Brazilian Visit: The relationship building with Brazil continues, though with a bit of a twist. We hosted Henrique Bilbao, a Brazilian entrepreneur and investor living in Canada. Among his roles, Henrique is the Vice President of Internationalization for ACATE, an association of tech startups in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina. I had only met him virtually – he helped me make some connections during my Brazilian trip in November. Henrique and his family were on vacation in Illinois last week, and based on what he heard from his colleagues about Peoria, made a side trip to spend an afternoon here. Since he had his wife and in-laws in tow, the visit included some Peoria site seeing. I can’t showcase Peoria nearly as well as John Morris, so we had a great visit to the Peoria Riverfront Museum. And because Henrique and his father-in-law are whiskey fans, we arranged for a distillery tour at Black Band. We also took a tour of Distillery Labs and had a great conversation about our startup community. It was a short but impactful business, and we are already talking about how we can build partnerships between our communities.
Intersect Illinois: Speaking of new friends, the CEOs of the Mid-Illinois Collaborative met with new Intersect Illinois CEO Christy George. The Collaborative is an informal group of Central Illinois economic development organizations that work together to showcase the great assets of our part of the state: Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Decatur, Springfield, Tuscola, and Champaign-Urbana. The group had its first meeting with Christy in the offices of the Springfield Sangamon Growth Alliance. We had a chance to share about our opportunities, strengths, and challenges and hear from Christy about her vision for attracting business investment to Illinois. Intersect is a really important partner in the work we all do, and establishing an open, honest, and productive relationship with their new leader is really important. And as a bonus, congratulations to Dr. Sheila Quirk-Bailey of Illinois Central College for being named to Intersect Illinois’ board of directors. She joins OSF’s Bob Sehring as the only Peoria-area representative on that board. She will be a powerful voice for education, community colleges, and Greater Peoria.
Career Spark Case Study: We all know that Career Spark is a tremendous workforce initiative. But it’s nice when others recognize how great it is. Education Systems of Northern Illinois University (EdSystems) helps educators and schools across the state develop and deploy programs that ensure successful transitions to and through postsecondary and career opportunities for students. GPEDC and its partners at Junior Achievement of Central Illinois were flattered to see Career Spark featured as a “best practice” by EdSystems and sharing our successful model with the entire state. If you want to see what they had to say, go here.
Digital Equity: GPEDC and the City of Peoria co-hosted a meeting on the upcoming Illinois Digital Equity Capacity Grant. Over 40 different schools, libraries, non-profits and community representatives joined to learn about ensuring all Illinois residents have the skills, technology, and access to participate fully in the digital economy. The state will receive over $30 million over the next five years to achieve its digital equity goals, with a focus on communities most impacted by digital inequities. GPEDC’s outreach efforts ensured that a diverse group of stakeholders from both urban and rural sectors were represented.
Public Infrastructure Planning: Finally, Corn Belt Ports and GPEDC co-hosted the third Public Infrastructure Planning workshop at Distillery Labs. Previous workshops held in Havana and Pekin had discussed with local officials strategies for addressing the challenges of aging public infrastructure and rising energy costs in communities. Fortunately, advances in technology, new incentives, and public-private partnership opportunities are allowing city and county governments to embrace creative solutions for facilities modernization that enhance quality of life for their communities. The presentation discussed a holistic, master-planned approach to upgrading community services. These programs begin with a no-cost opportunity assessment of public buildings, water and wastewater systems, and transportation fleets to help local government officials develop phased modernization plans.
Have a great weekend.
Chris