First AccelerateUS Journal seeking contributors!

Hi. I’m looking for your help.   Next month I will be launching a new quarterly digital publication called The Accelerate Us Journal.  The Journal will be a thematic collection of content around a specific emerging issue in our local economies and communities.  My hope is to bring together a lot of very different stories that allow …

Continue reading First AccelerateUS Journal seeking contributors!

The first AccelerateUs Salon will be held on May 5 at 7 PM, with a virtual happy hour to follow!

After doing the AccelerateUs: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Local Economy Revolution series on video and podcast last year, I wanted to see what kinds of new insights happen when these amazing creators and doers talk together - and with you.  For our first Salon, titled “You Ain’t Doing it Alone,” we'll be talking about new ways to make …

Continue reading The first AccelerateUs Salon will be held on May 5 at 7 PM, with a virtual happy hour to follow!

Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: White (elite) saviors fail most of the time

cross posted from Wiseeconomy.com. I am currently preparing a revision to my first book, The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help.  I decided to update it to capture some of the things I've learned since it was first published in 2013.  Look for the new and improved version later this year. …

Continue reading Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: White (elite) saviors fail most of the time

Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: Cultivate native economic species

Cross posted from Wiseeconomy.com I am currently preparing a revision to my first book, The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help.  I decided to update it to capture some of the things I've learned since it was first published in 2013.  Look for the new and improved version later this year. …

Continue reading Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: Cultivate native economic species

Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: Human communities are human ecosystems. 

Cross posted from Wiseeconomy.com I am currently preparing a revision to my first book, The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help.  I decided to update it to capture some of the things I've learned since it was first published in 2013.  Look for the new and improved version later this year. …

Continue reading Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: Human communities are human ecosystems. 

Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: It’s not about buildings or spaces or economics. It’s about people.

Cross posted from Wiseeconomy.com. I am currently preparing a revision to my first book, The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help.  I decided to update it to capture some of the things I've learned since it was first published in 2013.  Look for the new and improved version later this year. …

Continue reading Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: It’s not about buildings or spaces or economics. It’s about people.

Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: Fusion Economy vs. Industrial economy

**Cross posted from Wiseeconomy.com I am currently preparing a revision to my first book, The Local Economy Revolution: What's Changed and How You Can Help.  I decided to update it to capture some of the things I've learned since it was first published in 2013.  Look for the new and improved version later this winter. …

Continue reading Wise Economy Manifesto 3.0: Fusion Economy vs. Industrial economy

Story Time: Help share The Local Economy Revolution at SXSW 2016

The international tech mega-conference South By Southwest Interactive has been showing more and more interest in remaking local government in recent years.  But even though conference organizers pretty clearly want to talk about it, they seem to get only a few submissions for panels or presentations on those topics. As you might guess if you've …

Continue reading Story Time: Help share The Local Economy Revolution at SXSW 2016

book cover

How to Do Public Meetings That Aren’t Miserable — and Actually Make Your Community Better

The International Economic Development Council’s ED Now ran anarticle last week that I wrote to explain why economic development people should be thinking about how to do public engagement more effectively — and why the ways we’ve been taught (or not taught) to “engage” the public so often end in anger and misery — for the public, and for …

Continue reading How to Do Public Meetings That Aren’t Miserable — and Actually Make Your Community Better

Do Business Recruitment and Retention Right: a guide from Sara Dunnigan

My friend Sara Dunnigan just announced that she is leaving the world of consulting to become the Executive Director of the Virginia Board of Workforce Development, a job that perfectly fits the most enthusiastic Make Our Existing Businesses More Successful professional in the economic development profession. Thankfully, before she moved on, she wrote up her research …

Continue reading Do Business Recruitment and Retention Right: a guide from Sara Dunnigan