Selecting the USA

The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed, but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men.
-John F. Kennedy

This week, our team will join JobsOhio and state and local economic development groups around the country at the second SelectUSA Investment Summit. President Obama will speak about our great advantages as a nation including our rule of law, our affordable energy, our productive workforce and our great research universities.

The summit also brings together companies from around the world considering investment into the United States. Leaders of these companies are entrepreneurs and business executives faced with the daunting task of navigating the world’s largest and perhaps most complicated market. The U.S. is a competitive place often split into regional marketplaces and differing state and local systems of commerce.

It is the economic developer’s responsibility to help companies navigate these issues, introduce them to others that have gone before them, and introduce them to private and public partners who can assist in making an informed decision. It is not our responsibility to woo them to our market, to give them unfair advantage against domestic companies, or to sell against other locations.

It is an exciting time for the United States. We have great advantages and we must work to maintain and increase those advantages so that companies continue to invest and create high-wage jobs in our communities.

You can watch the SelectUSA Investment Summit here, or follow the conversation at @SelectUSA and #SelectUSA.

–Kenny McDonald

One Columbus Update

• In addition to the SelectUSA Investment Summit, the One Columbus team will be in Washington, D.C. meeting with the Brookings Institution this week. Back at home, we’ll host a company evaluating the Columbus Region.
• Next week, our team will travel to Toronto for a business development mission.