attractions:

... a category of location data which is most often associated with information distributed to attract visitors to a locale. See the resource paper, Tourism as Economic Development / A Brief Guide for Communities and Enterprise Developers. Area attractions is a typical heading for a list published under a category, such as quality of life, in a community profile.

At one time the US General Services Administration offered a site selection guide stating that: ... (government) contributes to improving the quality of life in local communities. These contributions include the creation of public spaces and plazas; the preservation of historic buildings and national landmarks; the commitment to improve environmental quality and energy conservation efforts; and, the potential to spark economic revitalization. The quote serves as one example of the development of attractions which are mentioned in community promotional materials. At last check the quote was unavailable; nevertheless, the following URL is provided so that you can check for the guide.

www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/channelView.do?pageTypeId=8195&channelId=-15016

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KWS:

... an acronym for Key Word Search. Keyword is defined in the Enterprise and Economic Development Glossary. The Network you are using publishes demonstrations of various keyword combinations as suggestions for searching. Suggestions are provided specifically for members of the .network user group, i.e., those who are participants in the mission of The Network. An inventory of suggestions is published in the resource archiveaccess it. Notice that the abbreviation for demonstration (demo) is published with each item listed in the inventory. Demo is linked to a specific group of suggestions and access to a search engine for querying the Web.

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How many steps are there in the site selection process?

See A Project Begins with a Plan/Enterprise Development in 5 Steps.

Site selection is ... a process of enterprise development.

See the links to site selection resources on page 1 of About Site Selection. Listed are (1) a 5-step guide and (2) a 10-step guide as well as the (3) guide shown below which is from A Summary of Economic Development Terms with links added by The Network.

site selection in 12 steps:

CLICK HERE for a site selection definition and select links in the steps for more information.

1. Defining the facility

2. Analyze the market to be served <= gathering information about locations starts here!

3. Decide to do a site search

4. Perform a freight cost analysis

5. Define the site search area (target area)

6. Do initial screening using knockout factors

7. Second round screening of information (location data / site selection data)

8. Site visits

9. Ranking of alternatives (comparative analysis)

10.Due diligence analysis of engineering, legal, and other technical factors

11.Final decisions

12.Start-up of new location or facility.

Most Helpful Activities -- According to a survey of manufacturing company representatives the following were deemed the most helpful activities performed by the Economic Developer.

1. Information / assistance in obtaining financial tax incentives

2. Providing general information about locations

3. Contact with resource and service providers including location representatives.

4. Information distribution + data elements link

5. Assistance with hiring and the labor market

6. Locating and touring facilities

7. Overriding items is helping move project forward by providing information and cutting through local red tape

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site selection: location information systems

The Kansas City, MO-based utility KCP&L has a website, www.locationone.com. It is one example of a location information system; in other words, it is designed to put site selectors together with location data suppliers. Its base of places seeking economic development from which it draws membership is ... communities throughout 16 states (of the US), thus giving the KCP&L economic development staff reason to claim: One Search, Infinite Locations.

(Area and local development representatives) ... were unable to quickly and collectively store or access detailed marketing data about their state, region and community (before KCP&L introduced its system). Today, KCP&L offers membership to additional states and communities.

The KCP&L effort is yet another example of the efforts to pull locations together under an area development umbrella(note) the link is to page 7 of About Economic Development, a resource of the Economic Development Network website. EDN has a free-access site selection resource which is named Area Development. It is a location information system integrated with the Global Registry of Contacts maintained by The Network.

Systems that facilitate the gathering of location data include directories and networks. For more information about the dedication of The Network to provide its users with access to such systems, see the answer to the question: How do .network users find and get in touch with contacts.

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Socioeconomic Data for Understanding Your Regional Economy / A User’s Guide

The following quotes are paragraphs from a resource paper by Joseph Cortright and Andrew Reamer: They are from the section of the paper that defines regional economy.

Regional economic activity pays little attention to domestic political boundaries, crossing them at will. If you’re interested in the well-being of residents of one political jurisdiction, like a city or a county, or some neighborhood or district within a political jurisdiction, chances are good that your area of interest is part of a larger regional economy. (Typically, we have found, it's difficult to describe anything smaller than county, and more often a group of counties or a metropolitan area, as constituting functioning economy.)

It’s hard, and not particularly useful, to look at your particular area of interest without having some understanding of the workings of your regional economy and the place of your jurisdiction within that. To determine the boundaries of your economic region, you can work with the data professionals at the state LMI agency or Census State Data Center. You are then in a position to seek out data at both the regional and local level.

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