achieve that level of expertise, the Chamber recruited Miller Slaughter to be the director, regional development, a role that will make him responsible for economic development efforts in the counties that have agreed to a level of the menu of services program. Slaughter explains further, "Not all counties in our region are able to hire their own full-time economic development professional, but the menu of services gives them the affordable opportunity for that. Part of my responsibilities will be to help set the priorities and develop a business plan for economic development success in each of these counties."

 

Dan Preston, Chamber vice president, economic development, emphasizes that this menu of services program and Slaughter's role will not focus purely on new industry attraction. "Many of our responsibilities as economic development professionals are centered on assisting existing industries in their training and development needs, as well as their efforts to expand their locations. We want to retain our current industries and help them grow, and we'll devote much of our efforts to this through our new menu of services program and marketing plan."

 

For those counties who already have full-time economic development professionals, the menu of services program offers marketing resources and tools so that the counties may enhance what is already being accomplished there. "It's really an effort to pool our efforts and effectiveness, increasing the recognition of the South Central Kentucky area," says Preston.

 

The program offers something for all counties, Hizer says. "The highlight of the menu of services program is that it capitalizes on the various areas of expertise that our economic development staff brings to the table. We have a combined total of more than 60 years of experience in this field. With this program, other counties will have the opportunity to benefit from that experience."