EDO Breakthrough
Is there an economic development problem that you just can’t seem to make any progress on? Grab your phone and call the EDO Breakthrough podcast! After all, no challenge is unsolvable with a creative solutions team by your side.
In each episode, Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) and host Sandy Dubay welcomes a new business leader, community luminary, and other modern mages to discuss the challenges, joys, and needs of communities across the United States. Sandy and her guest will combine their powers to answer your real-life economic development questions.
When our powers combine, we can make an EDO breakthrough!
EDO Breakthrough
E26 - Building Relationships That Attract Investment, with Chris Knight
What if you could land new foreign direct investment projects *and* keep existing employers happy… without a million-dollar budget?
In this episode, Chris Knight, Managing Director of FT Locations, pulls back the curtain on relationship-first strategies that help communities of any size compete on the global stage.
Key Takeaways:
- How to embed businesses in your community to boost retention and long-term growth
- Tips for standing out among the 15,000 EDOs that are chasing the same 15,000 projects each year
- How EDOs of any size can leverage mapping tech, state partnerships, and targeted PR to attract FDI without overspending
- Real-world examples of how FT Locations is using AI+human workflows to speed up data pulls and company profiling
- Why project counts may dip short-term but capital and jobs are poised to grow
Resources Mentioned:
About the Guest:
Chris Knight is the Managing Director of FT Locations, a division of the Financial Times Group that provides location intelligence services for foreign direct investment. He oversees a global team that supports more than 1,100 economic development organizations with data, mapping technology, marketing services, and strategic advisory work. You can connect with Chris on LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/chrisknightfdi).
The EDO Breakthrough podcast is brought to you by PPR Strategies. PPR Strategies is a strategic consulting firm working specifically with EDOs and other place-based organizations. We share the unique stories of communities through communications, strategic planning, marketing, media relations, and more.
Visit us at pprstrategies.com/edobreakthrough to learn more and to submit a question for a future episode.
Produced and edited by SpeakEasy Productions.