One of the great – and unique – things about Greater Peoria EDC is that we are part economic development practitioner and part economic development planner. The “practice” part includes recruiting new businesses, helping our existing businesses grow, and working to develop workforce programs (among other things). More than likely, when people think of us, they think of those services. But the “planning” part is just as important, and actually fuels the practice part. In our role as planners, we were excited to organize and host the latest Big Table in October. The first Big Table was in 2019, and hundreds gathered for a day-long conversation about our region. Another was held in 2022, and a pattern accidentally emerged: Big Table happens every 3 years. And because of a great crew of community leaders and an even better crew of participants, this year’s Big Table was an amazing success.
The concept behind the Big Table is simple: we try to gather as many citizens as possible in one room to host a series of facilitated discussions on topics important to our community. We had a great keynote speech by Victor Hwang, a national expert in building startup-centric communities. Victor inspired the room to think about all of the big and small ways Greater Peoria could support entrepreneurs. Thanks to a sponsorship by Ameren Illinois, each attendee got a copy of Victor’s book, The Rainforest. The rest of the day was split into four separate conversations. The truth is, there is no Big Table – it’s a room full of small tables, set to host conversations. To help ground our work and reflect on our progress, we kept the same topics as the previous two events:
- Expanding Access to Opportunity
- Fostering and Accelerating Startups
- Building a Talent Pipeline
- Ensuring and Accentuating Livability
Each segment started with a short panel discussion by community members. This was followed by the most important part: a discussion at tables set up across the room, where ordinary citizens put their heads together to discuss how our region can improve in these areas. Those conversations are led by a facilitator, but the ideas and plans come right from the participants. Each session was capped off by a report-out of the discussions, all of which were captured for use in developing a regional strategy.
It’s that last part that is the most important part: We don’t just throw away those giant Post-It pads scribbled with ideas. We value that input, and we put it to use. The information gathered at the Big Table will serve as the backbone to our new Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). This is more than an official document adopted by GPEDC and submitted to the Economic Development Administration – it’s a roadmap for how our region can move towards its economic goals. Without this public input, the CEDS would just be what a small handful of paid staff think we should do. But thanks to the time donations of hundreds of ordinary people and community stakeholders, the CEDS will be a plan for all of us. (You can learn more about our current CEDS here.)
We didn’t stop with just one Big Table. In late October and then again in early November, we hosted our “Rural Big Table” events in El Paso and Havana. We have another in Tremont in December and are planning our final one in Lincoln for just after the first of the year. Why make more work for ourselves? Well, think about the first topic we covered: Ensuring Access to Opportunity. We aren’t the Peoria EDC; we are the Greater Peoria EDC. We don’t want to limit the conversation to a single day in a single community, because we want to hear from all corners of our region. Hosting these smaller events outside of Peoria is our way of “ensuring access” to the larger community. While the themes are the same, sometimes the answers look pretty different.
A huge thank you to everyone and every organization that made this happen. All of our regional chambers (Peoria, East Peoria, Pekin, Morton) are part of the planning, along with Discover Peoria and the Greater Peoria Leadership Council. We had a great set of panelists, dozens of facilitators, financial sponsors, and, of course, all the citizens who took part in the day. There are even more people to thank for the rural Big Tables, but that work isn’t done yet! A special shout to David and Dorsey of GPEDC for all of their hard work and leadership. I’m looking forward to turning all of this great input into an actionable plan.