Regionalism More Than Buzzword in Northeast Ohio
Published Apr 10, 2009
Regional collaboration is a hallmark of doing business in Northeast Ohio.
In Northeast Ohio, “partnership” is not just a warm and fuzzy idea, it’s a way of life.
The region has focused consciously on bringing key stakeholders, such as educators, entrepreneurs, government officials and even leaders from other cities around one table to address problems and possibilities of economic development.
“Those communities that are collaborative in nature, that work as a team, that respond in a very timely manner, are the communities that do better than others, and I think you’ll find that in Akron,” says Daniel Colantone, president and CEO of the Greater Akron Chamber.
Working together is often a matter of shifting from a paradigm of competition to one of cooperation. Colantone describes a recent scenario in which the nearby Youngstown-Warren Chamber of Commerce was working to locate a call center in the area. The requirements for the prospect couldn’t be met within their boundaries, though, so they made the project a regional effort. The call center ended up in Summit County rather than leaving the state, and everyone in the region benefited from the jobs and investment.
The Greater Akron Chamber is part of a regional initiative known as ClevelandPlus
(www.clevelandplus.com) that also includes organizations from Cleveland, Canton and Youngstown and other communities in a 16-county area of Northeast Ohio.
The Team NEO (for Northeast Ohio) initiative of ClevelandPlus highlights the region’s attributes, including its 4 million-resident market size, location within a day’s drive of half the U.S. population, low cost of living and regional cultural and recreation highlights.
Thinking regionally is often challenging for entities that are traditionally rivals for the same projects, but such an approach benefits everyone in the long run, says Dorothy Baunach, president and CEO of the Northeast Ohio economic development group NorTech.
“What you have to realize is that we’re not competing one county against the next, or one city against the next,” Baunach says. “When you can get all those folks together and on the same page, it’s amazing what kinds of projects you can accomplish that set up a framework and a working relationship that can carry you for a long time in terms of making things happen.”
Story by Michaela Jackson
Photo by Ian Curcio
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