Emerging regional approaches to economic development

Regional approaches to economic development are popping up all over the place. Earlier this week, the governors of New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania got together to end the recruiting wars that have been going on among those three states.

The Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce has been the prime mover in bringing the governors together. In the event, Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania -- never one to shy away from a bold idea -- proposed revenue sharing as one way to alter the incentives behind the recruiting wars. Read more [1].

Meanwhile, in Knoxville, TN, civic leaders are rolling out a new branding effort that connects Knoxville with Oak Ridge. Read more [2]. The three counties around Saginaw, MI are focusing on diversifying their economy [3], and chambers in the Triad region of North Carolina (Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point) are celebrating one year of tight collaboration. Read more [4].

If you want to keep up with these developments in more detail, you can read REI's EDPro weblog [5], a publication targeted to professional economic developers across the country.