The SBTC assists the overall economic development of Southside Virginia by providing business consulting services for local and regional private businesses, economic development organizations, non-profit institutions, and local governments.  SBTC consulting services include business plan development, feasibility studies, identifying sources of capital, market research and analysis, financial analysis, operational analysis, and mergers and acquisitions. Serving approximately 45 entities annually, the SBTC assists in job creation and retention, increased capital investments, increased sales, development of a more diversified tax base, and business management education and training.

In addition to the high-value private consulting projects, SBTC staff provide lectures and training seminars requested by private industry sectors, such as local and regional bankers, or other business assistance providers, such as the local business incubators like the Dan River Business Development Center.

The SBTC also provides experiential learning opportunities to local and regional university and college students majoring in business, marketing, and related fields of study, offering paid or un-paid, in-house or long-distance internship opportunities for credit. The internships expose students to real business problems, and help them to apply their theoretical business knowledge to a real life setting. The internships may potentially result in student employment at SBTC client companies or at other private consulting/research firms, proven by 100% employment rate of SBTC interns after graduation.

Steven Hall received his B.A. in Public and Urban Affairs with a concentration in Urbanization: Planning and Policy from the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning in 2004. He continued his studies at the Center for Public Administration and Policy, earning a Master of Public Administration degree in 2006. While pursuing his MPA, Steve was selected as a Community Building Fellow, and served as a graduate research assistant for the Office of Economic Development.

Upon graduation, Steve accepted a job with the Delaware County Planning Department in his birthplace of Media, PA. Steve specialized in community assistance planning, writing multi-municipal comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances for the County’s 49 localities.

In May of 2008, Steve returned to Virginia and accepted the position of Assistant City Manager for the City of Emporia. In this capacity, Steve serves as Zoning Administrator, Planning Director, and Executive Director of the Emporia Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Steve works closely with the Planning Commission, City Council, Industrial Development Corporation, Downtown Development Association, Civic Center Foundation, among other local and regional organizations, boards, and committees.

  Calling all Hokies
in Economic Development!  We want to hear from you, email jprovo@vt.edu

Upcoming Events

Virginia Industrial Development Authorities (VIDA) Institute
VIDA will be held in Fredericksburg, Virginia on May 19-20, 2009. This two-day program will focus on developing positive business environments and supporting infrastructures.
For more information and registration, visit http://www.cpe.vt.edu/vida/index.html or contact Connie Long at cwlong@vt.edu.

Virginia Economic Developers Association
(VEDA) Fall Conference
VEDA's Fall Conference will be held at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center in Roanoke, Virginia on September 16-18, 2009. For more information and registration, visit http://www.goveda.org/.

VEDA is also currently accepting new membership/membership renewal applications. To become a member or renew your membership, visit http://www.goveda.org/Membership/
application.htm.

Congratulations to our graduates!

Tia Williams will finish her master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and will be pursuing other economic development opportunities.

Sarah Lyon-Hill will be leaving OED to work for the Peace Corps in North Africa for two years.

Monica Licher will be leaving OED, but continues to pursue her doctorate at Virginia Tech. She will spend the next several semesters focusing on water policy and planning, specifically as it relates to stormwater management.

We wish all of our graduate research assistants the best.

• Greetings from the Director
• Ted's Opinion: Developing Relationships Between Developers
• Entrepreneurs In Search of the Midas Touch
• News from EDA: New Virginia Representative and New Funding Opportunities
• Roanoke's Creative Communities Leadership Program
• Brunswick County Incubator Project
• Partner Profile: Southside Business Technology Center
• Data Tools: Census Bureau's LED On the Map
• Alumni spotlight: Steve Hall
  

Much has happened since the last edition of the newsletter.  Virginia Tech approaches the hectic end of another semester, and Hokies in Blacksburg and everywhere commemorated the second anniversary of the tragic events of April 16th.   Our office has had some newsworthy events, and of course we cannot ignore the dramatic developments in our national economy. 

First, however, I’d like to relate some exciting OED news—I am very pleased to welcome Whitney Bonham to her new position of Economic Development Specialist.  Whitney is a native of Chilhowie and graduate of the master’s program in public policy at Virginia Tech.  We look forward to the local knowledge and public policy expertise she will bring to our work.  (click here for Whitney’s contact info and short bio).  In the same vein, OED welcomes the arrival of Bob Gittler at the Philadelphia Regional Office of the Economic Development Administration (EDA), where he will serve as representative and contact point to EDA for Virginia.  The EDA article below describes Bob’s position and EDA’s current efforts in more detail, and we look forward to ongoing collaboration with Bob and our partners at the EDA on future projects. 

Also in this edition, we provide a brief update on our project work in Brunswick County, as well as a Partner Profile devoted to the Southside Business Technology Center, a business assistance center serving Southside that has been involved in the Brunswick project.  The Data Tools article describes the Census Bureau’s ‘On the Map,’ an innovative web-based tool for compiling and analyzing regional commuting and employment data, and our Alumni Spotlight focuses on Steve Hall, VT public administration graduate and Assistant City Manager for the City of Emporia.  And please check out ‘upcoming events’ for information about the Virginia Industrial Development Authorities Institute session in Fredericksburg on May 19-20.

Ted Settle

From infrastructure to education, the complex economic and social issues that economic development strategies seek to address are highly ‘multi-disciplinary’ in nature.  This means communities must develop a comprehensive portfolio of initiatives addressing diverse issues to support the pursuit of their long-term economic development goals.  This process requires the engagement of several overlapping groups of stakeholders and government agencies, each with their own interest in various aspects of economic development, and each with their own organizational structure, federal and local partners and existing programs.  ...  Read Full Article

The Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (CRC) has announced the formation of an entrepreneurial mentoring organization called the VT Midas Institute.  The goals of the Institute are to enhance growth of high-potential companies, engage successful business leaders with the university, energize entrepreneurship, and educate the next generation of leaders of the new economy. ...Read Article

OED would like to welcome Bob Gittler to the economic development community in Virginia, and look forward to working with him in his new position serving the Commonwealth as Economic Development Specialist at the Philadelphia Regional Office (PRO) of the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA).  In his new position, Bob will serve as Virginia’s point of contact to the EDA and will advise and collaborate with local economic developers and other Virginia officials seeking to approach EDA with project ideas, funding requests, partnership opportunities, or other assistance.  As Virginia’s representative, Bob is tasked with helping to develop as many viable applications for EDA programs as possible from Virginia and has pledged to visit Virginia regularly in order to develop his contacts in the state (click here for contact info)...Read Article

The City of Roanoke launched its Creative Communities Leadership Program (CCLP) with a two-day seminar on March 30-31. The program, launched by Richard Florida and his firm, the Creative Class Group (CCG), is designed to use local volunteers to work with the community to generate economic prosperity. As part of this program, the City of Roanoke has identified 30 local individuals to become Creative Connectors and participate in the year-long effort...Full Article Here

Sibel Atasoy and Patrick O’Brien of OED are currently working with the Brunswick County Industrial Development Authority (IDA) on assessing the feasibility of establishing a small business incubator targeting the wood products industry in the county. OED has also partnered with the Southside Business Technology Center (SBTC) to develop a business plan for the proposed incubator based on the results of the feasibility analysis conducted by OED.

The key component of the study is a target market analysis of the wood industry within the market area to identify market segments that may provide an opportunity for business incubation and an assessment of demand for the incubator. To assess whether sufficient demand exists for the incubator facility and services, OED conducted a survey of existing local wood products business owners. OED also conducted interviews with key informants and community stakeholders in the market area to provide local perspective on the feasibility and likely success of the business incubator.

OED expects to deliver the feasibility study and the business plan to the Brunswick County IDA in May 2009.

The U.S. Census Bureau has released version 3 of LED On the Map, a web-based tool for analyzing labor market and demographic statistics covering 48 states (including Virginia).  On the Map generates reports tailored to a specific geographic area that is selected by the user and provides a great resource for creating project-specific data sets.  Information on employment and commuting patterns is tailored directly to the area(s) of interest, based on employers’ required ES-202 annual tax reporting of all employees, as collected by partner state labor market information agencies...Read Article Here