The document presents a comprehensive guide on high performance economic development (HPED) tailored for economic development leaders and their boards. Written by Ben Wright of Atlas Advertising, it discusses metrics, benchmarks, and strategies for effective marketing, business attraction, and retention in local communities. It introduces an interactive benchmarking tool aimed at helping economic development organizations evaluate their performance against various metrics and community characteristics.

1. Putting High Performance Economic
Development into Practice: A Guide for
Economic Development Leaders and
Their Boards Presented
by
September 25, 2014
EDAC Performance Measurement in Economic Development
Seminar

2. About Me
Ben Wright
Founder and CEO
Atlas Advertising, Community Systems
benw@atlas-advertising.com
benw@communitysys.com
www.twitter.com/atlasad
– Former economic developer and tourism
marketer for the Metro Denver EDC, and the
City of Westminster, CO
– Degree in Quantitative Economics and Urban
Studies from Stanford
– Worked for a British MP who focused on urban
economic development, housing, and poverty in
an inner London Borough
– Industry speaker, business attraction and
marketing for economic development
@BenWrightAtlas

3. Who is Atlas?
1. Denver-based marketing services company, specializing in economic development
2. Founded in 2001, with 25 employees
3. Have worked with more communities than any other economic development
marketing services firm in the past 10 years: 140+ economic development clients in
43 states and 6 countries
4. Specialize in providing branding, marketing planning, digital marketing, and GIS
enabled websites, all for economic development
5. Pioneered the industry’s first metrics based benchmarking approach for marketing,
business attraction, and business retention: High Performance Economic
Development Marketing
6. IEDC’s High Performance Economic Development Marketing Partner
7. Frequent public speaker and lead speaker on benchmarking marketing, business
attraction, and business retention programs, as well as on branding, research,
digital marketing, websites, and GIS.

4. Who is Atlas? 25 people dedicated
to creating community vitality.

5. How do we help you engage
investors, stakeholders, and
partners?
1. Partner workshops and
charrettes
2. One on one stakeholder
interviews
3. Large scale stakeholder
and investor events
4. Featured companies and
investor programs
5. Collaborative prospect
response software with
ED partners
6. Public metrics
dashboards

6. Our clients generate superior results and
make a greater impact on their
communities

7. About Atlas’ High Performance
Economic Development Program
1. Initially developed High Performance Economic Development (HPED) to answer
questions from clients “What should our goals be?”
1. HPED, in its third year, is now the the largest and longest running collection of
marketing, business development, and business retention metrics available.
1. Hundreds of EDO’s have used the data to benchmark their marketing, business
recruitment and retention efforts and outcomes that can prove ROI for marketing,
branding and website efforts within economic development space.
1. On Monday October 6, Atlas will launch High Performance Economic Development
Online, an interactive benchmarking tool that will allow EDO’s to enter their data
and benchmark their business recruitment and retention outcomes by
organizational staff size, budget, community population, region, or any combination
of these factors.

8. View the slides, continue the
dialogue
• Continue the Conversation:
– Follow us on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/AtlasAd
– Tweet questions using hashtag
#ASKATLAS
– Join High Performance Economic
Development LinkedIn Group
• View and share the slides with
your colleagues (available now):
www.slideshare.com/wright0405

9. What we will cover
1. Who is Atlas?
2. Two comments about change
3. The History, Challenges, and Rationale of High Performance
Economic Development
4. Defining High Performance
5. Our Analysis of the Data
6. How Canada and the Rest of the Sample Compare
7. Profiles of High Performing Communities
8. How to Put High Performance into Practice
9. Questions
10.How to Get Your Community’s Report
11.Exercise: Deciding what type of organization you are, and what
position you will play

10. Two Comments about
Change

13. Ronnie
Bryant?
Albert Einstein?
Steve Jobs?
Heraclitus of Epheseus,
535 BC – 475 BC

15. Jack Welch
Former Chairman and
CEO of General Electric

16. The History, Challenges, and
Rationale of High
Performance Economic
Development

17. History of High Performance
Economic Development Methods
1. EDO’s have been measuring their performance for years
1. However, with differing viewpoints, metrics have gotten muddy, and
misunderstood
1. In 2011, Atlas put together it’s first survey of EDO outcomes, to
assist EDO’s in planning their marketing, business attraction, and
business retention programs
1. In 2014, IEDC published its “Making it Count” Metrics for High
Performing EDO’s

18. Challenges to High Performance:
Why hasn’t this been done before?
1. There is an ongoing debate about the tools that EDO’s use to recruit and retain
companies (incentives), which is really a critique of the value of the procession
1. EDO’s service companies that comprise a very small percentage of their
economies.
2. Often, economic developers are the only ED professional / organization in their
community, and work on economic development tasks with non-economic
developers.
1. Economic development projects have a long lead time to show results.
1. EDO’s and EDO governing boards have multiple, and often ever changing
priorities.
1. Each stakeholder defines high performance differently.

21. EDO’s service companies that
comprise a very small percentage of
their economies.
186 < 25,000
Average companies
Served
Typical number of
establishments in
a community

22. Often, economic developers are the
only ED professional / organization in
their community

23. Economic development projects have
a long lead time to show results.
Company
evaluates
business
and
creates
plan
Company
evaluates
locations
Company
contacts/e
valuates
finalist
communiti
es
Company
makes
and
announce
s decision
Expansion
and
relocation
real estate
project
executed
Company
hires staff
Communit
y feels/
realizes
impact
1-5 Years

24. EDO’s and EDO governing boards
have multiple, and often ever
changing priorities.
Infrastructure
Workforce
Entrepreneurship
Partner outreach
Business Retention
Business Attraction
Investor relations Marketing

25. Each stakeholder defines high
performance differently.
Internal Audiences Include:
1. Largest employers
1. Community partners
1. Elected officials
1. Business leaders
External Audiences Include
1. Prospective companies
1. Site selectors

26. How To Vote via Texting

27. Poll Question:
As a practitioner, how much do
you think you impact the overall
economic activity in your area?

28. Why We Believe that High
Performance Economic Development
is1. TCher dietbiactea ralges on: Should our
community fund economic
development?
2. It is often required for fundraising
1. Elected officials won’t stop running
on a jobs platform any time soon
1. Communities exist in comparison
(competition) with other communities

29. “Economic development organizations increasingly operate under much
tighter budgets at a time when the need for economic development
programming is becoming more crucial to the continued vitality and
competitiveness of a community.”
International Economic Development Council in
“High Performing Economic Development Organizations,” 2011

30. Discussion:
What are the key differences
between economic
development in Canada and the
United States?

31. Defining High Performance
Economic Development

32. Defining High Performance
1. What corollaries are there in the world to measure
performance?
1. Definitions provided by an international trade organization
for economic development
1. The metrics that Atlas High Performance Economic
Development focuses on, and our criteria for choosing them
1. Defining what High Performance means for each key
audience
1. Should we measure outcomes or not?

33. Corollaries for High Performance

34. Why do ED trade organizations
believe the industry should measure
itself?
"That which is measured improves. That which is measured and
reported improves exponentially.”
- Karl Pearson
International Economic Development Council in
“Making it Count, Metrics for High Performing EDOs,” - 2014

35. Four Ways the International Economic
Development Council Defines High
Performance
1. Internal Segment (Employee satisfaction,
funding sources
1. ED Program Segment (Business Attraction,
Business Retention, Business Creation)
1. Relationship Management Segment
(Relationships with internal and external
stakeholders)
1. Community Segment (Community well
being, in terms of demographics, )

36. Atlas High Performance Economic
Development Focuses on the Relationship
Management Segment, plus outcomes from
those relationships.
1. Internal Segment (Employee satisfaction,
funding sources
1. ED Program Segment (Business Attraction,
Business Retention, Business Creation)
1. Relationship Management Segment
(Relationships with internal and external
stakeholders)
1. Community Segment (Community well
being, in terms of demographics, )
Outcomes for jobs announced and
capital investment announced
)

37. The Metrics Included in the Atlas High
Performance Economic Development
Study
Relationship management
1. Visits to the community economic
development website
1. Number of companies served
(conversations with companies)
Outcomes
1. Jobs announced in the
community
1. Capital Investment announced in
the community

38. Atlas criteria for including a metric:
1. That is is not available from another party
1. That it is comparable from one community to the next
1. That one metric has a causal relationship on another metric: I.e.
website visits drives conversations
1. That it includes data that enables business development and
promotion focused agencies to benchmark their performance against
similar communities.

39. Metrics that Atlas High Performance
Economic Development Does Not
Include, and How to Get Them
1. Internal Segment (Employee
satisfaction, funding sources
1. ED Program Segment (Business
Attraction, Business Retention,
Business Creation)
1. Relationship Management Segment
(Relationships with internal and
external stakeholders)
1. Community Segment (Community
well being, in terms of demographics,
)
1. Do an employee survey, and audit
public v private funding (internal)
1. Hire a consultant to benchmark your
Business Attraction, Business
Retention, Business Creation
program
1. Relationship Management Segment
(Relationships with internal and
external stakeholders)
2. Benchmark workforce, cost of living,
and household income against your
peer communities, internally or with a
consultant

40. Exploring IEDC’s Core Community
Metrics to Identify High Performing
Communities
IEDC Core Community Metrics
1. Business related metrics, including workforce, ratings, new business permits
1. Housing metrics, including housing affordability, cost of living, property values
2. Quality of life, including broadband, median household income, crime rates
3. Public Transit, including commute times, access to mass transit
1. Trade and Tourism, including website and social media visits, exports, hotel
vacancy rates
1. Environment, including energy incentives, energy use, sprawl, etc.

41. Defining High Performance by
Audience
Internal Audiences
1. High Performance for largest employers
1. High Performance for community partners
1. High Performance for elected officials
1. High Performance for business leaders
External Audiences
1. High Performance for prospective companies
1. High Performance for site selectors

42. Board
Members/Largest
Employers: Chris
Ciaccio 1. Largest board member
2. Company planning an expansion
3. One of the largest employers in
the Bradenton, FL Area
Vice President of Marketing and Sales–
IMG Performance

43. What Chris needs and
doesn’t need
What Chris Needs
• Access to elected officials
• Access to incentive programs
• To feel like his company is
valued
• Help marketing the area to
attract world class talent
• To know he is making a
difference in the community
• Projects to work on and own
What Chris Doesn’t
Need
• Demographics about the area
• A good website
• Generalized economic news
• Long meetings that drone on

44. Elected Officials:
Mayor John Lewis
1. Entrepreneurial
2. Active in support of economic
development
3. Built extensive digital
communications team within Town
Former executive at Apollo Group, University of
Phoenix

45. What Mayor Lewis needs
and doesn’t need
What Mayor Lewis
Needs
• Oversight into the direction of
economic development
programs
• An active, measured
approach to communications
• Full access to projects and
deals
• To show a return on budgeted
activities
What Mayor Lewis
Doesn’t Need
• To execute outbound
recruitment marketing himself
• To be targeted using your
website

46. Community Partners:
Mike Freeman
1. Former economic developer
2. Runs largest incubator in Fort
Collins
3. Works with 75+ companies per
year
CEO at the Rocky Mountain Innosphere, an
incubator/accelerator in Fort Collins, CO

47. What Mike Freeman
needs and doesn’t need
What Mike Needs
• Low cost financing for his
space
• Access to partners (Such as
Colorado State)
• Investment from City of Fort
Collins
• To be aware of ED services
for his customers (financing,
EZ credits, etc)
What Mike Doesn’t
Need
• To be a part of City meetings
• To have to go through tons of
reporting red tape

48. General Business
Leaders: Carl Byers
1. Venture Capitalist
2. Never been engaged in economic
development
3. Likely thinks he knows what
economic development is
Venture Partner at Fidelity Biosciences

49. What Carl needs and
doesn’t need
What Carl Needs
• To know how economic
development is relevant to him
• To know when to contact an
economic developer
• To understand the difference
between EDO and tax collector
What Carl Doesn’t
Need
• To be sold on Boston as a
good location for biotech

50. Site Selectors: Tracey Hyatt
Bosman
1. Based in Chicago, IL
2. Former economic developer
3. Specializes in renewable energy and
data centers
Midwest Practice Leader – Biggins, Lacy and Shapiro

51. What Tracey needs and
doesn’t need
What Tracey Needs
• Contact information
• Incentive programs
• Tax rates
• Recent announcements
• Industry-targeted info
• Map of your territory
• Largest employers
• Area colleges and universities
What Tracey
Doesn’t Need
• General labor statistics
• Secondary source wage
information
• Real estate listings
• Rankings
• Distance to other major cities

52. Prospect CEOs: W. James
McNerney
1. Based in Chicago, IL
2. Has held positions at 3M, GE prior to
joining Boeing in 2005.
3. Company has a global supply chain,
with parts manufacture in dozens of
countries
CEO and Chairman of the Board, The
Boeing Company

53. What W James needs and doesn’t
need
What W James Needs
• Fast response
• Available property
• Incentive programs
• Tax rates
• Commitment to long term
infrastructure
• Access to area colleges and
universities
• Information for relocating
employees
• Supplier lists
What W James
Doesn’t Need
• Overly technical incentive
programs
• To be sold on the quality of
life
• Distance to other major cities

54. Discussion: Should we use
outcomes to measure
ourselves?

55. Our Analysis of the Data,
2012/2013

56. Who
participated
PROVINCE ORGANIZATION
ON
Chapleau Economic Development
Corporation
AB Community Futures Alberta Southwest
AB
Newell Regional Economic Development
Initiative
MB Town of Neepawa
ON Tewatohnhi'saktha
BC LEDA
QC
Centre Local de developpement
Beauharnois-Salaberry
ON Town of Halton Hills
NS City of Moncton - Economic Development
AB County of Grande Prairie
AB
Lloydminster Economic Development
Corporation
NL Town of Conception Bay South
ON Town of Oakville
ON
City of Vaughan, Economic Development
Department
AB Alberta's Industrial Heartland Assoc.
2012:
197 Communities
2013:
208 Communities
6 Countries,
15 in Canada
Canadian Participants

57. The Framework: Business Attraction,
Business Retention, and Marketing, 2012
Numbers

60. Sneak Peek at 2013 data:
Tremendous variance in results
Budget Level Low Jobs
Announced
High Jobs
Announced
Low Capital
Investment
Announced
High Capital
Investment
Announced
Low
Convers
ations
High
Conversa
tions
Under $100,000 12 852 $500,000 $442,000,000 10 214
$100,000 to
$249,000 10 3,000 $150,000 $1,100,000,000 4 726
$250,000 to
$499,000 15 7,000 $300,000 $4,500,000,000 2 600
$500,000 to
$999,000 10 32,000 $235,000 $2,500,000,000 10 10,000
$1,000,000 to
$2,500,000 10 11,278 $1,000,000 $1,000,000,000 10 4,000
Over $2,500,000 10 50,000 $1,500,000 $11,700,000,000 15 5,045

61. Sneak Peek: EDO Performance,
benchmarked by population
POPULATION YEARLY WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES PAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE JOBS
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
Less than 25,000 2,474 80 193 $67,950,000
25,001 to 100,000 11,426 93 503 $81,773,363
100,001 to 250,000 24,864 133 1,120 $187,837,410
250,001 to 1,000,000 33,696 303 2,137 $379,538,874
1,000,000 to 2,500,000 102,913 319 3,679 $482,484,240
Over 2,500,000 71,051 800 14,604 $1,463,092,402
Average for all Sizes 27,063 186 1,882 $271,855,546

62. EDO Performance,
benchmarked by staff size
STAFF SIZE
AVERAGE YEARLY
WEB VISITS
AVERAGE INQUIRIES
PAST 12 MONTHS
AVERAGE JOBS
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
1 2,337 68 276 $37,334,722
2 to 3 14,350 106 672 $154,734,368
4 to 9 29,660 372 2,668 $277,386,479
10 to 19 75,592 381 2,477 $483,902,403
20 or more 69,517 324 11,258 $1,214,120,612
Average for all Sizes 27,063 186 1,882 $271,855,546

63. EDO Performance,
benchmarked by budget
Budget Level
AVERAGE YEARLY WEB
VISITS
AVERAGE INQUIRIES PAST
12 MONTHS
AVERAGE JOBS
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE CAPITAL
INVESTMENT ANNOUNCED
LAST 12 MONTHS
Under $100,000 932 47 181 $44,048,524
$100,000 to $249,000 5,363 82 378 $75,655,476
$250,000 to $499,000 15,127 93 614 $186,704,037
$500,000 to $999,000 19,317 236 1,483 $215,056,038
$1,000,000 to
$2,500,000 27,130 293 1,707 $230,341,735
Over $2,500,000 78,591 279 5,471 $657,938,155
Average for all Sizes 27,063 186 1,882 $271,855,546

64. Who are the highest performers
in terms of jobs, and other
categories?

65. How Canada and the Rest of
the Sample Compare

66. EDO Performance, Canada Vs.
Sample
POPULATION YEARLY WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES PAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE JOBS
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
AVERAGE CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED LAST 12
MONTHS
Average for Canadian
respondents, 2013
5,605 162 479 $137,470,833
Average for all Sample,
2012
27,063 186 1,882 $271,855,546

67. Poll Question:
Did your organization set
measurable goals for your
marketing, business
development, and business
retention programs this year
(2014)?

68. Profiles of High Performing
Communities

69. Loudoun County, VA
Leadership: BUDDY RIZER, Director
Geography: A 520-SQUARE MILE SUBURB
OF WASHINGTON, DC.
Catalyst initiative in 2013: The retention
of the Telos Corporation, which represented a $5
million investment and 460 jobs
Inspiration: Loudoun Virginia is one of the
most dynamic places in the country...always
among the fastest growing in population and
jobs, a top technology location, and home to a
great international airport.

70. Southwest Michigan
LFeiardsertship: Ron Kitchens, CEO
Geography: Southwest Michigan comprised
of the counties of Berrien, Branch, Calhoun,
Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren
and representing more than 780,000 community
members.
Catalyst initiative in 2013: Our team
believes in an open information strategy,
meaning that we want to be the teaching hospital
version of an economic development corporation
Inspiration: When I was just four years old, tragedy struck our family when my father was
killed in an accident at work, leaving my mother as a nineteen-year-old widow with two sons,
ages four and two. Oftentimes, food was hard to come by, meaning endless meals of rice and
beans. One Christmas gift from a Church food basket—mandarin oranges—that I hid in my
desk, became my personal symbol of education and escaping poverty. Today I still keep one, as
my daily reminder of my responsibility to create positive change by brining jobs to my community.

71. City of St. Cloud, MN
Leadership: Cathy Mehelich, Economic
Development Director
Geography: City of St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Catalyst project in 2013: Expansion of
New Flyer of America – World leader in
manufacturing of heavy-duty transit buses.
Creation of 136 new jobs through expansion of
company’s new Midi-bus production line.
Inspiration: My passion is driven by a strong desire to help businesses growth and
succeed by understanding and anticipating their unique needs, effectively connecting
them to resources, and efficiently facilitating the city development process.

72. Questions/Discussion

73. Steps to Put High Performance into
Practice
1. Discuss your organizational priorities for marketing,
business recruitment, and business retention
2. Assign metrics to certain staff
3. Set a plan to influence that metric for each staff person
4. Make the plan transparent to your stakeholders
5. Execute, report, and adjust

74. How Does Your Organization Prioritize
Business Recruitment, Retention, and
Marketing/Promotion?

75. Poll Question:
What is your primary function in
your organization?

76. Assigning Metrics to Staff: What
Metrics does Each Function
Influence?
WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES
/CONVERSATIONS
JOBS ANNOUNCED
CAPITAL INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
CEO/Executive X X X X
Business Developer X X X
Marketer X X
Researcher X

77. Setting a Plan so That Each
Staff Person Can Drive High
Performance

78. Economic Development CEO/
Executive
WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES
/CONVERSATIONS
Metrics He/She Should Influence
1. All
Role He/She Plays
1. Setting the direction for the organization
2. Allocating staff and resources
3. Communicating with stakeholders to
ensure board buy in
JOBS
ANNOUNCED
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED

79. Business Developer
WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES
/CONVERSATIONS
JOBS
ANNOUNCED
Metrics He/She Should Influence
1. Inquiries/Conversations with
Companies
2. Jobs Announced/Conversation
3. Capital Investment
Announced/Conversation
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
What He/She Should Focus On
1. Rapid response to prospects
2. Investigating prospect needs
3. Providing customized responses

80. Marketer
WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES
/CONVERSATIONS
JOBS
ANNOUNCED
Metrics He/She Should Influence
1. Website visits
2. Ratio of website visits/inquiry
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED
What He/She Should Focus On
1. Driving traffic to the website via Search
Engines, social media, email
2. Keeping content fresh and creating
opportunities to engage
3. Optimizing the website for conversion

81. Researcher/Economist
WEB VISITS
INQUIRIES
/CONVERSATIONS
Metrics He/She Should Influence
1. Website Visits
2. Jobs Announced
3. Capital Investment Announced
Role He/She Plays
1. Creating outstanding content for the
marketer
2. Providing customized data to the
business developer
3. Managing and reporting on
benchmarked data
JOBS
ANNOUNCED
CAPITAL
INVESTMENT
ANNOUNCED

82. How to Make the Plan Transparent to
Your Stakeholders
1. Write down a strategic plan for the
next year
1. Outline each staff person’s role in
reaching that plan
1. Set activities and outcomes for each
person, and for the organization
1. Report quarterly, using a pre-defined
dashboard, to your board and
stakeholders
1. Benchmark annually

83. How to Execute, Report, Adjust
1. Report quarterly, using a
pre-defined dashboard, to
your board and
stakeholders
1. Review performance
quarterly, including trailing
metrics and forward
looking metrics
1. Benchmark annually
1. Fold benchmarks back into
the annual plan

84. How to Benchmark Your Community
Using Atlas High Performance
Economic Development 1. Take the survey here:
2. View your report online, starting Monday October 6, here

85. Questions/Discussion

86. Exercise: Deciding What What
Position You Will Play in High
Performance

87. Thank you!
Contact information:
929 Broadway
Denver, CO 80203
Contact: Ben Wright
t: 303.292.3300 x 210
benw@Atlas-Advertising.com
www.Atlas-Advertising.com
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