Lee businesses look for recruits

Horizon Council meeting focuses on networking

By Tim Engstrom
tengstrom@news-press.com

Lee County’s economic development leaders turned an annual meeting Friday into a recruiting drive for business-hunting foot soldiers.

About 300 business leaders who had lunch at the Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre were asked to take comment cards, posters and even T-shirts promoting the “Together, we mean business” marketing campaign.

“If this causes someone to engage you and start a conversation, then it is all for the good,” said Jim Moore, executive director of the Fort Myers Regional Partnership/Lee Economic Development Office.

The recruitment was at the annual meeting of the Horizon Council, which includes business leaders and government representatives who advise Lee County commissioners on economic development issues.

Moore recounted the group’s accomplishments for 2009, including using about $4.3 million in state and local incentives programs to convince six companies to commit to adding more than 800 jobs over the next five years.

On Tuesday, Lee commissioners will be asked to approve a $10 million incentive deal with Algenol Biofuels Inc., which plans to build a research lab and headquarters here.

But more is needed, Moore said.

“We have to touch everyone out there that we haven’t touched yet and there are a lot of those,” he said.

The effort includes billboards, a LeeTran bus and promotional information sent along with Lee County utility bills.

Kitty Green, former chief executive of the Bonita Bay Group, is leading the Horizon Council’s community outreach effort.

“When Jim (Moore) and I first talked about this, it made so much sense that I was surprised we haven’t gone that route before,” Green said. “All the advertising in the world isn’t as effective as one human being talking to another human being and asking for a lead.”

Bob Gasparini, president and chief science officer of NeoGenomics, said after the meeting that Lee County is on the right track.

“This is a terrific program for Lee County,” Gasparini said.

NeoGenomics, a publicly traded cancer genetics testing lab with its headquarters in Lee County, received $615,000 in incentive money in exchange for hiring 75 employees over the next three years.

John Dwyer, president and chief executive officer of Interop Technologies, said he expects the recruiting efforts to be successful.

“They are absolutely right that one-to-one recruiting is the way to go,” Dwyer said.