Northern Nevada has experienced unprecedented economic diversification, job creation and increased overall awareness of the region as a great place for business the past few years.
The primary economic development group, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and its community partners are about to take regional efforts up a notch or two the next five years, helping to shape quality growth and ensure building a broad-based economy has long-term support.
That recent success has been due in large measure to the significant financial and intellectual support of private business, along with local and state government grants.
Regional economic development has earned community-wide support and also caught the attention of Gov. Kenny Guinn, who recognized EDAWN and our partners' efforts by earmarking additional funds in his budget - which subsequently were approved by the legislature.
That sets the stage, but why do we need to ramp up regional economic development?
We have begun to change our region's image to the business world outside of Northern Nevada.
Employers and employees who diversify our economy beyond gaming are noticing what a nice place we are to live, work and play.
That has led to greater growth than we normally experience, and it changes the complexion of our region.
We all live, work and play here, too, with a vested interest in maintaining the quality of life to which we have become accustomed. That quality of life attracts and retains top people and workers to the region.
Without it, future economic development success will not only be extremely hollow, it will cease if we destroy the very base that we sell. We must all be stewards of our communities.
How to accomplish this is open to debate, and there are many answers with many stewardship jobs for different people and organizations.
We see ours as continuing to improve our region's image as a top business destination, but shifting to a more targeted process of recruiting, expanding and starting primary companies that are what we call "high yield" to the area.
Such companies offer good pay and benefits, knowledge-based jobs, are higher density businesses, possibly smaller in size, with less impact on the environment we need to protect.
To do that, we are launching the "Target Industry and Skill Set" study. The project will use key vendors to provide a detailed analysis of what our region has and what we need to bring the right companies and the right skilled workers to our region. That study will take months and will, in fact, be ongoing.
The results will identify the types of companies and workers that best suit our economy and environment, and the best methods to recruit them, expand those already here and facilitate the startups needed to take us to that next level of quality.
That new approach to regional economic development and diversification will take time.
However, it establishes a definitive long-term plan supporting our quality of life - including a strong, vibrant, diverse economy - that can co-exist and flourish well into the future.
That is the contribution that EDAWN and partners can and will make to keeping and building a world-class region to live, work and play.