LOREDC Annual Meeting - Get the Details Here!
Lake of the Ozarks Regional Economic Development Council held its annual meeting on January 20, 2022. We heard some great information about the work that LOREDC is doing to bring value to its members and attract startup businesses at the Lake of the Ozarks and support business development at Lake of the Ozarks. KC Cloke gave us some great information about the Work Ready Communities program at Lake of the Ozarks, and Harrison Fry shared an exciting presentation on the Next Site partnership with Ameren. If you’d like to learn more about what LOREDC is doing for you and the lake community, keep reading this blog!
Work Ready Communities
Economic development relies on a qualified workforce being available to businesses wanting to locate at Lake of the Ozarks. In our efforts to promote jobs for workers in this area, and to be able to provide workers with the skills needed to attract businesses to the Lake of the Ozarks, we are excited to be involved in Work Ready Communities. Work Ready Communities are all about coordination between local businesses and educational sources. Standards are developed and agreed-upon regarding what skills are in demand, and how to confirm that a worker has those needed skills. So a Work Ready Community program means that our schools will be teaching the needed skills, and local businesses will recognize those certifications as legitimate when workers are applying for jobs. There are a lot more details when it comes to the entire program, so if you’d like to know more or get involved, be sure to go to our website and sign up for updates!
Next site partnership
We are very fortunate at the Lake of the Ozarks to have the opportunity to partner with Ameren on the Next Site program. With Next Site, participating communities have access to data sets that can give tremendous insight regarding their target market and how to reach them. That data can be used to proactively market the region and respond to developers with valid information. With Next Site, the lake region and individual cities are marketed on a regional and national basis to retail, restaurant, and hospitality chains that “fit” in the market.
By fall of 2021, six communities have agreed to be part of the regional agreement alongside LOREDC, and data sets are being reported to local users. Next site representatives have visited the lake region and met with key stakeholders, and the lake region is being marketed on a national level for the first time!
In 2022 and beyond, the next site representatives will attend over 12 dealmaking events in the calendar year. We will have specialized recruitment profiles for the region as a whole, and the cities that make it up. Next site representatives will have a presence at the first quarter lower deck meeting for a progress update, and there will be routine reports in continuing communication with local partners. We are excited for what is to come!
Awards
Our meeting concluded with the celebration of our annual award nominees. Each year, LOREDC recognizes outstanding businesses and individuals for their contributions to our lake area community. These businesses are nominated by the community, and awards are presented at the annual meeting. We would like to honor and thank the following individuals for their contributions and congratulate them on their awards this year!
2021 Small Business Partner of the Year - Ozarks Amphitheater
2021 Large Business Partner of the Year - Quaker Windows.
2021 Emerging Venture of the Year – Sunny’s Marina
2021 Employee of the Year – Barbara Bunch, KRMS Radio
2021 Business Person of the Year – George Tucker (not pictured)
Looking Forward to 2022!
At LOREDC, we are very excited about the upcoming year and all of the things we are doing to promote the lake area and bring valid solutions to the challenges we face. We appreciate our members and our hard-working board and we look forward to bringing you updates as these projects and partnerships progress. Be sure to sign up for updates stay informed of the latest developments - just go to https://loredc.com and scroll to the bottom. We also encourage you to follow us on social media so you don’t miss out on anything! We have provided the links to our channels below.
Comments
Post a Comment