Economic Development Committee Mtg.

Tonight was the regularly scheduled Economic Development Committee (EDC) for the Town of Cary.  All members were in attendance.  Our guest Mr. Dave van Pelt was unable to attend so we will have to reschedule Dave's discussion for another meeting.

Sandy Jordan gave his usually fantastic summary of all that has been going on since the last meeting, and WOW, there is so much going on.  Sandy and Tom Huff (Chair of the Cary Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors) both confirmed that the pace of inquiries is slower in the 2nd quarter than it was in the first.  Cary is better off than many areas in that our unemployment rate is the lowest of the 7 largest NC municipalities.

The Global North Carolina "Heat Map", developed by the Center for International Understanding and SAS Institute was discussed as a great tool to be able to understand the global nature of the state of North Carolina at a County level.

In the 'cities with the most college educated residents' category, the Raleigh-Cary Metro Area ranks 7th at 41.0% (based on 2010 data from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program).  Just Cary alone was mentioned to have at least 60% of the residents have a 4-year degree or more...

Social Media was again discussed by the EDC, but no definitive action was proposed.  This issue has been brought up several times, but the resistance to how it would be helpful and how much cost and staff time it may take seem to the the sticking point for many in the meeting.  They do not want to start and be unable to respond quickly to inquiries via this media.  I again voiced my point that we bill ourselves as the Technology Town, but we are completely absent on the rapidly growing communication media that more and more people are active with.  Is it more of a fault to not be present, than to be present and respond slowly?  From what I learned a few days ago, the last time that Social Media was discussed in the EDC, Pinterest probably did not exist, but has now grown to be the 3rd largest social media network!  Can we really wait to join in the conversation?

Doc Thorne had a great comment about Social Media.  National Train Day was held in Cary on May 12.  We took the event from Raleigh because last year only 3 people showed up in Raleigh for the event and Amtrak is looking at the Cary station to penetrate the Western Wake market.  In only 4 weeks, the event was put together and was advertised only via social media.  We thought that if 200 people showed up that it would be a success, but the estimates are that between 1,000-3,500 people visited National Train Day at the Cary Train Station.  Amtrak is so impressed that they are reported to now place information on all seats of the trains operating between Washington and Charlotte about Downtown Cary!  There is proof of the power of Social Media!