by Steve Dust, CEO, Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber

 

 

 

 

 

One: Cedar Valley in Top 100 Places to Start a Biz

The website How to Start an LLC has ranked U.S. metros where it’s easiest to start a business, according to their matrix. The criteria, plus the entire list, is available at this link.

Top Cities to Start a Business, How to Start an LLC, 2017

Two: Your Comment Needed — Future Ready Iowa

I recently linked the Future Ready Iowa Alliance board’s website in this space. The recommendations to achieve 70 percent of the Iowa workforce holding post-secondary credentials are listed there. Your comments are needed. Are the goals on the right track?

Comment on the page at this link: Future Ready Iowa Alliance Final Recommendations

Three: Iowa’s Leading Indicators

The Iowa Department of Revenue publishes a monthly report. Spoiler alert for September: Industrials are good, Ag, not so good.

Iowa Leading Indicators Index September 2017 Report, Iowa Department of Revenue, September 2017

Four: Which Cities Are Attracting Tech Talent?

We’re learning how to attract talented people, as well as businesses to the Cedar Valley. This is an article that features some attributes of (much larger) places where tech-specific talent is willing to go. It’s a slide show, see button at top of web site.

5 U.S. Cities Luring Tech Talent Away From Silicon Valley, Entrepreneur, October 31, 2017

Five: What is a Smart City?

And in the vein of “what does it take,” the talent equation fundamentally depends on quality of place. This is a long think piece by someone paid to think about how to connect a complex system – a city – to meaningful data and information. The role of data, ignored as a frill by many, is essential to the city’s ability to thrive as a service deliverer and keeper of place. For those who volunteer countless hours over many years to improve their cities, and those in city government in any way, this is a good article to crunch through.

The Search for a Theory of Cities, Colin Harrison, Meeting of the Minds, November 2, 2017