2008 Southern Business Expo

Good News and Bad News

• Good News and Bad News
• Connect SI — Blueprint for Success
• What You Can Do
• Sense of Urgency

Collaborative 20-county economic and community development strategy — measurable, transforming and sustainable

• Collaborative 20-county economic and community development strategy — measurable, transforming and sustainable
• Positions SI to compete globally against country strategies
• Views neighbors as resource partners rather than competitors
• Understands that knowledge based, small, & innovative firms are the growth engines of our future…not industries of our past
• Broadband strategy focus enables all 20 counties to benefit
• Sees economic development as the job of every citizen
• Collaboratively funded rather than grant dependent
• Business plan based, action driven, results oriented
• Bottom up — grass-roots driven