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.

IEDC's Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO) program recognizes organizational excellence in the areas of internal and external operations, structures, and procedures. This series profiles recently accredited AEDOs, putting some of economic development's highest-performing organizations in the spotlight. In this edition we hear from former IEDC board member John Sternlicht, CEcD, FM, HLM, who heads the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County, Washington—a North American tulip capital.

IEDC has released its latest Economic Development Research Partners (EDRP) report titled "Leading and Managing Next-Level EDOs: Leveraging Technology," which encourages EDOs to devise intentional strategies for adopting new technology.

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.

IEDC's Accredited Economic Development Organization (AEDO) program recognizes organizational excellence in the areas of internal and external operations, structures, and procedures. This series profiles recently accredited AEDOs, putting some of economic development's highest-performing organizations in the spotlight. This edition: Elgin (Ill.) Development Group.

IEDC is accepting submissions through May 30 for the 2023 Excellence and Leadership in Economic Development Awards. Norfolk (Va.) Economic Development’s WELDNOW Mobile Welding Lab won a Gold Award in 2022 in the Talent Development and Retention category. The WELDNOW mobile welding lab program is a collaboration between Tidewater Community College, Norfolk Economic Development’s workforce initiative Norfolk Works, and inaugural host site Lyon Shipyard, a 94-year-old ship repair facility adjacent to the region’s largest concentration of households in poverty. This comprehensive training initiative prepares individuals for employment in shipbuilding and advanced manufacturing with an emphasis on work readiness and ...

IEDC is accepting submissions through May 30 for the 2023 Excellence and Leadership in Economic Development Awards. Workforce Solutions Borderplex’s Neighborhood Solutions Tour: Jobs Toolbox on Wheels won a Gold Award in 2022 in the Neighborhood Development category. Workforce Solutions Borderplex (WSB) in El Paso, Texas, expanded its workforce development from static centers into a mobile service, visiting neighborhoods in need of support for upskilling and improving quality of life. The project was created when the unpredictability of pandemic lockdowns forced WSB to take an innovative approach to serving communities in dire need of workforce development. The data-driven tours consider lower-wage quartile ZIP codes, unemployment ...