McPherson received an award Thursday that may make the city more attractive to potential new businesses.
McPherson mayor Tom Brown and McPherson Industrial Development Company President Brett Reber accepted a CompetitiveReady Seal on Thursday.
The seal designates the community as well equipped to support new businesses.
The award was given at the beginning of a work session for community members, hosted at BPU’s recently renovated Plant One on West Kansas Avenue.
“You’re the second in the nation to get this,” said Chabin Concepts representative Allison Larsen, who presented McPherson with the award and who led the work session that followed. “You’re also the first in Kansas. Maybe that’s putting the gauntlet out there to your competition.”
The seal was awarded after a thorough evaluation, which tested the community on 175 different factors in 10 categories. Adding the award to the city’s credentials will allow it to more successfully market itself to prospective businesses as they consider McPherson for development or relocation.
As he accepted the award, Brown said it was community leaders in the room who had made it possible in the first place.
“The reason we got this award is because all of you played a part,” Brown said. “It’s a team effort, and we appreciate being to this point. It’s been a team effort for many years, and it will take a team effort catch the next 10 or 20 years, too.”
The presentation and work session brought participants from city and county organizations into Plant One to discuss the new Economic Development Strategic Action Plan set forth by Chabin Concepts, a California-based consulting firm hired by MIDC to help it identify their future purpose in the community.
The action plan identifies five areas of initiative in which MIDC hopes to strengthen its ability to attract industry to the area: through readiness to address business concerns, through workforce attraction, through business retention and expansion, through the encouragement of local entrepreneurship and through general business attraction.
During workshop activities the dozens of community members in attendance, ranging from commissioners to city directors to city development leaders, had to identify areas of personal interest and strength. They filed one-by-one to sign up to participate in particular elements of the action plan, dividing themselves into groups to address specific issues related to its implementation. Concepts such as the utilization of social media to broadcast MIDC’s message and the organizational structure the action plan will require were among those discussed.
The duties related to this latter concept fell upon a group of individuals already accustomed to leading such undertakings, including Brown and Reber. Their team immediately began tackling issues like the development of a new budget for the action plan and finding ways to fund it.
“To implement this entire plan, you will need new resources,” Larsen said.
She added “no one here today is saying ‘county, city, give us more money,’” but she stressed fundraising, targeting private companies and individuals would be necessary for the plan’s ultimate success.
MIDC, with the help of those who attended Thursday’s meeting, will carry the suggestions and decisions made forward as they implement their action plan. Larsen said the meeting was not to state where the group is today, but rather to identify where it wants to go in the future.
Speaking to the community, she said McPherson “is extremely competitive,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you’re perfect, there is no perfect community, but you have the pieces and the building blocks that really set you up for success.”
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McPherson received an award Thursday that may make the city more attractive to potential new businesses.
McPherson mayor Tom Brown and McPherson Industrial Development Company President Brett Reber accepted a CompetitiveReady Seal on Thursday.
The seal designates the community as well equipped to support new businesses.
The award was given at the beginning of a work session for community members, hosted at BPU’s recently renovated Plant One on West Kansas Avenue.
“You’re the second in the nation to get this,” said Chabin Concepts representative Allison Larsen, who presented McPherson with the award and who led the work session that followed. “You’re also the first in Kansas. Maybe that’s putting the gauntlet out there to your competition.”
The seal was awarded after a thorough evaluation, which tested the community on 175 different factors in 10 categories. Adding the award to the city’s credentials will allow it to more successfully market itself to prospective businesses as they consider McPherson for development or relocation.
As he accepted the award, Brown said it was community leaders in the room who had made it possible in the first place.
“The reason we got this award is because all of you played a part,” Brown said. “It’s a team effort, and we appreciate being to this point. It’s been a team effort for many years, and it will take a team effort catch the next 10 or 20 years, too.”
The presentation and work session brought participants from city and county organizations into Plant One to discuss the new Economic Development Strategic Action Plan set forth by Chabin Concepts, a California-based consulting firm hired by MIDC to help it identify their future purpose in the community.
The action plan identifies five areas of initiative in which MIDC hopes to strengthen its ability to attract industry to the area: through readiness to address business concerns, through workforce attraction, through business retention and expansion, through the encouragement of local entrepreneurship and through general business attraction.
During workshop activities the dozens of community members in attendance, ranging from commissioners to city directors to city development leaders, had to identify areas of personal interest and strength. They filed one-by-one to sign up to participate in particular elements of the action plan, dividing themselves into groups to address specific issues related to its implementation. Concepts such as the utilization of social media to broadcast MIDC’s message and the organizational structure the action plan will require were among those discussed.
The duties related to this latter concept fell upon a group of individuals already accustomed to leading such undertakings, including Brown and Reber. Their team immediately began tackling issues like the development of a new budget for the action plan and finding ways to fund it.
“To implement this entire plan, you will need new resources,” Larsen said.
She added “no one here today is saying ‘county, city, give us more money,’” but she stressed fundraising, targeting private companies and individuals would be necessary for the plan’s ultimate success.
MIDC, with the help of those who attended Thursday’s meeting, will carry the suggestions and decisions made forward as they implement their action plan. Larsen said the meeting was not to state where the group is today, but rather to identify where it wants to go in the future.
Speaking to the community, she said McPherson “is extremely competitive,” she said. “That doesn’t mean you’re perfect, there is no perfect community, but you have the pieces and the building blocks that really set you up for success.”
