In the Words of the CEO’s
It was a flyer for me. I had no idea how useful it would be. I wanted to get smarter about what we were doing. I was skeptical at the beginning. It felt wonky, but then I watched the videos and it got me thinking differently about the business. I saw that smart people were accessing resources that are difficult for me to access and providing great information. As things posted I realized how helpful and meaningful the information was. I enjoyed the process and it gave us good information that has gotten us thinking in new ways.
The digital information provided has changed the way we market. We are going to do less tradeshows and will be utilizing social media and other digital networks for marketing. We are changing the way we are messaging and communicating. We have email addresses of prospects we can directly market to. We would not have been able to make these changes without the insight we learned in the program.
You have an outstanding, solid, organized approach to doing this work. It was tremendously insightful and helpful. I am very excited about this information which has given us an idea of action steps we can take to grow our business.
We’re very impressed with the program. It is extremely comprehensive in its approach. Market research opened our eyes to a classification system for higher education that we weren’t aware of prior to entering the program. They also pointed us to some existing research reports that have been extremely valuable for us. We are averaging between 200 – 300 PPC contacts per month, and our daily website traffic has increased significantly Year-over-Year. We are getting more face-to-face meetings with the right people – the decision makers. We definitely will recommend this program to other businesses.
The Economic Gardening (EG) process provided us with a massive amount of data that was tailored to our business. The leads that were produced were highly targeted and appropriate for us to explore. The process even opened our eyes to an additional market that fit with our business model, and we have made sales to companies in this sector. EG was well worth the time investment.
My experience with Economic Gardening was one of the most beneficial endeavors this year! It truly opened my eyes to the dynamics in the marketplaces we were interested in and helped me understand market triggers that will help in business development. The angles and approaches that were taken by the team was phenomenal. It let me take a step back and think strategically about how to engage and go after new clients.
National and International Awards and Citations
International Economic Development Council
National League of Cities
U.S. Economic Development Administration
SBA Report to the President
( Chapter 6: Economic Gardening)
fDi Intelligence / Financial Times of London
University of Minnesota
Harvard Innovation in Government Awards (finalist)
Invited seven times to present at Harvard University
Presented at North/Central/South America’s Competitiveness Conference
Presented at European Innovation Council Conference
Hosted five delegations from Japan
Invited to speak in 7 foreign countries
Radio interview with National Public Radio (NPR)
Radio interview with ABC Australia
Over 3,000 media stories including articles in Governing magazine,
BusinessWeek, Nation’s Weekly, Business Expansion Journal,
Stanford Social Innovations Review, ICMA and Forbes Japan
Inquiries from over 800 communities
Over 8,000+ social media followers
Over 100,000 hits in Google