Critical to the success of any economic development effort is a thorough and comprehensive strategic planning process. Economic developers must build consensus among board members, stakeholders and the community as a whole, creating a unified vision for the future. While ideal, getting everyone to agree is not always easy. Therefore, in this training participants will learn various techniques to build consensus among stakeholders who represent different values and interests. This training will also look at the steps that precede a strategic planning process, including identifying stakeholders and preparing an economic analysis. To ensure successful plan implementation, this course will also go over methods to set priorities and measure plan impact.

• Organizing the team
• Building consensus
• Preparing an economic assessment
• Determining goals and objectives
• Identifying projects
• Strategy formation
• Effective strategy implementation
• Setting realistic benchmarks

• Introduction to Planning
• Organizing for Strategic Planning
• Consensus Building/Stakeholder Ownership
• Analysis for Strategic Planning
• Techniques for Assessing Economic Data
• Vision, Mission, Goals & Objectives
• Strategic Project/Initiative Identification
• Strategy Formulation
• Evaluations/Monitoring/Benchmarking