CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 1 OF 7 BOOST CLT Global ECONOMIC GROWTH! Enlist and Engage Business Leaders as Ambassadors for Business Recruitment, Economic Development and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) CLT Global Investor s Guide GREAT NEWS! Site Selection s 2017 Prosperity Cup choice of North Carolina as the top competitive state for doing business in the United States provides yet another reason for creating, organizing and implementing a CLT Global Ambassador Campaign made up of the region s business leaders to BOOST CLT Global ECONOMIC GROWTH. NC continues to be recognized for its incredibly rich potential for economic development and foreign direct investment, with the CLT region CLT Global having distinct and compelling competitive advantages as the BEST place to do business in the Southeast as well as the nation and the world. There is much to be encouraged about, but there is much work to be done, and we must champion this momentum towards prosperity from within. It is time for the business leaders of the CLT region to launch an initiative to BOOST CLT Global ECONOMIC GROWTH from the ground up to engage, educate and train business leaders as Ambassadors to promote the opportunities for investment in the CLT region. As stakeholders in the success of economic development efforts, CLT Global business leaders get it. In the private sector, they are the feet on the ground of an army anxious to promote the superior economic development and foreign direct investment potential of the CLT region as the absolute best place in the nation for business, the ideal entry point for access to the U.S. economy, and a premier manufacturing center for distribution around the globe. The BOOST CLT Global ECONOMIC GROWTH campaign proposal provides the framework to do just that. Together, we can enlist CLT region business leaders to this campaign, train them for success, and arm them with the CLT Global Investor s Guide artillery. This engagement can take place across county and state boundaries, expanding throughout the Southeast. The proposal to produce the CLT Global Investor s Guide is getting serious attention. An Investor s Guide can bring together the best charts and graphs developed by our existing economic development organizations into a unified, succinct but comprehensive, powerful presentation highlighting CLT Global competitive advantages. We are ready to make this happen and are inviting sponsorship interest. It is high time to launch this CLT Global Ambassadors Campaign and propel our region to economic vitality and prominence!
CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 2 OF 7 CLT Global Investor s Guide Business leaders across the CLT region are uniquely qualified to become ambassadors feet on the ground for communicating the region s superior business strength, unique accessibility, state-of-the-art workforce development, and extraordinary quality of life to prospective recruits across the country and around the globe and attracting foreign direct investment. Sample Investor s Guide The CLT region s wealth of economic development organizations have captured the facts, figures and statistics that support our competitive advantages, but we need to get that information into the hands of actual prospects. We need a grass roots campaign by our local business leaders who most frequently come face-to-face with potential recruits and can easily make connections. Additionally, efforts begun at the grass roots level should have a significant effect on bridging the urban/rural divide across our state. The CLT Global Investor s Guide is a representative and inclusive economic development marketing piece comprehensive but succinct, attractive, super-informative, and easily transmissible featuring charts, graphs, maps and facts developed by the region s economic development entities as well as contact information. It demonstrates the CLT region s superior potential for foreign investment and economic development, bringing all such entities fundamentally interested in advancing our region s development to the attention of the nation and the international community. Armed with it, every business leader can become an ambassador of the region for world trade. The CLT Global Investor s Guide is a fold-up pocket-sized publication featuring a large map of the CLT Global region, other Southeast region maps showing its advantageous location including proximity to ports and corridors of commerce, charts, graphs, and facts demonstrating the region s superior business strength, unique accessibility, state-of-the-art workforce development, and extraordinary quality of life to prospective recruits across the country and around the globe and attracting foreign direct investment.
CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 3 OF 7 Sample Investor s Guide Here is a sample Investor s Guide for Macedonia it is available in hard copy (3 row x 6 columns folded presentation) and also as a PDF on a coordinating website: http://www.investinmacedonia.com/images/resources/leaflet%2009.2015.pdf. Custom folded pocket presentation Sponsor-supported commercially printed folded pocket-sized presentation of the CLT Global region s superior attributes promoting economic development with a variety of large and smaller maps, charts and graphs and facts. Easy to carry around, easily unfolded to view content, sturdy with a stock cover on each end that could be stylized per sponsor. The Macedonia presentation combines good graphics with charts, graphs and maps to quickly and effectively give the viewer a persuasive point of view. It is chock-full of helpful information an ideagenerating guide making the case for FDI succinctly and serving as a starting point for further contact. More importantly, it is not the type of thing that people throw away. Unlike presentations on flash drives which are unsafe to use, this presentation is easily transmissible and non-invasive. Content of Investor s Guide The blocks of the presentation easily accommodate maps, charts and graphs alongside colorful graphics to make a visually compelling presentation of the economic development and investment potential of the CLT global region. [Great charts and graphs, for example, like those used in John Galles CLT Global presentation, CRP charts and graphs, Dashboard 2030 charts, etc.]
CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 4 OF 7 Advantages Presents carefully selected content, gathered from area economic development organizations, creating a succinct and compelling case for economic development and foreign direct investment in the CLT Global region. Features attractive, inviting and informative graphic depictions as to what makes the CLT Global region outstanding for foreign direct investment, corporate expansion and relocation. Some blocks would feature charts and graphs, some text. Features custom maps of the CLT Global area with airports, highways, railroads, intermodal centers, coastal ports, educational facilities, medical facilities, military installations, foreign trade zones, population density, etc. Is inclusive; works in tandem with the mission and efforts of existing economic development groups, encourages them to contribute content, and provides their contact information; buy-in. Excellent presentation for tradeshows, meetings, seminars, foreign visits, business prospects, etc. and convenient placement at airport kiosks, chambers of commerce, banks, visitor centers, etc. Could be translated into foreign languages. Engages all economic development groups and business leaders and citizenry as ambassadors in getting the message to the intended targets. Sponsor-supported The guide would be completely sponsor-supported with a strong core group of sponsors and additional sponsors contributing at a lesser level. Sponsors would be invited to contribute content to the guide. Sponsors would receive space on blocks of the guide. Sponsor locations and/or logos could be designated on the large area map. Sponsors could customize the cover of their guides particular to their brand (additional charge). Sponsors would receive a certain number of guides for their own use. While sponsors may already support economic development initiatives or particular groups, this initiative would cover a broader area and provide the sponsor with something tangible to help them disseminate the message. Sponsors would include existing economic development groups, government entities, and private firms. Sponsorship would be solicited from members of the Global Vision Leaders Group, public and private investors to the Charlotte Regional Partnership, the Chamber and its members, investors to the Upstate SC Alliance, etc. Production costs The initial cost of producing such a guide would include sponsor solicitation, editorial selection of material and compilation, graphic layout and design, and commercial printing and shipping. After
CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 5 OF 7 printing an initial run, with printing technology today, it would be expected that this would be a print on demand publication. Production costs would be financed exclusively through sponsor contributions. See potential sponsors list below. Sponsors would receive a certain number of guides, which could also be provided in their own stylized dispenser (extra charge). Distribution options Distribution options could include point-of-purchase boxes, Lucite displays, direct mailers, and attachments and tabbed inserts for magazines or other media. The guide cover could also include a business card insert. Point-of-purchase Box Lucite Display Magazine Insert Notice that QR codes can be used to quickly connect digital devices with the Internet site containing the presentation! Business Card Insert Additional revenue could be raised by selling guides to other entities who did not choose to sponsor, as well as other entities outside the economic development arena airports, universities, private firms, tourist offices, etc. Potential contributors and sponsors Potential Organizational Sponsors Foundation for the Carolinas, Central Piedmont Community College & JPMorgan Chase, UNCC, Charlotte Regional Partnership, EDACs, EDPNC, I-77 Corridor Alliance, Upper SC Alliance, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, NC and SC Chambers of Commerce, Regional Chambers, Global Vision Leaders Group, World Affairs Council of Charlotte, Centralina Council of Governments, Charlotte Regional Foundation for Entrepreneurship, etc.
CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 6 OF 7 Potential Corporate Sponsors Law Firms: K&L Gates, Garfinkel Immigration Law Firm, etc. Accounting Firms: Deloitte, EY, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KMPG, Grant Thornton, etc. Banks: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, BB & T, PNC Railways: Norfolk Southern, CSX Airports: CLT Airport, regional airports Airlines: American Airlines, etc. Ports: NC, SC, GA, VA, FL Shipping: Maersk Logistics Firms Power: Duke Energy Carolinas. Piedmont Natural Gas Health: Carolinas HealthCare System, Novant Health Education: CPCC, UNCC, Davidson, Queens, York Technical, USC, Charleston Translating Firms What it would take To embark on such an initiative, it would require a core group of sponsors, a comprehensive plan, and buy-in from existing economic development groups. With a small production staff soliciting content from economic development groups across the CLT Global region, and contributions from ancillary sponsors, a promotional piece could be developed and produced within a matter of months. Now is the absolute best time to consider such an initiative. We are into a new administration and beyond HB2 for the moment, yet North Carolina economic development efforts lag behind. There has been a groundswell of support for such promotional efforts, but with little to show for their efforts except increased awareness of the need. Such a promotional guide would serve the region well and be comprehensive enough to be used by all participants to this cause, alerting the rest of the nation and the world of our interest in having them invest and do business here. There is really excellent economic development material already prepared by the various organizations John Galles presentation brings some of the best of it together in one place. It would be heroic to get all the economic development groups on the same page with their respective contact information! Coordinating website A possibility beyond the guide would be a website (something generic www.cltglobal.com, for example) that could host a PDF of the guide as well as other economic development resources, and where each sponsor could have a page with links to their own website and materials (a clearinghouse as it were). Check out the coordinating Macedonia Investor s Guide website here: http://www.investinmacedonia.com/. Frequently Asked Questions Are these organizational efforts or the Investor s Guide repetitive or overlapping of any existing economic development group s mission or activities?
CLT GLOBAL INVESTOR S GUIDE PAGE 7 OF 7 No. The span of coverage of the BOOST CLT Global ECONOMIC GROWTH! initiative and CLT Global Investor s Guide is beyond the scope of the individual organizations missions or charters. The BOOST CLT Global ECONOMIC GROWTH! initiative and CLT Global Investor s Guide can highlight the purpose and strengths of each of these organizations while presenting a strong and cohesive case for economic development and foreign direct investment in the CLT Global region. How would existing economic development organizations be represented? Information for the CLT Global Investor s Guide would be solicited from each individual organization and contact information would be included for each organization. Greater exposure for any particular organization would be available through sponsorship. Highlights of Competitive Advantages of the CLT Global Region The CLT Global Investor s Guide will solicit input from the various economic development groups below (merely suggestive but not exhaustive) to feature the competitive advantages of the CLT Global region in a succinct but comprehensive presentation. Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Greater Charlotte in the Global Economy: Benchmarking the Region s Global Competitiveness Assets To get the markets right requires good civics: the work to organize and implement strategies and initiatives that engage stakeholders and partners to achieve long-term goals. A data-driven economic narrative and sense of urgency, networked leadership with high capacity organizations for implementation, and engagement of diverse stakeholders and perspectives to ensure strategies are inclusive are all essential. ~Amy Liu, Remaking Economic Development, 2016