Billye Carter

Ever wish you had a back office to tackle your to-do list?

Creative EDC has a Back Office Suite of Services for EDOs that allows you to stay focused on the important tasks each day. We developed the back office to support research requests, surveys, reporting, content development, and other short-term projects. Maybe you’ve thought about hiring a part-timer/freelancer but hesitated because you would have to spend …

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2021 North Carolina Economic Development Salary Survey

Ensuring your economic development organization has a competitive pay and benefits structure is critical to recruiting and retaining talented people. With 38% reporting retirement plans within the next 10 years, it’s more important than ever for economic development organizations (EDOs) to evaluate compensation structure to recruit future talent and keep the pipeline strong. This survey, …

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WEDN 2021 Virtual Meeting Series

Leadership, inclusiveness, entrepreneurship, marketing, and women’s employment trends were the topics of this year’s Learn and Lead Forum. We learned how to be better leaders in our organizations, communities, and profession while connecting with colleagues across the southeast. This year, WEDN was four lunch and learn virtual meetings. Dr. Karen Dyer kicked off the meeting …

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Turning Plain Dirt into a Real Asset: ElectriCities Smart Sites Certification Program

Site certification works. In order to attract new development, communities have to prepare for it; site certification tools turn ‘dirt’ into real assets.  Certification shows that project work can begin and removes a lot of risk and uncertainty. Having a certified, ‘shovel ready’ site includes environmental assessments, infrastructure details, site planning, and documents that other …

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A Career in Economic Development is One Way to Positively Impact Your Community – an MPA Student explores a career path in economic development

Creative EDC Intern Rylee Govoreau explores economic development with three professionals at different stages in their careers. Pass this along to a young person you know who may be interested in a career in economic development. As with every other industry, economic development is facing the silver tsunami. We should all be proactive in recruiting bright young people to our field. ~ …

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Why Child Care Should Be Part of Your COVID-19 Recovery Strategy

By Lisa Finaldi Lisa is the Community Engagement Leader at the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation. The COVID-19 crisis has made crystal clear the vital role that child care and other parent supports play in getting our economy back on track. Even before the pandemic, 99 of 100 counties in NC were already child care deserts …

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A Small, Rural County Making a Big Difference in Workforce Development

A Case Study of Abbeville County’s College Promise Scholarship Program Abbeville County not only has big ideas, they make them happen. The rural county of approximately 25,000 people raised funds that allow every high school graduate to earn a degree at Piedmont Technical College. This has impacted education, workforce development, business development, and opened many …

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BRE Amidst COVID-19: Business Impact & How to Reshape Your BRE Program

With nearly 100% of companies reporting being impacted by COVID-19, EDOs are reshaping the BRE program to meet unprecedented needs. Virtual BRE visits, increased information sharing, financing programs, and revisiting incentive compliance are just a few changes being made to BRE programs. By examining business impact, precautions being taken, and assistance needed, EDOs can gain …

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Incentive Agreement Compliance During COVID: Q&A with Azad Khan, Consultant, Parker Poe Consulting

Due to the economic cliff most businesses fell off of in March, some will not meet the performance milestones set out in incentive agreements negotiated years before. Are communities being flexible on incentive compliance, and if so, how? We asked Azad Khan with Parker Poe Consulting this burning question and others related to incentive compliance. …

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Top 10 Skills Economic Developers Should be Honing Right Now

“What skills should I be learning right now?” is a question we have been asked by several economic developers. We have all been thrown into a new work environment that requires a new set of skills. We believe virtual meetings, collaboration, and site visits are here to stay to some degree. Companies and organizations have …

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Make Remote Meetings Better

The shifting landscape of meetings today has brought front-and-center the need to make meetings better – more productive with better results. There are 55 million meetings a day in the U.S. at a cost of about $1.4 trillion. Some 47% of people say that too many meetings are a drain on the workplace. Dr. Steven …

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Creative Economic Development Consulting