LWC: Business & Economic Development Day

On Friday, March 8^th I participated in Leadership Washington County’s Business and Economic Development Day. Like the previous program days, it was bursting with content, new people, new ideas and new surprises. This post is mostly to share my most poignant take-aways, thoughts, and ideas, as well as any lingering questions that weren’t fully answered. Remember, I’m not a business major, minor, or even dabbler so, please take all of this with a grain of salt.

Did you know?

Downtown Hagerstown is home to quite a few high-end small businesses?

Anderson Photography, located on the square, offers premium custom photography services across the whole county and has seen profits rise steadily since 2008 (the heart of the economic downturn). Melanie Anderson is the woman behind the lens and she specializes in family and school portraits. She donates a lot of photography to the schools and to local businesses and organizations.

d’Vinci Interactive, located above 28 South, offers high-quality web & app design, eLearning, and graphic design, and has a client base that spans the nation. d’Vinici is taking advantage of the City’s PEP (Partners in Economic Progress) program which offers financial perks in the form of rent relief for 2 years, parking benefits for up to 5 years, plus tax benefits as well.

Beachley Furniture, located at 227 North Prospect Street, has been in Hagerstown since 1887 and they specialize in making custom seating for businesses – not for private consumers. They have strong relationships with national and international customers.

One thing that concerned me was…

… that I got the impression that the aforementioned businesses aren't attracting foot traffic - something that seems to be a big concern for some members of the City Council - and they aren't being proactive ambassadors for the downtown area. I can understand the lack of foot traffic – that’s just not their target audience. But what about being better city ambassadors? For example, when d'Vinci Interactive brings in their clients from out of state they don't take them downtown to experience our restaurants for lunch. More often than not, they just have lunch catered to the office. I wonder if these businesses could give back to the downtown community (maybe they already are) by offering free workshops that are open to the public and take place in downtown spaces. For example, Anderson Photopgrahy could offer a class on How to Photograph Your City. Beachley Furniture could offer classes on woodworking or How to Make Toy Furniture at Christmastime. d'Vinci could offer classes on How to Design Your Own Free Website. Perhaps it could lead to something similar to Mesh Baltimore?

The most brilliant idea I heard…

… was the idea of our downtown being our community's elevator speech. I heard many speakers share experiences of bringing potential employees in for interviews only to have them not accept job offers because they drove through the downtown and then decided the community wasn’t for them – for whatever reasons: no shopping, too many vacant properties, too much homelessness, security, etc. This might seem less than revolutionary to most but for me this idea of downtown being a community’s elevator speech really drove the importance of revitalization home because of all the states (4) I’ve lived in, the conditions of the communities/cities I was moving to didn’t play a big role in my decision making process. Each time I moved I was moving for a specific reason: college, grad school, job, etc. I was going to relocate regardless of the number of shops, number of vacant buildings, number of homeless I might pass on the street. None of that mattered. Plus, I’m not the type to hangout downtown anyway, and I grew up in Frederick with the thriving downtown that Hagerstown covets. Bottom line: I’m not a city girl. But I do believe in succinct and eloquent elevator speeches and I appreciate a well-formed metaphor.

Some other thoughts I had were…

I feel like the majority of local officials and probably even the residents, too, are risk averse and I worry that by playing it too safe, the city and the county as a whole will continue to flounder – even though there are pockets of local risk-embracing businesses and organizations. As a result, I don't get the impression that the local officials are looking in the right places for ideas for solutions, or even in the right places to gather data to help them make decisions. It bothers me that Hagerstown keeps looking to Frederick. We aren't Frederick and we'll never be Frederick. We are Hagerstown. I understand the allure of Frederick; it’s a wonderful downtown and I think we should look at other communities to see how they've succeeded but let's look at communities that are more representative of our situation. Frederick is not a representative case study. Unfortunately, I would like to have been able to throw out a couple of cities I feel are representative of Hagerstown but I haven’t had time to make my way through the Census Bureau’s American FactFinder, but I will…or maybe you will beat me to it?