| Topic (and link to details) |
Synopsis |
Date, and for more information |
|
February 25, 2008 - Research is in progress for a
presentation at the BIO 2008 convention in San Diego about US and
Global Business Clusters and Investment Trends.
This will be the opening presentation in the Doing Business Globally
track at BIO on Wednesday, June 18. |
Business location strategy consultants Robert Hess of Cushman
& Wakefield and Douglas Clark of Tenon techlocate will present research
about bioscience clusters and recent location selection trends in the
industry in a panel session moderated by fDi magazine Editor Courtney Fingar.
Special guest speaker Sean Reilly of the US Department of Commerce will
discuss the Invest in America initiative and Open Economies policy launched
by the White House in 2007, and the implications for US biotech companies
and foreign companies expanding into the USA. |
BIO 2008
Event details
- June 18 at 8:15am Please contact
Bruce Donnelly if you are interested in more information about this
session.
TEL 847-304-4655 |
|
December 31, 2007 The new
Search: Americas
tool makes it easy to research any regions of the USA, Canada, and Mexico as
places to do business. A similar
Search: Europe
tool has been prepared, and others for professional services related to this
niche market. |
Over 2000 economic development websites can now be searched
by region or state to find local information about business site selection
considerations in North America. Other innovations
will follow in 2008 for research about potential business locations and
services in the USA and worldwide. |
Search: Americas
Search: Europe
Search:
Canada
Search:
Mexico
Mexico CRE
Search: Global Commercial Real Estate
Search: Global Executive Search Firms |
|
December 24, 2007 We added a custom search tool for
2008 US
presidential election candidate campaign websites. This makes it
easy to compare their stated positions on any topic on their websites,
without third party analysis or commentary (news media, bloggers, critics,
opponents, etc.). |
International executives in particular may find it hard to
find useful information about the potential impact of the US presidential
election and the announced policies of the candidates. This tool makes
it easy to research the official and campaign websites of the candidates for
any topic of interest. |
Search: 2008 US
Election |
|
May 20, 2007 - A new website related to this business -
www.ShortListNews.com will be
launched in July. Unlike publisher websites, this is
not driven by an editorial agenda or journalists according to what they
believe will interest their readers to attract and retain free or paid
subscriptions. The community of active participants and feedback from
users will drive the content selections, research work, and links. |
The website is now available for reference, but still remains
at an early development phase. It is designed as an edited platform
for the open but selective sharing of press releases and news in this niche
through contributions by qualified professionals.
This differs from blogs or publishers as a channel for collaboration among
leading professionals in this niche to openly share timely local market
knowledge with executives and their advisors worldwide. The scope of
content will be developed in consultation with such participants. |
www.ShortListNews.com Unlike this global
reference website and the related tools for business site selection research
work at www.OnTheShortList.com,
relevant advertising is expected to help support the work behind the
ShortListNews website. Instead of rotating banners or buttons,
advertising may include thumbnail images linked to searchable copies of
larger display ads. Multiple banner ads can appear as fixed placements
on relevant pages of content. This is designed to help assure greater
relevance to visitor interests so that ads are more likely to be helpful as
visual shortcuts rather than ignored as irrelevant. |
|
May 15, 2007 - fDi magazine has launched the new fDi Atlas
online. This organizes sponsored presentations about business regions
worldwide in a consistent way for easy reference by top executives and their
professional advisors, with contact details and links to details on their
websites. |
http://fdiatlas.fdimagazine.com/
Initial
sponsors: A-Z list
Related article:
Top 100 global investors Pre-launch
ads in the Financial Times and
background about the fDi Atlas service |
 To
sponsor a presentation about a US region, contact
Bruce Donnelly TEL 847-304-4655 |
|
May 10, 2007 The White House has issued a new "Open
Economies" policy statement and press release which includes the new Invest
in America initiative at the US Dept of Commerce International Trade
Administration (ITA). |
In the past, Commerce Department officials in the
International Trade Administration, including Foreign Commercial Service
officers and staff at US embassies, have been tasked primarily with US
export promotion and trade policy tasks. Now they will also focus on
the attraction of foreign direct investment to the USA. |
White House press release and policy statement about Open Economies
See also
background on
ShortListNews.com |
|
May 7, 2007 - The North American Cities of the Future awards
were presented to the winners during BIO 2007 in Boston after they were
featured in a full page ad in the Financial Times on May 4, and in the April
2007 issue of fDi which was distributed at BIO. |
List of winners
Background
fDi also hosted a special event about global investment
trends in the biotech and life sciences industry. |
Event background -
speakers, presentations. |
|
April 23, 2007 - fDi - Foreign Direct Investment
magazine
www.fdimagazine.com has announced the winners of
the 2007 North American Cities of the Future competition. There were
108 cities nominated in the USA, Canada, and Mexico for this 9 month
research project. |
List of "Cities of the Future"
selections by fDi, as published in the
April issue.
Additional background about
the winners and selection process. fDi is a specialty publication of
the Financial Times group for C-level executives about the business of
globalization and business location strategies for corporate expansion. |
Copy of the fDi press
release of April 23
|
|
March 7, 2007 - A new "Invest in America" initiative has been
announced by the US Department of Commerce. It will
take time for this new policy to have a significant impact, but it seems to
be a major change in policy which may attract both bi-partisan support and
criticism. |
This is a major change in US policy. Other countries
proactively seek to attract and retain foreign direct investment projects.
The US has left that almost entirely up to US states and
local areas until now as a very fragmented approach with very limited
resources. |
www.investamerica.gov
See also
background on
ShortListNews.com |
|
We're expecting over 120 attendees at the IEDC Annual
Conference in New York for the session which
fDi magazine has
sponsored about North American investment trends.
The Editor of fDi
magazine, Courtney Fingar, will moderate an expert panel presentation.
This is similar to a very popular session hosted at BIO 2006. |
RSVPs filled the available space to capacity in just the
first 5 days after invitations were sent out, so there will now be two
sessions at 7am and 8am on Tuesday, September 19, 2006.
This precedes the IEDC general session at 9am, where Mayor
Bloomberg of New York will be the guest speaker.
Guest speakers include Roel Spee, site selection consultant at IBM Plant Location
International, and a speaker from Oxford Intelligence. |
August 31, 2006
IEDC NY event invitation details ,
including speaker bios and contact information. Copies of the
presentations will be published after the event.
IEDC website -
International Economic Development Council, Annual Conference, Sept. 17-20,
2006 2007 North
American Location Guide
Search back issues of fDi magazine |
|
Nominations are now open for the 2007 North American
Cities of the Future award. We are helping to promote this useful
editorial feature of fDi magazine,
but do not influence the selection process at all. Winners will be
announced in the April 2007 issue.
Previous awards :
June / July 2005 cover story
US Winners and
US Regional finalists
Canada winners and
finalists
Award presentations |
 |
August 31, 2006
For more information and an entry form:
Charles Piggott, fDi magazine - research
TEL: 011 +44 1843 594 589
Email:
charles.piggott@ft.com |
|
We now handle US advertising sales for fDi magazine, in
addition to our existing business which serves as an online channel and
"concierge service" to introduce executives to the economic development and
professional service provider contacts they need for their investment plans. |
This is a very strategic fit with our specialty. fDi is
the global leader in this niche market as a publisher of high-quality,
C-level editorial content about the business issues of globalization as a
specialty magazine of the Financial Times group, FT Business. |
June 1, 2006
www.fdimagazine.com
www.ftbusiness.com
|
|
State economic
development agencies in the United States have been invited to provide
informative articles (with content and size entirely at their own
discretion) on a simple topic : "Why should a business invest
in your state?" This was explained
personally to many of the state officials at their BIO 2006 exhibits, but is
not limited to that industry. Replies will be
published here as they are received, and can be updated by such
officials on request at any time. |
We expect most states to reply with relevant articles in May,
which we will publish to openly share the point of view of top state
economic development officials who are responsible for business investment
attraction and retention. This should illustrate
their current priorities among the types of businesses which they are
actively trying to attract, with some examples of what they have
successfully attracted in recent years, and explain their perceptions of
what differentiates their own state as a competitive business location for
such firms.
In short, what makes their state a competitive location,
and what types of company projects are they trying to attract? |
April 17, 2006 "The
Long List : Why invest in This Business Location?"
Replies will also be found through
www.OnTheShortList.com
Contact - Bruce Donnelly : TEL 847-304-4655 Chicago |
|
We have published our latest trend analysis of the
distribution of major capital investment
projects among US states relative to their population. We have
also shared some of our marketing ROI research into the
cost of lead generation work by
economic development agencies relative to jobs created. There are also
some surprises in the relative rankings of some of the states. |
Total projects per million population have fallen roughly in
half from 41 to 22 between the 1999-2001 and 2003-2005 periods. This
reflects a decline in total projects from around 12,000 to 6,000 per year.
New manufacturing projects have not yet recovered to their "boom" levels,
but this is a lagging indicator in any economic recovery. Expansion
projects have returned to roughly 2/3 of the earlier levels during the
"boom" years. |
April 3, 2006 Download our
April 2006 newsletter (4 pages
with graphs), which summarizes this market research and trend analysis,
including rankings among the states over a 7 year period. |
|
Bruce Donnelly recently shared his views about the new OECD Policy
Framework for Investment initiative on the basis of many years of experience
with the planning of foreign direct investment projects by companies.
The comments, along with others who responded to the
OECD Investment Committee request for feedback, are now shared through
the OECD website.
See more about the
Policy Framework for Investment.
This October 2005
OECD
Observer article by the chair of the OECD Investment Committee may also
be useful background. |
The reply stressed the importance of developing better
business climates at both the national and local levels in developed and
developing countries, rather than becoming too complacent about success in a
fast-changing global market. There were other interesting responses
from various points of view. The response focused on
the perspective of business executives who invest in capital investment
projects, rather than just national government or multilateral policy
leaders, as in the context of our Global Direct Investment Forum initiative
to support innovative approaches to local business cluster development. |
March 8, 2006
Our reply and
others are found at
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/27/44/36199688.pdf
Investment Division,
Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs
Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development
www.oecd.org/investment
We have no
affiliation with the OECD. We were just sharing our point of view with
their Task Force in reply to their open request for feedback about the
Framework since foreign direct investment projects are our specialty. |
|
We are in the process of launching two new non-profit
organizations to organize corporate leaders across the USA and worldwide as
an action-oriented network to support local community and business leaders
through their experience and early-stage support of innovative initiatives
which grow globally competitive business environments and industry clusters.
We will be launching a campaign over the months ahead to
attract the active participation of top executives in this initiative and raise the funds necessary to
have an impact in many communities soon through rapid growth to scale. |
This is an opportunity to demonstrate to positive social
impact of business, and to work with motivated leaders at the local
community level on practical ways to develop sustainable prosperity in their
areas. This should grow the social impact of
business investment attraction, expansion, and retention initiatives as well
as local entrepreneurship initiatives, including "social entrepreneurs"
which focus on key social needs for economic development as a non-profit
organization or business with "social ROI" goals. |
March 1, 2006 Global Direct Investment Forum -
www.gdiforum.org - is the new network
of executives committed to creating better business environments through
early support of innovative local initiatives in the many
places where they have interests.
The Global Direct Investment Foundation -
www.gdifoundation.org - is
the related organization to select, help, fund, and share knowledge of local
community initiatives supported by
the Forum members. |
|
Service fees have changed slightly for 2006, reflecting a
review of the usual time required to perform the services.
Most standardized service fees remain unchanged. As
more organizations participate, fees may go down again. |
Daily billing rates for custom marketing services remain
unchanged. Standard fees for GUIDE Area Profiles and Service Profiles
have been reduced. Area Surveys have gone up a little because they are
taking more time than originally anticipated. |
March 1, 2006
Standard service
fees are in the Order Form (.pdf)
Some work involves
custom proposals.
Contact us with any questions about standard or custom services.. |
|
We have updated our analysis of the distribution of state
economic development page views. The graphics illustrate the diverse
distribution of interests among the visitors to our website from around the
world. We use this information to help guide our research work to
improve the directories according to latest trends in market demand by
visitors. |
The new graphic compares January - February 2006 views of our
Invest USA state economic
development directories to the distribution in 2005. Since visits are
up from 320,000 per year in 2005 to a 500,000 visits per year pace by March
2006, we wanted to review any recent changes in interests. |
March 1, 2006 Graphics :
Distribution analysis of
state and regional economic development directory views from 2003 - 2006 |
|
Our website visits have now reached a 500,000 per year
pace, after breaking through a 400,000 pace in late January as our 2006
marketing plan moves forward.
This now exceeds some of the top economic development
magazines in this market which have been in free circulation for many years. |
The website has only been promoted actively for 2 years,
growing from 200,000 visits in 2004 to 320,000 in 2005.
Visits are now
roughly 150% above the 2004 levels. |
March 1, 2006 Graphic -
comparison of daily visits and moving averages for 2004, 2005, and 2006
Graphic - monthly
website visits from fall 2003 to date. |
|
Viewpoint : Economic Value Destroyed
- a personal essay on corporate social responsibility, the "triple bottom
line", and the competition for economic development through private business
investment flows. Private capital grows or goes elsewhere.
Social choices matter. Governments don't drive development.
Investment incentives are in effect a direct business
tax on government for the competitive consequences of their social choices.
They help offset the economic value destroyed by the cumulative impact of
adverse choices over time.
Sustainable community development depends on the development
and maintenance of a globally competitive business environment, but
short-sighted government leaders may neglect the legacy of economic success
which they have inherited, or harm it through choices which seem justifiable
at the time
without careful review of their business impact.
Some activists are using the economic power and influence
of their charities or lobbying work to openly attack businesses with almost complete
disregard or scorn for the value which they deliver to the communities where
they operate. It is time for business leaders to defend their high
social value, as should be self-evident in any areas which have lost major
employers. |
Nobody talks about Governmental Business Responsibility, or
the Triple Top Line impact of strategic business location choices as
executives consider whether or not to change the configuration of their
operations in response to future growth expectations rather than past
choices.
There is no process yet to report the benefits or costs of
staying in the same business environment versus moving elsewhere.
If companies must give greater attention to the reporting
of their social and environmental impact, then government should also
measure and report on the business impact of their social and environmental
choices, taxes, or regulatory actions so that government and community
leaders fully recognize that impact.
It has become fashionable to talk about the obligations of
business to society, but there is still little dialogue about the social
importance of developing and maintaining a globally competitive business
environment. Business leaders are often criticized
by government officials, activists, and news media when they choose to
expand elsewhere, or as they close uncompetitive operations to sustain their
own business development. Executives confront a competitive world, in
which past success is no assurance of future success. Community
leaders also need to also think about how to sustain the prosperity of their
own communities. |
December 18, 2005 Related content :
Viewpoint
on "Exporting America" book by Lou Dobbs
|
|
A new directory of
International Business Forums has been added, and will continue to
develop in 2006. This is mainly intended to help international
investors and executives in other regions to become aware of such resources
in places where they may plan to do business. Such websites can also
be a useful resource for market research and contacts. |
The directory is a convenient regional list of organizations
which engage business leaders in discussions about topics such as foreign
relations, world affairs, international trade, economic development, and
humanitarian issues such as health crises, disaster relief, poverty
reduction, etc. |
December 16, 2005
Humanitarian and
Philanthropic Services |
|
We have set up a new Opt-In page
which links to forms at
www.OnTheShortList.com for users to share as much information as they
wish to help guide our research work. Using the
Amazon Honor System, we have also added a new way for visitors to make
donations from $1 to $50 to help support our research and referral work.
In effect, this is somewhat like tipping a helpful concierge for assistance,
except that Amazon collects the tip anonymously for us. |
There is no required registration process or fee for access
to any of the content shared through our websites. Instead, there is a
voluntary process to "opt in" so that we can take the interests of visitors
into consideration in our research, or respond privately to specific
interests as new information becomes available. We do some work for
communities and service providers on a fee basis, but now there is now an
optional process for satisfied visitors to make donations. |
December 2, 2005
Amazon Honor System
- Donations are processed in confidence - we receive no information about
the donor unless the donor contacts us separately. Donations are
limited to payments of $1 to $50 by US credit cards, which are processed
securely by Amazon.com as for their other types of transactions - so we
never receive such information. |
|
Our November newsletter elaborates on our new services, such
as the launch of our website,
www.OnTheShortList.com and The Professional Site Selection Tour and
Meeting Point. |
Our October newsletter gave additional background about the
use of Google for business location selection research. The latest
newsletter further demonstrates this process through the new custom search
tools on www.OnTheShortList.com
. |
November 7, 2005
Newsletter - November 2005
(.pdf) |
|
We are in the process of launching two new services for 2006
- The Professional Site Selection Tour and Meeting Point, both of which are
featured through a new website. These are being
developed in both North America and Europe by
Bruce Donnelly in
cooperation with our European colleague,
Phil Eadon. Phil
recently organized the InterTech 2005
event near Berlin for B2B networking, and his Partners4Technology service
can introduce executives to relevant contacts at any time. |
We have already developed networks of contacts among top
location consultants and economic development organizations.
These new services will now help to bring these contacts
together more efficiently to develop more timely and useful knowledge of
business locations and professional services in this market through field
research trips (similar to "familiarization tours") and pre-scheduled
meetings at events such as major trade shows and professional association
events. |
October 28, 2005
www.ontheshortlist.com
www.partners4technology.com |
|
As this business prepares to support 2006 investment projects
by companies, we have prepared a newsletter which highlights some of the
2005 developments. The website continues to attract 300,000+ visitors
per year, up from 200,000 in 2004, and links to 20,000+ resources. |
This brief newsletter explains with examples how this website
uses the Google site search feature to make it easier for executives to find
the business locations and services they need for projects. It also
invites areas and services to participate in our 2006 marketing plan. |
September 26, 2005
Newsletter - October 2005 (.pdf) |
|
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton have
announced the creation of the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
|
The governors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama will be
able to use this for disaster relief and medical services. |
September 5, 2005
http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org |
|
We have added information related to the
Hurricane Katrina disaster in
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. This includes storm images and
maps to visualize the
affected areas, as well as historic hurricane information for this region to
put this catastrophe in perspective. Hundreds of
thousands of people have been displaced by this storm, and many will have no
homes or jobs to which they can return for a year or more. Business
operations and logistics, including not only the highly publicized impact on
the oil industry but also regional business activity which affects the
entire country and US exports, such as food, will be affected by the
considerable infrastructure damage. |
Although coast cities such as New Orleans, Gulfport, and
Biloxi have captured much of the media attention because of the extent of
the devastation in these areas, the damage actually covers many other
counties and communities. Our state
directories of economic development
agencies, which are sorted by zip code, make it easy to recognize which
organizations represent affected areas.
As disaster recovery moves into cleanup and rebuilding,
and the challenge of attracting businesses back to these areas to create the
jobs residents will need, these organizations which traditionally rely
heavily on local contributions to fund their non-profit development work
will need support. |
August 29, 2005
Hurricane Katrina
background
Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama Gulf Coast regional maps |
|
Our BRAC directory of
locations affected by the work of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closing
Commission has been updated for many of the changes which were made as the
Commission voted on the Pentagon recommendations.
President Bush is likely to approve the recommendations by September 23,
followed by a period in which Congress can also review them. By
November, however, the changes are expected to be final. |
The BRAC process will affect many communities which face
military base closures or "realignment" - shifting missions between bases -
for many years. Jobs will be lost in such areas, and the attraction of
alternate investment to bases as they are closed, cleaned up, and
redeveloped for alternate uses will take considerable time. Our work
can help to highlight such progress, and promote what is available which
might attract the interest of executives and their advisors for future
capital investment projects in these locations. |
August 26, 2005
BRAC 2005 military base
changes
|
|
We're doing marketing work in preparation for the BIO 2005
event in Philadelphia, June 19-22 and the related AURP BioParks event on
June 18. We're also organizing a directory of
research parks, science and technology parks, business incubators, regional
technology cluster initiatives, and related services which may be of
interest to executives and their advisors as potential business locations,
especially for R&D projects |
The BIO 2005 convention in Philadelphia is the annual
conference, like BIO 2004 in San Francisco and BIO 2006 in Chicago next
April, of this leading biotechnology and life sciences association.
We maintain a selective "event
recall" directory of BIO exhibitors because of their relevance to
our work and the focus of many areas on targeting companies in the biotech,
biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, environmental, health, life sciences, and
medical product sectors for future growth. |
May 5, 2005
Biotech and Life Sciences
industry clusters
www.bio.org
Business incubators,
science and technology research parks |
We added several new website features in recent weeks.
- BRAC 2005
Directory - military base closure and realignment locations and
contacts for areas affected by prior rounds in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995.
There are also links to useful sources of information about the BRAC
process, and to professional services providers with experience in prior
BRAC locations.
- Foreign Trade
Zone directory - to make it easier to find these locations, websites,
and contacts. We have also been expanding our
directory of ports,
railroads and airports worldwide as time permits. Many former
BRAC locations such as airports and port facilities are now FTZ's or offer
other types of special incentives for companies to invest there.
|
On May 16 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled
to release the 2005 BRAC list of recommended military installation closures
or realignments as part of the force transformation process, both to
eliminate surplus military base capacity, encroachments issues, and realign
the military infrastructure to meet future needs. The focus this time
isn't just on cutting waste, as in the past, but rather on addressing
service integration and effectiveness issues, new threats, and growing needs
for joint missions. We will update our BRAC 2005
Directory as soon as possible after the announcement, and provide helpful
links to the economic development organizations of the affected areas,
whether facing closures, realignment, or growth. |
May 5, 2005
BRAC 2005 military base
changes
Example : Survey of a former BRAC location - the
Red River
Commerce Park in New Boston TX near Texarkana |
|
Have you seen our recent ad campaign? We revised
and expanded our online advertising
campaign in April and early May.
The daily visit
statistics also hit a new high of nearly 1500 visitors on May 4 alone. |
The ads have already been served over 100,000 times since
April 1, and are now being served at a pace of 8,000 to 12,000 per business
day. We launched this business with a deliberately
low profile during the research and development phase during 2003, and
because we specialize in personal referral work for major project plans
which may be confidential. |
May 5, 2005
Summary of 2005 online
ad campaign statistics |
|
We recently prepared a GUIDE Service Profile to describe the
capabilities of
alliantgroup, which specializes in R&D tax credits which many US
companies may not realize they are missing as a potentially very large tax
incentive program. |
These specialists in US federal R&D tax credits generally
come from backgrounds with the "Big Four" accounting and tax firms, but now
specialize in helping companies to obtain the new R&D tax credits. |
April 2, 2005
 |
|
There were roughly 30,000 visitors to this site in March.
This continues the trend of a 60% increase over 2004, with more than 300,000
visits expected in 2005 now. We have also updated
our analysis of the distribution of visits to the various regional
directories of contacts.
This information may be of interest to potential sponsors
of our work, advertisers, or professional organizations which want to work
together more directly to support their targeted marketing interests in this
specialty. |
The latest analysis of the distribution of visits to the
various regional directories of contacts reflects some interesting changes
since 2003 (Q4) to 2005 (Q1), as can be seen at a glance. In general,
the volume of visits to each of the regional pages has increased sharply
along with the total volume of visits to this website, but some regions are
showing a growing share of the total visits to such pages.
Unlike general visit statistics, this provides a picture of
the geographic interests of our visitors, and how such interests seem to be
changing over time. |
April 2, 2005 Website visit statistics
Daily
Monthly
Regional
Analysis reports
US investment projects -
distribution by state
Newsletter - summary of our
analysis (April 2006)
Reference:
US states - population
distribution (approx) |
|
We are developing a new "On The Short List" feature at the
same time as more detailed "long list" directories of state economic
development organizations (EDO's) and professional service providers, as
shown by the initial example of Utah EDO's,
Utah professional services,
and the outline of the "Utah On
The Short List" report, for whch research work is in progress along with
similar reports for Illinois and North Carolina.
Other states will be featured through similar research
work later in the year. |
Unlike annual magazine articles, this service is intended to
be updated as new information becomes available so that the content remains
timely as a reference source, and easy to browse or search for recent
developments in locations or by service providers which support this work.
This complements the regional and state directories of
economic development organizations and professional service providers, which
are basically "long lists" to make it easier to find organizations which are
not highlighted through more detailed GUIDE content services. The
closer working relationships of the GUIDE Area Profile or Service Provider
work are necessary to keep the "Short List" content more timely and useful. |
April 2, 2005
New : "On The Short List"
Reports - under development - see also
www.OnTheShortList.com under
"The Long List" for contributed articles by various states as provided later
in 2006 |
|
We have added a Google Search feature to our site, which now
makes it easy to find relevant content quickly and easily among the hundreds
of pages of specialized content and thousands of contacts for this niche
market. This should be a fast, intuitive, and
powerful way for users to find any relevant content on this website.
Our analysis of visitors to our website already showed that a very high
percentage of visitors find us through Google searches which take them
directly to relevant pages of content. |
We have added the Google Search to the home page, and the
"For Executives" page. There will be a Search button
in the header at the top of every page which leads to the Search feature.
For now, this Search button remains in the lower left column while we work
on some further improvements to our site.
We had deferred implementation of a Search feature on this
website in the past because we were not yet satisfied with the performance
of the services we had tested. We are also testing some other Google
features which are in "beta". |
February 14, 2005
SEARCH
New Google search
features we are testing
Since there are many large pages on this site, remember
that a simple [Ctrl][f] can be used on any page to quickly "find" any
character string or word once a Google site search identifies the page where
a relevant word appears. |
|
We reached roughly 25,000 visitors to this site in January
2005, a major increase over 2004 levels. Visits were steadily rising
throughout 2004. The initial version of the website was launched
quietly in September 2002, but it was improved dramatically in 2003 and
2004. |
The 12 month total for visitors now exceeds 210,000, and the
30 day moving average is running at 60% more visits than at this time in
2004, so at this time we forecast more than 300,000 visits during 2005.
We believe this reflects a significant increase in activity in our market in
general, as we have also received more project enquiries recently. |
February 2, 2005
Monthly website
visit statistics |
|
We have released our 2005 service pricing. This applies
to economic development organizations which choose to take advantage of our
standard services. We can also do custom projects
through special proposals upon request, and there are various "success fee"
options to motivate and reward performance, such as to develop very relevant
and well-qualified referrals for major projects. |
The Order Form
summarizes all current pricing. Many 2005 prices have been reduced
because, as more organizations choose to participate in our work, this
enables us to drive down the cost as planned for these standard shared
services. There are services which only cost $300 -
600 per year, and others with are valued at $500 - $4000 per month, which is
just a fraction of the cost of one professional in this niche. |
December 13, 2004
Order form - standard service
pricing |
|
We have set up new "Google Groups" for discussions among
executives, business advisors, and area representatives.
The archived content of topic postings and
replies is openly available to anyone, although only Group members can post
content (as a very basic quality control measure). Content can also be
searched by Google. Members can choose to have new content e-mailed to
them or not as they prefer. |
Google is at the "beta" testing stage of a new "Groups"
feature which is similar to the old "Usenet". We have set up special
interest or discussion Groups on several topics for this niche. This
makes it easier for participants in our work to openly share their market
knowledge, ideas, and suggestions with peers and executives who may value
their insights. We moderate who joins the Groups,
but these Groups are generally open to any relevant contacts who will
respect the intent of the Groups to share useful market knowledge rather
than just promote their own areas or services. We do not generally
moderate the topics or replies posted by members, although we can remove
inappropriate archived content. |
December 13, 2004
Google Groups we have set up
Other Groups may be added over time in response to
interest and suggestions among our many contacts. |
|
A special trial offer has been extended to
area representatives for participation in our GUIDE Network Survey and Area
Profile services, which include executive summary content designed to
support quick research for "long list" or "short list" decisions for
business site selection. All areas are encouraged to
respond to our Survey so that
we will have timely knowledge on file for internal reference, whether or not
they choose to publish it or work together. |
The flow of investment projects is clearly picking up again,
so many areas can potentially benefit from both the reach of this website as
well as our direct contact with many executives and advisors about their
project interests. We also offer other shared and
custom services to support investment promotion programs, but this special
offer will economically introduce and demonstrate in practice how we may be
of assistance to both economic development professionals and other service
providers in this niche. |
November 29, 2004
|
|
We have set up a new
NAFTA
Directory feature to make it easy to find economic development contacts
quickly anywhere in North America. This complements our existing
global contacts directory and
various regional directories of economic development organizations (also
known as investment promotion agencies - IPA's). We provide links to
thousands of organizations.
Relevant reciprocal links
in this niche
are always welcome. Irrelevant link solicitation broadcasts are
routinely refused. |
The initial content of the regional and state directories is
the same, but over time the regional directories will become more selective,
and the state directories more comprehensive. This reflects the
overwhelming amount of information which is now readily available for many
regions. The regional directories will be used to
highlight areas and services which are found to be of frequent interest to
the executives and advisors we serve, or which actively support our work,
while the state directories will be a tool to find many other relevant
resources as they are needed. Both are designed to be easy for search
engines to process so that users can directly reach the most relevant
content. |
November 29, 2004
|
|
Some of our website
visit statistics have been made readily available for quick reference. |
Our supporters sometimes request such information as one
indicator of our market reach. Our analysis of the available
statistics is now shared openly for convenience, even though this is not a
performance metric for our work. We focus on personal working
relationships to support specific projects, rather than the maximization of
website visit statistics. |
October 11, 2004 |
|
A new "Let's Meet" directory makes it fast and
easy to contact professionals who actively support our relationship
development work among executives and advisors (SICR).
This service will
develop over time as more organizations take advantage of our capabilities
to identify and introduce relevant contacts. |
Out of the thousands of resources available through this
website, this is a convenient directory to reach those who actively support
our work with just one or two clicks from any page. See also :
- Highlights, which
provides logo or button links to websites and Area or Service Profiles for
background about their capabilities,
- GUIDE Tools which
organizes content by area, industry and common topics of interest through
a simple matrix
- Contacts, organized by
professional specialty
- Biography, about
specific professionals.
|
July 6, 2004
|
|
We have added a new "Seek Advice" section
to suggest a basic structure for the enquiries we receive from executives.
This helps us to respond quickly and effectively by outlining important
considerations or topics of interest which may need to be discussed. |
In our experience, executives don't generally like to fill
out forms, and that is not our approach, unlike "bingo" direct response
cards in magazines or user registration and information request or
subscription request forms on websites. The simple
fax-back form we have
provided just outlines key topics which should guide our response through a
personal, professional dialogue. |
July 6, 2004
|
|
Our home page has been revised as planned to reflect the next stage of
business development. The content aimed at area
representatives and professional service
providers has now been relocated to separate pages.
The home page will now focus on our corporate relationship development
work and services to support their direct investment interests worldwide.
In short, we are moving beyond our initial R&D and business launch phase. |
Until now the home page was divided into three columns for
the three networks of contacts we serve - executives, area representatives,
and professional service providers. The latter two
groups are basically suppliers to the corporate executives who are
responsible for investment decisions. During the launch of this
business, we had to build up those networks first. As a simple
analogy, we had to build the store and stock the shelves by developing a
good base of suppliers with interesting "products". We now offer
thousands of valuable resources worldwide.
Now, as we go to market more proactively in both North
America and Europe to support global corporate direct investment interests,
our home page and other aspects of our website will change in response to
the interests of the executives and business advisors we serve. |
June 23, 2004 |
|
A new "GUIDE Tools" button has been
added to the website for convenience. This is a unique new way to
navigate through the global base of shared knowledge about participating
business locations and professional service providers worldwide. |
This organizes a global matrix of GUIDE content services on
typical topics of interest as shortcut buttons to find information even
faster about participating areas, such as those with our SICR or GUIDE Area
Profile working relationships to share knowledge about their areas, or even
users of specific GUIDE services (publishing Area Survey replies, property
listings, project profiles, etc.). |
June 1, 2004
|
|
A new "Highlights" button has been added
to feature links to the growing number of leading organizations in this
market whose participation makes our services possible. These are, in
effect, featured service providers in this market, like a "point of sale"
display in a large store. |
As new participants take advantage of our GUIDE work to
highlight the capabilities of their professional services or business
locations, we will feature them on this simple page through logo or button
links. This is analogous in some ways to a list of "sponsors" or
"clients", including strategic alliances or other reciprocal relationships. |
June 1, 2004
|
|
Our standard "Order Form"
(.pdf file) has been updated to add three new "pay for performance"
options for SICR participation by areas which may prefer this success fee
approach. SICR is our proactive, ongoing relationship development work
among corporate executives and their advisors as an independent service by a
growing professional team of relationship leaders with regional and industry
specialization.
SICR differs from the traditionally exclusive consulting projects for
telemarketing, PR, event, or advertising services to seek a few "leads" at
one time for a client at their own high expense. |
SICR pricing has generally been on a flat monthly fee basis
as an ongoing service. We still believe the flat fee
will prove to be a better value for most areas, but recognize that some
potential participants may prefer to work together on a more limited basis
at first. The new options provide a way to participate until the high
value of the SICR service for their interests has been demonstrated in
practice through well-qualified and relevant referrals which fit with their
own capabilities.
The new pricing options illustrate how this can be done,
and custom proposals for specific situations are available.
A new 2
page article (.pdf) explains our SICR work. |
June 1, 2004 Bruce Donnelly is the contact for all SICR proposals.
TEL 847-304-4655 |
|
EU enlargement has many objectives, but one is clearly to promote the rapid
economic development of the 10 countries which have now joined the European
Union, including the attraction of foreign direct investment and business
alliances. We have been preparing for this, since we already know from
experience that it is of interest to the executives and professionals we
serve, including economic development professionals in Europe and worldwide
as well as leading business location consultants.
Since our work and the work of many of our professional services and
leading economic development contacts is confidential, given the sensitivity
of future corporate investment plans, we have been quietly preparing for the
global recovery in foreign direct investment projects and business alliance
interests. We now expect to become far more visible, but with the same
respect for confidentiality. |
Bruce Donnelly and Phil Eadon have been involved in the
attraction of foreign investment projects to Europe since long before the
1993 "single market" changes. We have been quietly preparing to
support corporate investment interests in an expanded Europe.
Indeed, Bruce served as a US Foreign Service Officer in
Germany in the early 1980's, when many accused President Reagan of risking
nuclear war in Europe at a time when few could foresee that the stage was
really being set for German reunification and the many other changes in
central and eastern Europe, as well as the development of greater unity
across western Europe.
Only twenty years ago, the idea of EU enlargement to
include these 10 countries was virtually unthinkable, as recent foreign
direct investment trends in China, India, Russia, Brazil and elsewhere would
have been.
We have been preparing for an even faster-changing
networked world than the 1980's and 1990's, and a renewed flow of projects
as companies, communities, and professional service providers respond to the
many new opportunities and challenges for growth ahead. |
May 1, 2004
Area Surveys and other information resources as a special directory
of websites and contacts for direct investment projects in the EU
enlargement countries, set up for the convenience of our contacts.
See also : our main
directory of European
contacts and GUIDE
Area Profiles, including European areas
Service Profiles, such as for
Location
Consultants and other
professional
service providers, to highlight their capabilities and how to reach them
|
|
As the EU enlargement takes place, we are also pleased to announce our own
expansion into Europe through an expanding working relationship with
Phil Eadon, President of InterTech Global Alliance. Phil is
based in
County Durham, northern England, which will host the
InterTech 2004
networking event for knowledge-based technology alliances, as for a similar
event organized there in 2003. |
Phil will join us at the
CoreNet Global Summit in Chicago
and participate in upcoming events about EU enlargement and European
economic development. Together, we will serve
executives worldwide with existing or potential capital investment or
business alliance interests in Europe, as well as the investment promotion
organizations which are motivated to work together as they seek to attract
and retain business investment projects or alliances with local companies. |
May 1, 2004 Biographic Profile :
Phil Eadon
InterTech 2004
event :
www.intertech2004.com
Durham, northern
England
October 11-12,
2004 |
 |
|
The 2004 Global Corporate
Development Interests Survey is now in progress among the top executives
of many companies. The responses are confidential. An analysis of
the research conclusions will be shared on request with the executives who
participated. |
This research supports our ability to be responsive to future
investment and alliance interests worldwide across most industry sectors.
It can identify valuable "lessons learned" and suggest "proven solutions"
through feedback about their experiences working with professional service
providers and area representatives so that we can offer well-qualified
referrals to assist similar executives with their future project plans. |
April 30, 2004 Meet us at the
CoreNet Global Summit, Chicago
Global
Corporate Development Interests Survey
Download :
Survey and explanation (Adobe .pdf) |
|
CoreNet has announced the 3 winners of the
2004 Economic Development Leadership and Accomplishment Award which we
sponsored again to
recognize exemplary professional work during 2002 and 2003.
Congratulations to the 2004 award winners !
Congratulations again to the
2003 award
winners, too. |
Refer to the
CoreNet Global Learning website and the May issue of
Corporate Real Estate Leader magazine,
which will feature the winners. There will also be
coverage on the CoreNet website and in the CoreNet Global News
newsletter. We have
also highlighted the winners here since we were the exclusive sponsor of this
new award program. We will present the awards at the CoreNet
Global Summit meeting in Chicago on May 18. (Events). The award for
leadership during 2004 will open for nominations early in 2005, and be
presented at the spring 2005 Summit.
See details
about the award. |
April 30, 2003
Contact :
Bruce Donnelly 847-304-4655 (Chicago) |
|
2003 award
winners at CoreNet in Atlanta with Bruce |
|
We have added a new feature as planned to highlight
responses to the GUIDE Network Survey by economic development
professionals who choose to have their Survey responses published here.
This complements the existing links to Survey responses through the
regional tables of economic development contacts. Some Survey
responses are not published, as there is a small fee for the work involved. |
To demonstrate this new feature, we have temporarily listed
many of the attendees at the Roundtable in the Rockies event who we met or
interviewed in Vail. This demonstrates how the GUIDE Network Survey
service can be used to highlight basic facts about an area.
This complements the
GUIDE Area Profile
service which involves a closer working relationship throughout the year to
develop and maintain more timely and detailed knowledge of participating
areas. Like the Area Profiles, this also provides an easy shortcut for
executives and advisors to identify relevant contacts and reach them quickly
about their interests. |
April 5, 2004
To participate in the GUIDE Network Survey |
|
There have been minor updates to service pricing as reflected in the
Order Form. We openly disclose our standardized service pricing
for consistency and transparency in our proposals to similar area
representatives. |
Few prices have changed from the planned 2004 levels, but the
payment terms have been revised to reflect initial and ongoing costs of
participation, such as monthly fees for the SICR or Area Profile services.
The discount on services to participants for providing reciprocal links to
our website has also been clarified. |
April 5, 2004 |
|
We were among several consultants invited to address a select group of
leading economic development professionals at the Roundtable in the Rockies
event in Vail. |
Download an Adobe PDF copy (0.5 MB) of our presentation of
April 2, 2004 at the Roundtable in the Rockies event organized by
Expansion Management. "We
all want to be irrationally exuberant again ..." |
April 2, 2004
Roundtable in the Rockies event information
Information for
Roundtable in the Rockies attendees. |
|
A new feature makes it easier to find sources of information about
investment incentives, credits,
project finance, and taxes. |
The new GUIDE service highlighting information resources
about investment incentive programs will continue to evolve, but already
makes it fast and easy for executives and their advisors to find official
website presentations about many locations. |
March 19, 2004
|
|
We're very pleased to announce our new working
relationship with Invest Korea.
|
Area
Profile for Korea (to be updated shortly) Invest
Korea is helping US and other international investors to establish or expand
operations in South Korea. They can also be of assistance for some of
the major social infrastructure projects in Korea, such as port development,
transportation projects, etc. We now work together to support
potential investors in Korea. Our work as an independent service helps
to introduce them to more executives who would value their assistance as
they consider investment in Korea. |
March 4, 2004 Other
contacts and resources
about Korea
Contact Bruce Donnelly as above for details |
|
We have made it easier to quickly reach the GUIDE Area Profiles and Service
Profiles. This was planned for this stage of business development, as we
expand our contacts among executives and their advisors in 2004. |
Highlights :
2004 GUIDE Area Profiles and
Service Profiles . This shows how, in addition to the listings
among regional contacts
or professional
service providers by specialty, we will highlight participants in our
services to openly share market knowledge with executives and the advisors
for their projects. |
February 6, 2004 |
|
We're launching a market research process during 2004 to look beyond current
media headlines about foreign investment trends and outsourcing to focus on
how real capital investment project experiences and needs of major companies
are changing in key Asian, European, and Americas markets. We will
look back at recent changes, and focus on future plans and project planning
needs. Watch for details of the 2004 Survey of Global Direct Investment
Strategy and Plans. The analysis will be shared with participants, but
specific responses will be confidential. |
The world of
direct investment projects has changed radically in the last 10 - 20 years.
Who would have predicted the trends we take for granted today? Do we
really have a firm grasp of global risks and trends for the next 3 - 5
years, or even a well-defined range of plausible scenarios for long-term
strategic planning? How are executives dealing with such uncertainty?
Capital investment projects generally reflect long-term
strategic commitments in areas with uncertain risks, exit costs, and limited
flexibility, unlike the mobility of capital, technology, people, and other
resources.
How is this reconciled as commitments are planned?
We will research investment challenges posed by a fast-changing and
unpredictable "networked world". |
February 3, 2004
|
|
As in 2003, we're sponsoring the Economic Development Leadership &
Accomplishment Awards, which will be presented at the CoreNet Global Summit
in Chicago in May. |
The call for
nominations from CoreNet Global's official magazine, Corporate Real Estate
Leader, went out on February 3 and the deadline is March 15.
Winners will be chosen by April 8, and featured in the May issue, and at an award
presentation ceremony during a general session of the Global Summit. |
February 3, 2004 |
|
Executives at more than 500 companies will be interviewed during the first
quarter of 2004 to introduce GDI Solutions and discuss their investment
interests. This should coincide with the apparent increase in the flow
of projects as the economy has finally shown signs of recovery in capital
investment activity recently. The last two years were used to prepare
for this stage. |
Although
preliminary marketing work in 2003 identified many project leads already,
the proactive relationship development work to reach many executives and
support their project interests through effective referral work and
knowledge-sharing is ramping up now in 2004, after the necessary preparatory
research work of 2003 has been finished. This is the
third
network in the plan (after doing the work in 2002-3 to establish good
networks among top professional service providers and area representatives). |
January 2, 2004 |
|
Service pricing for 2004 has been updated. |
Discounts
which were available for early participants during 2003 have been
discontinued as planned with the start of the
2004 marketing plan.
The
Summary of Services,
Order Form, and other pages reflect this. |
January 2, 2004 |
|
STELLAR Fundraising Executives has used their FUNDamentals e-mail
newsletter to highlight the 2004 services of GDI Solutions to the economic
development organizations they serve, and we are also helping to make it
easier to learn about their services. |
STELLAR has
rapidly become a well-respected firm for the challenging professional niche
of raising funds to support economic development programs. They also
provide other related advisory services. A
GUIDE Service Profile on this website summarizes their work, as
elaborated on their own website. |
December 15, 2003
www.stellarfundraising.com |
|
Some new
advertising will appear in Site Selection magazine and
their website to raise awareness of GDI Solutions in 2004. This is
just one step in a larger 2004 marketing plan. Future media plans will
differ from this introductory ramp-up stage. |
Advertising is
not our main focus for reaching potential investors, but it has a role to
play in the marketing mix to quickly raise the visibility of this service to
a large number of executives as the general economy and flow of investment
project activity picks up early in 2004. |
December 1, 2003 |
|
An expanded relationship with IEDC has led to new links from the
DevelopmentAlliance portal which they developed with Conway Data,
publisher of
Site Selection magazine. |
IEDC and
Conway Data have been promoting their DevelopmentAlliance.com portal for
several years, including a cooperative advertising campaign in Forbes
magazine with various members. A new link from the portal, as well as
from the IEDC website and weekly e-mail broadcasts to members, also reflects
reciprocal links from this website to their services. A special offer
is available for IEDC members until 12/31/03. |
October 20, 2003
IEDC - International Economic Development Council - professional
association for economic development |
|
As reported below (Sept 8), we presented the 2003 Economic Development
Leadership and Accomplishment Award at the CoreNet Global Summit in Atlanta.
|
The CoreNet
website includes an article about the award, as highlighted to members
through Corporate Real Estate Leader magazine and a subsequent e-mail
broadcast by the CEO, Peggy Binzel. This award program will repeat in
May 2004 in Chicago. The winners were recognized before a general
session of approximately 3400 event attendees. |
October 14, 2003
|
|
A new
GIS Map Makers service has been added to help executives and their
advisors find GIS mapping services, tools, and maps to support data analysis
and presentations for business location decisions. |
Many
communities are investing in the development of GIS applications, both for
their local services and to support their economic development programs.
We will selectively highlight and provide links to the websites of
participating areas which offer useful maps or GIS mapping tools to support
the potential interests of investors in the area. This should also
make it easier for communities to see what other areas are doing, and
continue to improve such services. |
October 2, 2003
|
|
A new
"Data Pointers" service has been added to help executives and their
advisors find data about communities in a consistent way even though the
data may be published through a variety of services or presentation formats.
This complements the new service to highlight
"point of view" presentations which provide analysis of business
locations on the basis of data which can be independently verified. |
This service
relates to the "D" dimension in GUIDE (Globally
Uniform Investment Data and Experience), reflecting the need to
help investors find comparable data about location selection factors.
Various services are highlighted as potential sources of
data, such as data which conforms to the guidelines
developed by IEDC and leading
location consultants.
We also provide direct links through our
regional tables of contacts to data and other
knowledge about areas. Whether areas publish data through their own
local websites or other database publishing services, we can provide links
to help executives find such data. The "point of view" service
complements such data with the availability of presentations which analyze
verifiable data to highlight specific aspects of an area for investors. |
September 29, 2003
|
|
CoreNet has announced the 4 winners of the
2003 Economic Development Leadership and Accomplishment Award which we
sponsored,
recognizing exemplary professional work during 2002.
Congratulations to the four award winners !
|
Refer to the
CoreNet Global Learning website and the September issue of
Corporate Real Estate Leader magazine
for details once they announce the winners. There will also be
coverage on the CoreNet website and in the CoreNet Global News
newsletter. We have
also highlighted the winners here since we were the exclusive sponsor of this
new award program. We will present the awards at the CoreNet
Global Summit meeting in Atlanta on October 14. (Events). The award for
leadership during 2003 will open for nominations early in 2004, and be
presented at the Chicago summit in May.
See details
about the award. |
September 8, 2003
Contact :
Bruce Donnelly 847-304-4655 (Chicago) |
|
We are already contacting several hundred leading economic development
organizations as final preparations begin for our
2004 marketing campaign to
ramp up in October.
Introductory pricing for new participants who want to
highlight their areas through our work ends Sept. 30 as the 2004 campaign
begins.
Several top professional service providers will already take advantage of
our independent referral work to reach new clients who might otherwise be
unaware of their capabilities.
We will work with economic development professionals on a similar
independent basis to highlight their capabilities appropriately to top
executives and their professional advisors through more than website content
and links. |
Our first year
of preparatory research and development work after our business launch in
Fall 2002 is now over. From October we will quickly
ramp up a large and very carefully targeted marketing campaign to reach the
top executives at many large and fast-growing companies.
This will make them aware of our free services so that we
can refer them to appropriate professionals in this market at any time
according to their current interests by developing ongoing working
relationships to support their planning of capital investment projects
anywhere.
Based on past experience doing similar work for more than
a decade (see Biography), and
work in progress, we should provide hundreds of good referrals in 2004.
We are also planning
cooperative
advertising, PR work, and event work in 2004 to help participating areas
reach more top executives and expand our ability to quickly reach and serve
more such executives. |
September 2, 2003
Contact :
Bruce Donnelly 847-304-4655 (Chicago) |
|
Two more new services have been launched to help highlight the promotional
activities of participating area representatives.
These are an "Event
Recall" service for event sponsors and exhibitors, and a service to
feature area
familiarization tours and special events such as those which target
professional advisors who may influence investment decisions. |
If the
marketing strategy of an area includes the use of event sponsorships, trade
shows, familiarization tours, or special events such as hospitality
functions for networking and presentations to executives |
