Marketing region means burying boundaries

Larry Avila 

Gannett Wisconsin Media

Selling Northeastern Wisconsin as a good place to do business can’t be accomplished by a single community.

That’s according to Ronnie Bryant, president and CEO of the Charlotte USA Partnership, a regional economic development group that markets the greater Charlotte, N.C., area as a place that not only offers good quality of life but where money can be made.

Bryant, who addressed business and community leaders from around Northeastern Wisconsin at a regional economic development breakfast at The Marq in De Pere on Tuesday, said Charlotte’s success over the years is credited to creating a mindset that what’s best for the region benefits everyone. Bryant said a first step, which also is the most difficult, is for communities to stop thinking parochially.

“There’s nothing more fulfilling than driving by a once-empty site and seeing a facility there, where people are working and (knowing) their families are living in the surrounding communities,” Bryant said. “Selling your community as a great place to live isn’t going to work; you have to be the place to come.” More here.