ED Now

State energy offices (SEOs) play a vital role in fostering local energy entrepreneurship and innovation through targeted programs and policies. It's important for SEOs to understand the current local energy ecosystem—including existing businesses, workforce capabilities, research institutions, funding sources, community partnerships, and market dynamics—to enable this cohesion to thrive.

Each new year brings new leadership to IEDC’s board of directors. Bryan Daniels, president and CEO of Blount Partnership in Blount County, Tennessee, will serve as IEDC’s board chair in 2025.

In recent years, our economic development profession, organizations, and the communities we serve have faced seemingly unprecedented challenges and uncertainties. What makes leaders effective in turbulent times? In his book Leadership Reinvented, Hamza Khan points to four strategies: practicing empathy, exercising servitude, driving diversity, and sparking innovation. According to Khan, such leadership is the art of continuous reinvention.

ED Now recently caught up with Don Iannone, former CUED and AEDC board member, who retired from economic development at the end of 2016 after four decades.

We are emerging from a period where there has been a notable increase in support and recognition of the vital role small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play in the global economy. However, as we move forward, it is crucial for policymakers, the media, and the corporate community to maintain their focus on SMEs and remember the significant impact these enterprises have on our economies and the world at large.

Kristin Slice, EDP, director of community entrepreneurship for the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute at Arizona State University, is part of the third cohort of certified Entrepreneurship Development Professionals. IEDC’s EDP credential is designed to build capacity for those supporting entrepreneurship in their communities, and demonstrates the skills and expertise to lead communities through entrepreneurship-led economic development (ELED). Why did you decide to pursue the EDP credential? Entrepreneurs deserve the best resources and support we can offer—they are the heartbeat of our economy. I take every course and certification I can. It gives me the tools and insight to help our team and community ...

Kevin Crowder, CEcD, EDP, founder of BusinessFlare Economic Development Solutions, is part of the third cohort of certified Entrepreneurship Development Professionals. IEDC’s EDP credential is designed to build capacity for those supporting entrepreneurship in their communities, and demonstrates the skills and expertise to lead communities through entrepreneurship-led economic development (ELED). Why did you decide to pursue the EDP credential? In my experience, entrepreneurship has become the most important element of economic development, connecting jobs and talent to placemaking. It is also the least understood area of economic development for practitioners, and I wanted to make sure to stay relevant in this area. I also did it ...

IEDC has secured a new grant to continue to expand our Entrepreneurship-Led Economic Development (ELED) work. This National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines grant, as a subcontractor to Augusta (Ga.) University, will promote ELED and entrepreneurial ecosystem building. The two-year, $100,000 grant compliments IEDC’s work through our Kauffman Foundation grant. Projects under the new grant will include creating a technical assistance panel focused on ecosystem building, and holding focus groups and workshops to help build the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Augusta region. The university has discussed setting aside some of its budget for entrepreneurial ecosystem stakeholders in the region to participate in IEDC's ELED ...