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The May 2008 issue of Site Selection magazine sums it up nicely: the Piedmont Triad Partnership is one of the top 10 economic development organizations in the nation for the third year in a row. It is the result of the hard work of local economic developers, elected leaders and business allies in the 12 counties to grow jobs and investment in the region.
This honor is also a tribute to the relationships PTP staff has fostered with site consultants who work with companies looking for places to locate or expand. To that end, outreach to consultants can play a crucial role in getting a region on the “short list” for a company’s consideration.
Members of the PTP staff travel frequently to visit consultants based in areas ranging from Boston and New York to Atlanta, Dallas and Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. In 2008, Piedmont Triad Partnership staff and local economic developers marketed the Region in eight different regional markets and held forty-four meetings with consulting firms.
Ten consultants accepted PTP’s invitations to visit the Region to experience first-hand the resources of the Piedmont Triad. One such site consultant is Jonathan Sangster, senior managing director of CBRE Consulting, the world’s largest real estate services company. Sangster has had a relationship with PTP for nearly a decade. “I’m a big fan of the region, and PTP has done a really great job of promoting it to people like me who may have influence over a company’s decision of where to locate or expand,” Sangster said. “The region is well-known among site consultants, and the Partnership’s research capabilities, and its quick response to requests for information, help us tremendously.”
Companies looking to locate or expand to a new region frequently hire consultants such as Sangster to help with the process. After listening to the company’s needs for a site – which may include specifications about the local workforce, utilities, incentives, size of a land parcel, etc. -- Sangster will recommend regions that might fit the requirements and provide the company with information about them.
Research Manager Libby Brown will coordinate these detailed responses for the Piedmont Triad Region.
If the Piedmont Triad makes the company’s “short list” of three to five regions, Sangster contacts PTP for help in setting up a visit for the company’s leadership. The Partnership’s goal is to get the site consultants and company representatives here, “and to keep all 12 counties in the running as long as possible,” said Heather Sauls, Vice President for Client Development.
“We want consultants to think of the Piedmont Triad Region when they begin to work on a project. We visit them personally, connect at conferences, send e-newsletters and new company announcements to keep our region top of mind with this important group.”.
PTP representatives reach out to site consultants in various ways to provide the consultants with updates on what is going on in the Triad, such as improvements to infrastructure, companies that have located here recently, and new incentives being offered. They also solicit feedback and information from the consultants. “We want to know what kinds of activity or trends they are seeing among their clients, if they have any news about foreign investment, and how recently they have visited North Carolina. We also ask them how they prefer to receive ongoing information from us,” Sauls said.
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Logistics and Distribution Cluster in the Piedmont Triad Region
The Piedmont Triad Partnership’s Logistics and Distribution Roundtable and Leadership Group’s Global Logistics Task Force have some very big goals, including branding and marketing the Piedmont Triad Region as “the premier logistics and supply chain education center in the nation” according to Dave Hauser, Cluster Director, Logistics & Distribution, Piedmont Triad Partnership.
With the long-awaited opening of the FedEx Mid-Atlantic Hub in 2009, the Piedmont Triad International Airport and surrounding counties are poised to become an aerotropolis – an urban, aviation-intensive business cluster, centered at the airport, with long transportation corridors radiating at some distance from the airport center. In the case of the Piedmont Triad, the planning is to develop opportunities for all twelve of the counties making up the region.
The Piedmont Triad Logistics and Distribution Cluster has developed Programs of Work that center around four major goals for the logistics industry in the Piedmont Triad Region
- Government/ Land Use Planning
- Promoting Logistics to youth as a career path
- Promoting the Piedmont Triad Region as the Premier Logistics Center on the US East Coast
- Logistics Education
Major Accomplishments by the Logistics and Distribution Cluster include:
Piedmont Triad WIRED Region and Arkansas Delta WIRED Region were selected by the US Department of Labor to assist in developing a career lattice for logistics positions. This lattice allows educators to create curriculum that specifically relates to skills that are needed in logistics industry jobs.
Developing and executing an action plan based on Aerotropolis Report which was written by Dr. Jack Kasarda and approved by the Piedmont Triad Leadership Group’s Global Logistics Taskforce. Developing the action plan provides a strategy for implementing the next steps in transforming the Region into a hub of economic development activity surrounding logistics and distribution.
Through efforts of Logistics Roundtable a group of regional logistics and business leaders have convened to collaboratively form the Piedmont Triad Supply Chain Institute. This effort will bring together various regional community college and university logistics based curriculum under one administrative entity.
Established a grant to fund the development of WorkKeys assessments that relate to various logistics and distribution fields which determine the skills needed for workers. Establishing WorkKeys enables workforce development boards and educators to collaborate and to ensure that skills that are being taught reflect the skills needed.The logistics and distribution roundtable is comprised of 63 executives from the field’s many sub-specialties and from a majority of the Piedmont Triad’s 12 counties. The members of this roundtable are focused on ensuring that the Piedmont Triad Region becomes the premier location for logistics and distribution facilities on the East Coast.
Health Care Cluster in the Piedmont Triad Region
With a shortage of available workers to meet the current and projected growth in the health care field, the Piedmont Triad Health Care Cluster has moved forward rapidly to fund programs for recruiting and retaining qualified health care employees.
“In contrast to other sectors in our national economy, health care is driven by increased demand for services,” said Doug Atkinson,
Vice President Business Development at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, PTP board member and chairman of the Roundtable. “This in part is a reflection of the longevity of the population as well as an increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity rates. Additionally, a number of health care and health-related fields, such as nursing and medical technicians, are perpetually short on employees.”
As of December 2008, more than $1.1 million in WIRED (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development) funds for health care workforce development initiatives have been awarded, for a total investment of over $3.4 million in programs.
Recent grant awardees include:
An EMS attrition and retention program designed to increase enrollment and minority participation in Emergency Medical Services Programs at Guilford Technical Community College
A two-day, Allied Health & Nursing Careers Student Success & Retention Summit, featuring recommendations for reducing student attrition in nursing and allied health programs at Winston-Salem State University
Development of a hybrid clinical preceptor training program at Davidson County Community College
Training programs designed to strengthen the ability of at-risk students to complete nursing education programs at Alamance Community College
A program aimed at increasing retention of students entering nurse anesthesia programs at North Carolina Baptist Hospital
Development of an associate degree curriculum at Wake Forest University to train community college faculty and their students as Spanish medical interpreters
In addition to the grant awards, other activities included:
• A Health Care Mini-Event at which Rosalind Strickland, Director of the Office of Civic Education at the Cleveland Clinic, discussed outreach activities. She explained Cleveland Clinic’s national models for health care internship programs for high school students.
• The Piedmont Alliance for Triad Healthcare (PATH), a subcommittee of the Roundtable dedicated specifically to challenges in allied health fields, developed an implementation plan for reducing Allied Health workforce. The implementation plan included focused efforts to increase workforce in Emergency Medical Services, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Physical Therapy Assistant, Certified Nursing Assistant, Certified Medical Assistant and Medical Coding occupations.
• In October, PATH co-sponsored (along with the Southern N.C. Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership and Turning Point Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership) an Allied Health Workforce Solutions Summit. The meeting featured guest presenters from Chicago, Boston and Flint, Michigan who shared their regions’ successful strategies for moving entry-level workers into higher skilled and higher paying jobs in health care.
John E. Roueche, University of Texas at Austin; Pat Adkins, Cluster Director, Health Care and Dr. Dorothy Bethea, Winston-Salem State University at the Allied Health Summit.
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If you ask high school students what they want to do when they “grow up,” you aren’t likely to get answers like “advanced manufacturing” and “logistics and distribution.” And although some may have thought of becoming a nurse or graphic designer, they probably know about only a fraction of the jobs available in the “health care” and “creative enterprises and the arts” clusters.
Yet these career fields are predicted to be the fastest growing in the Piedmont Triad, which makes it crucial that students -- and just as important, their teachers and guidance counselors -- learn about the available jobs and what training and education they will require.
To that end, the Piedmont Triad Partnership and the Piedmont Triad Education Consortium co-sponsored a conference titled “Connecting Students to Jobs of the Future in the Piedmont Triad Region” on Oct. 2 and 3. Seventy-five career development advisors, high school counselors and administrators gathered at the Greensboro Coliseum to hear about industry trends and workforce needs from industry experts in the four clusters. The regional cluster program is a part of PTP’s regional economic competitiveness strategies, funded in part by a Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Dave Hauser, Cluster Director, Logistics and Distribution, said few people outside the industry understand that this field embraces a wide range of careers. “Workers might be in trucking, or warehouse management, or in information technology, doing the programming that allows every package to be tracked electronically. There are even banking professionals who specialize in lending to the logistics and supply chain management industries.”
Because community colleges will play a very important role in training workers in the four clusters, the two-day conference ended with a panel discussion by representatives from Guilford Technical Community College, Forsyth Technical Community College, and Davidson County Community College.
Dr. Frances Jones, Executive Director of the Piedmont Triad Education Consortium, called the conference a “phenomenal event.”
“Educators left the institute with first-hand knowledge from industry leaders about the many career opportunities available for students today and in the future,” Jones said. “These educators are now more confident in their ability to guide students in making informed choices for their careers after graduation.”
Margaret Collins, Cluster Director, Creative Enterprises and the Arts presenting opportunities in the Creative Cluster to counselors and administrators.
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North Carolina’s strengths in manufacturing and biotechnology -- combined with the fact it is already home to more than 1,300 companies operating within the potential supply chain of renewable energy – means that the state could become a national leader in new energy technologies.
That was among many topics of discussion at the Piedmont Triad Regional Energy Forum held Nov. 6 at the Embassy Suites Greensboro. About 75 representatives of the business, government, higher education and nonprofit sectors attended the event, which was one of a series of forums held around the state by the Institute for Emerging Issues of N.C. State University. The Piedmont Triad Partnership and the N.C. Cooperative Extension were co-sponsors of the forum.
The forum’s goal was to bring local and regional leaders together to identify economic development opportunities unique to the Triad, as well as ideas for how local and statewide partners can support further exploration and implementation of these opportunities. “The Piedmont Triad has already seen a significant amount of new business activity and interest in the energy sector, and we feel that this sector represents a promising growth area for new jobs and investment in our region,” said Don Kirkman, President and CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership.
Panelists at the event were Kirkman; Chris Fallon, Managing Director, Strategy and Business Analytics for Duke Energy; Carl Strickler, Chief Operating Officer of Fibrowatt (a pioneer in generating renewable energy from poultry litter, which is building a plant in Surry County); Steve Kalland, Executive Director of the N.C. Solar Center, and Dennis Quaintance, President of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels (developer of the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, the first U.S. hotel to achieve platinum-level LEED certification).
Keith Debbage, Professor of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, writes that “the new energy economy has the potential to be a major part of North Carolina’s competitive advantage.” In a recent report, Debbage states: “It is important that North Carolina is nimble and quick in this policy arena. Ten years ago wind turbines were marginal. Now they are taken seriously, and in another decade they may contribute as much as a fifth of the world’s electricity. Furthermore, manufacturing wind turbines could be a major component of North Carolina’s industrial economy given our pre-existing strengths in manufacturing.”
The rural counties in the Piedmont Triad Region are uniquely positioned to benefit from the opportunities in the energy industry. Additionally, the strong manufacturing history of the Piedmont Triad Region will help provide the necessary labor to meet emerging opportunities in energy related manufacturing facilities.
More than 1,300 N.C. companies employing 61,000 workers already have potential or direct applications to wind, solar, biomass and geothermal power generation. The geography of the new energy supply chain is tightly concentrated along the I-85 corridor between Charlotte, the Piedmont Triad and Research Triangle regions. Specific strengths include plastics product manufacturing, fabricated structural metal manufacturing, sheet metal work manufacturing, semiconductors and related devices, general purpose machinery manufacturing, pumps and pumping equipment and electrical equipment.
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TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. is expanding its advanced research and design operations. The High Point facility designs TriQuint’s latest GSM/EDGE/WEDGE solutions, which support the company’s handset business for mobile phone manufacturers. The company is moving into new office space, doubling its square footage and plans to add more than 25 new employees to its current workforce. >>PRESS RELEASE
Precor Inc., an international manufacturer of physical fitness equipment, will build a manufacturing, assembly and distribution facility at Rock Creek Center in Guilford County. The company will invest $26.2 million to build a 225,000 SF LEED certified building to accommodate their operations and plans to hire approximately 142 employees by 2011. >>PRESS RELEASE
FedEx Ground has broken ground on a new southeast sort facility in Guilford County. The company has purchased a 125-acre site along I-40 in the Triad Business Park and will construct a 400,000 sq ft facility capable of sorting 45,000 packages per hour. The FedEx Ground facility will open in 2011 with about 500 full- and part-time employees. The company will invest $100 million in land, building construction, and new machinery and equipment. >>PRESS RELEASE
Breaking Ground at FedEx Ground: Dan Lynch, Greensboro Economic Development Alliance; Rochelle Martin, FedEx Ground; Chairman Kirk Perkins, Guilford County Commissioners; John Payne, FedEx Ground; Alderman Kevin Bugg , Town of Kernersville; Curtis Swisher, Town of Kernersville; Mayor Yvonne Johnson, City of Greensboro
Sandvik Inc., an international supplier of cutting tools and other engineered equipment, plans to expand its Mebane plant, investing $85 million and adding 51 jobs during the next three years. >>PRESS RELEASE
Lydall Inc. is expanding its plant in Hamptonville in Yadkin County by 100 jobs as part of consolidating its North American production of thermal and filtration automotive products. Employees interested in relocating to North Carolina will be given the opportunity to apply for comparable positions. >>PRESS RELEASE
Kennametal Inc., an international supplier of drills, bits and high-end manufacturing tools will expand its Asheboro plant, investing $14 million and adding 70 jobs. Pennsylvania-based Kennametal Inc. supplies a broad range of technologically advanced tools and tooling components to clients worldwide in the aerospace, agriculture, automotive, construction, energy and other sectors. >>PRESS RELEASE
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Happy Holidays from the staff at PTP!
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This publication was partially funded through the Piedmont Triad Partnership’s U.S. Department of Labor WIRED Grant. The Piedmont Triad Partnership is an equal opportunity employer.
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