One of my duties is to represent the Chamber publicly at various events, sometimes as a speaker. This morning I spoke to 150 Re/Max real estate agents and brokers at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse in Johnstown. (As an aside, this is a great venue, if you are not familiar with it, worth a date night with your significant other.)
The main topic was the status of I-25, but we also talked about workforce development, how the area chambers of commerce work together, business retention and expansion and Northern Colorado Prospers, the Chamber’s 5-year key strategic initiatives campaign.
Then, typically, at the end of my presentations I dump in extra slides. Some of them provide more details on the topics I’m covering; others are about topics I anticipate will come up. For example, this morning’s presentation had some slides about what I think people will be doing for a living in our area in 15 years.
The summary, very short version of the presentation is:
-I-25 is a problem now, it is getting worse, 3 hour trips to Denver are in our future if we don’t fix this, Northern Colorado has secured $270.5M for North I-25, but much more is needed so we need to stay on this.
-Workforce talent is another Achilles heel. Fort Collins-Loveland area leaders hired a consultant, the data shows a shortfall of 5,000 to 9,000 workers over the next 5 years, and we have created a plan.
-Northern Colorado Prospers is a key strategic initiatives campaign to fund our work on these two issues and two others – retain existing businesses and business climate. The campaign is underway, has raised $1,000,000 toward our $3,350,000 goal.
-We are really lucky to live in our area. The sense of cooperation in the two-region area is strong.
If you want the fuller story, you can find the PowerPoint here.