Alliance Newsletter
Alliance Newsletter

Quarterly Update
January-february-march 2018
This issue of the Alliance newsletter highlights a business advisory meeting featuring the commerce leaders from each state, a strategic doing development session for both the Alliance Board of Directors and Alliance shareholders within our mega-region, the Alliance Op Ed published in Crain's Chicago Business,  a Save the Date for the 6th Annual Summit on Regional  Competitiveness at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a new partnership and initiative involving 21CC, an overview of the Board of Directors meeting, several articles of interest and Transportation and Workforce Working Team updates. The Alliance remains committed to serving as a neutral platform championing initiatives and convening leaders from government, academia and the private sector to grow the regional economy.  
SAVE THE DATE 
Mark your calendars! The Alliance for Regional Development and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will host the 6th Annual Summit on Regional Competitiveness, Monday, October 29, 2018.
Sponsorship opportunities are available. For information, please contact President & CEO, Kelly O'Brien at kobrien@alliancerd.org
Launch of the Chicago Regional Growth Corporation 
President Preckwinkle joins regional colleagues, business leaders and new Chicago Regional Growth Corporation Board members.
In January, business and government leaders launched the Chicago Regional Growth Corporation (CRGC), a regional economic development organization that drives collaboration among public and private partners in order to generate inclusive growth and prosperity across northeastern Illinois.  Alliance for Regional Development President, Kelly O’Brien said, “This is such an important effort. In Northwest Indiana there is ‘One Region’, in Wisconsin, there is the ‘Milwaukee 7’ and now the Chicagoland area has CRGC.  The Alliance can be the platform bringing the three sub-regions together to work across state lines, share best practices and scale assets.”
CRGC will prioritize, align and manage the sub-region’s economic development initiatives, unifying programming and the sub-region’s identity. CRGC includes leadership from Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry and Will Counties and the City of Chicago, as well as industry leaders from manufacturing, food processing, finance and higher education. The new organization will strengthen the sub-regional economy and better connect resources to generate economic opportunity and prosperity.
“In 2013, I brought our neighboring county leaders together to explore how we could better combine resources and collaborate to advance the Chicago region,” said Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. “This regional working group has helped develop programs and initiatives that have already benefitted residents throughout the region. By formally creating CRGC, we are providing a single voice for the region that will benefit businesses and residents throughout northeastern Illinois.”

In regard to the Alliance for Regional Development, President Preckwinkle said, “The tri-state initiative can only be held by strong sub-regions. We consider the work we’re trying to do complementary to the Alliance for Regional Development.”
Alliance Transportation Working Team Update
Team Manager, Steve Schlickman, reported to Alliance shareholders an update on the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for fiscal year (FY) 2018, which was signed by Trump on March 23, 2018.  The bill includes a budget of $2.6 billion for the Capital Investment Grant (CIG) programs, which is 10% above the authorized amount. 
Schlickman stated, "This is good news for the South Shore Double Tracking Project to Michigan City and the extension of projects that are applying for CIG grants. However, CIG grants are competitively awarded by USDOT.  Trump's budget plan for FY 18 requested only $1 billion in CIG funding for existing projects with full funding agreements, with the intent to eventually phase out the program.  USDOT now has to determine how the increased funding will be allocated to new projects from across the nation through its highly prescribed evaluation process." 
If you are interested in joining the Alliance Transportation Team, please contact Kelly O'Brien at kobrien@alliancerd.org
Alliance Workforce Working Team Update
The Alliance Workforce team continues to share best practices across state lines and works to identify initiatives to solve workforce issues throughout the mega-region. 
A new initiative the team is now focusing on involves attracting and retaining talent in the transportation logistics sector. As businesses grow, so too will the regional economy.  The Alliance is launching a membership based tier and tracking metrics related to retention rates and new hiring.
Below please find brief information on this new venture.
If you are interested in joining the Alliance Workforce Team and working on its agenda, please contact Kelly O'Brien at kobrien@alliancerd.org
Today as the transportation, distribution and logistics (TDL) industry itself enters an exciting new phase of growth with the advent of the eCommerce industry it is being held back by the inability to fill thousands of positions across the 21 counties represented by the Alliance for Regional Development.
Employers across all the major modes of transportation and warehousing struggle to attract employees to this industry or to keep them, which is a huge pity. TDL is one of the most rewarding and gratifying industries in which to work. No two days are ever the same and the potential to rise to the top of the organization is there for everyone, including people who started off stacking boxes or driving a truck, just ask senior managers at FedEx or UPS!
As part of a solution to turn this situation around the Alliance has teamed up with 21CC Education, a learning and development company based out of Chicago, The Hague (Netherlands), Mumbai and Bangkok. 21CC creates e learning and mobile learning content for the TDL industry and hosts this on its own Amazon Cloud based learning management system (LMS). 
Content is presented in a compelling way, which includes gamification. Tough topics such as dangerous goods are presented through interactive games. 
The Alliance, 21CC and Manpower will be hosting a series of breakfast meetings across the 21 counties to showcase this unique solution. 
If you are interested in hosting a breakfast meeting or know of any organizations that would benefit from this content, please e-mail Alliance President and CEO, Kelly O'Brien, at kobrien@alliancerd.org.
Alliance Board Participates in Strategic Doing Development Session  
Ed Morrison, Founder, Purdue Agile Strategy Lab, addresses the Alliance Board of Directors during a development session
Ed Morrison and Scott Hutcheson, leaders of the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab, conducted a “Strategic Doing Development Session” with the Alliance Board of Directors. First, Morrison reviewed the ten rules for Strategic Doing:
  • Rule 1: Create and maintain a safe space for deep, focused conversation
  • Rule 2: Frame a conversation around an appreciative question
  • Rule 3: Uncover hidden assets people are willing to share
  • Rule 4: Link and leverage your assets to identify new strategic opportunities
  • Rule 5: Rate all your strategic opportunities to find your “Big Easy”
  • Rule 6: Convert your “Big Easy” into a strategic outcome with measurable characteristics
  • Rule 7: Define a Pathfinder Project with Guidepost
  • Rule 8: Draft a short-term Action Plan with everyone taking a small step
  • Rule 9: Set a 30/30 meeting to review progress and make adjustments
  • Rule 10: Nudge, connect and promote relentlessly to build your new habits of collaboration
Next, the Board was asked:
“What would it look like if our region was able to help reimagine the way in which regional economic development (RED) is thought about and practiced, specifically RED as more inclusive?"
A robust discussion followed with several initiatives being identified for advancement.  Morrison also explained to the Board, effective strategies for leveraging networks.  He explained that by using the rules above, complex collaborations can be managed and successful. 
The Alliance Hosts Shareholder Development Session
Ed Morrison, Founder, Purdue Agile Strategy Lab, addresses Alliance shareholders from the 21-county region
Alliance shareholders met for an afternoon strategy session with a focus on "A Look at Growing the Mega-Region."
Ed Morrison and Scott Hutcheson, leaders of the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab, conducted the session and challenged participants to uncover opportunities to strengthen economic development in the region. The attendees discussed and then settled on the following key topic:
What would it look like if our region was able to help reimagine the way in which regional economic development (RED) is thought about and practiced, specifically RED as more inclusive?
The group considered specific assets in the region that could contribute to this new approach to economic development:
  • A pragmatic ability to execute
  • Deep connections to professional trade associations
  • Social media expertise in engaging disconnected communities
  • Ability to engage university community development professionals
  • The presence of urban campuses in Chicago
  • Healthcare giants
  • Workforce board connections
  • Experience working with vo-tech programs
  • Municipalities and school corporations that have successfully overlaid inclusiveness models
  • World-class rail and air infrastructure
Three potential approaches were identified that could contribute to a more inclusive model of regional economic development:
  • We could “ask” industry trade associations what a more inclusive model of economic development should look like
  • We could leverage our region’s incubators to bring in young people
  • We could focus on workforce preparedness for boards (i.e., building trades)
Alliance shareholders broke into small groups to develop a 30/30 strategic action plan including small steps each will take over the next 30 days and the selection of a day and time, in about 30 days, to have a follow-up conference call. Alliance staff is facilitating these 30/30 calls with a focus on:
  1. What have we each learned (new information, insights, etc.) over the last 30 days while performing our action items?

  2. Did anything that was to have been done over the last 30 days NOT get done? If not, does it STILL need to be done? If “yes,” how will it get done?

  3. Does our proposed course forward still make sense? Any course corrections need to be made in light of what we’ve learned over the last 30 days? Do our dates (guideposts, etc.) need adjusting?

  4. Now…what will each of us do over the NEXT 30 days – who will do what, by when, and what is the deliverable?

  5. When, where, and how will we get together the next time (in about 30 days)?
If you would like to be apart of the aforementioned groups, please e-mail Kelly O'Brien, kobrien@alliancerd.org 
The Economy of Our Mega-Region
Figure 1:
In the 4th quarter of 2017, total employment in the mega-region rose by 5,500 jobs (+0.10%) to a total of 5,722,000.
During 2017, the mega-region added a total of 33,900 jobs (+0.60%) which was slightly more than the 31,700 jobs (+0.56%) added in 2016 and well above the 10-year average growth rate of 0.22%. 
Figure 2:
While total employment in the mega-region rose 0.10% in the 4th quarter of 2017, this was significantly slower than both the 0.28% employment growth across the tristate (Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin) area and the 0.44% growth nationally.
Within the mega-region, the metropolitan areas with the largest percentage declines were Racine, IL and the two Indiana metropolitan areas, while the Kankakee and Elgin areas experienced the fastest growth.
In terms of number of jobs added, the Chicago-Naperville-Arlington Heights area added the most (+4,300 jobs) followed by the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis area (+2,500 jobs).
Figure 3:
Figure 4:
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Figure 6:
CLICK ON EACH GRAPH TO ENLARGE
Interested in learning more? CLICK HERE to access the PowerPoint slides detailing more information.
The Alliance would like to thank our resident economist Morton Marcus and the the Indiana University Northwest School of Business and Economics staff, Bala Arshanapalli and Micah Pollak, for providing the information above.
Alliance Leadership In the News:
"Trump Infrastructure Plan and Public-Private Partnerships" 
Greg Hummel, Partner, Bryan Cave LLP, and Alliance Board Member was featured in an article titled, "Trump Infrastructure Plan Would Increase Public-Private Partnership Financing", published on Globest.com, the premier online destination for original and timely commercial real estate content, on January 8, 2018.
Below is an excerpt from the article:
Gregory Hummel, a partner at the law firm of Bryan Cave, who focuses on real estate and public finance projects, defines public-private partnerships, also called PPP, P3 or 3P, as long-term cooperative arrangements between entities in the public and private sectors. He emphasizes there is a complex, varied landscape of P3 approaches and discusses some of the ingredients of successful P3 projects.
CLICK HERE to read the full article. 
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Quarterly Update is the newsletter of the Alliance for Regional Development. For more information or to inquire about submitting content, please contact Shalora Jasper at 312-602-5080, or sjasper@alliancerd.org .
Please visit our website, www.alliancerd.org.
Alliance Business Advisory Board Update
Attendees included: Jim Schellinger, Secretary of Commerce, Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Mark Peterson, President & CEO, Intersect Illinois, Jack Lavin, President & CEO, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce; Don Babcock, Director of Economic Development, NIPSCO/NiSource; Ben Bochnowski, President & CEO, Peoples Bank SB; Jim Maurer, Partner, Grant Thornton LLP;  Greg Hummel, Partner, Bryan Cave LLP; Kelly O'Brien, President and CEO, Alliance for Regional Development; Jeremiah Boyle, Managing Director of Community and Economic Development, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; Rick Mattoon, Senior Economist, and Economic Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Participated via phone were: Mark Hogan Secretary and CEO, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation; Dewey Pearman, Executive Director, Construction Advancement Foundation of NWI; Leigh Morris, Consultant, Alliance for Regional Development; and  Nathan Lams, Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis, ArcelorMittal.
The Alliance hosted a Business Advisory meeting  on March 12 facilitated by Rick Mattoon, Senior Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In addition to private sector influencers, the three state commerce leaders participated and met in advance of the full meeting.
Discussing the mega-region’s competitive edge, key points were highlighted by Mattoon:
  1. Economic Base—the mega-region has a highly diversified economy that is not reliant on any single industry for growth.  Its structure closely mirrors the U.S. and yet it has grown at a significantly slower rate than the US or the mega-region during the most recent economic recovery.

  2. Why is this the case? First, fast growing metropolitan areas tend to benefit from high agglomeration benefits.  The industry cluster structure is complementary which encourages synergies and spillovers.  All of the traditional benefits of agglomeration occur including shared services, labor pool deepening, even possibly customized public policy.  In Chicago’s case the clusters are desirable, but tend to compete for resources.  Banks have to fight with tech companies and consumer products firms to hire talent.  Public policy can’t focus on one industry group (see Plan for Economic Growth and Jobs—10 policy goals). http://www.worldbusinesschicago.com/plan/

  3. What is the evidence that the current policy isn’t working?  Despite having a cost structure that is below that of peer cities/regions we have underperformed US growth.

    Moody’s Index of relative business costs

    (100=US average, overall rank reflects a weight structure of     75% labor, 15% energy, 10% taxes)
Notes:  Labor cost is measured as total earnings/employee.  Tax burden is measured as all taxes relative to personal income and energy is measured as cents per kwh for industrial and commercial users.
4. What can you do about this?  Not likely that you can radically change the economic base.  Targeted expansion around growth of tech industries has promise but this is a strategy being tried by most regions.  Similarly CMAP suggests that growth through increased integration in manufacturing and logistics would benefit the mega-region.
(Manufacturing has an LQ of 1.06 and freight 1.15) http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/programs/regional-economic-indicators/clusters
5. This suggests that Chicago/the mega-region would best be served by a “fertile soil” approach.  We don’t know (nor care) what industries will succeed or fail.  (ex, Groupon, Outcome Health).  What we do want is to have the conditions that allow any firm that drops into our economy to succeed.  That translates into productivity forcing policy.  How do you make each industry in our economic base productive?  For HQs you already have the answer—talent that wants to live in your city and probably works for a discount relative to the coasts.  Recruit and retain the talent and they will come.  Second, firms need to move up the value chain.  (Hewings)  Finance has been one of the worst performing sectors for Illinois coming out of this recession.  We have a  banking structure that services a declining market…the Midwest.  Who we trade with matters.  Same for small manufacturing.  Lots of small legacy firms that have local clients.  We need our businesses to service growth markets and we can do that with O’Hare and our transportation advantages.  Productivity is really our only potential strategy since the mega-region is limited by natural growth through population. However, there may be some opportunities in recruiting in-migrants (both foreign and domestic) that have skills related to key industries where local labor markets are tight.
6. Capitalize and integrate unique assets…particularly the universities.
7. How do we frame this?  Look at specific aspects of Chicago and the mega-region's development policy and identify outliers—is this helping or hurting productivity.  Our model of growth is driven by the productivity with which we use capital and labor.
  • Examples for Chicago—property tax classification—how prevalent is it in other cities, does it help or hurt our competitiveness
  • Number of overlapping governments
  • Transportation Infrastructure
  • Social capital—business involvement in civic life
  • Higher education—student retention, commercialization
  • Talent attraction—human capital—providing the amenities that high-skilled human capital wants
  • Capital access/finance structure
  • Trade pattern
  • Workforce training/job matching
8. Try and harmonize cross-border barriers to trade
  • Occupational licensing
  • Permitting, particularly trucks
  • Tax/regulatory treatment
9. Examine success cities/regions (Minneapolis, Pittsburgh etc. and see what they do to be successful.) what tax policies do they have…other public policies.
Each Secretary unanimously agreed that each state should work together in order to strengthen the regional economy. Follow-up items from the meeting include creating memorandums of understanding (MOU) across each state and establishing working teams to foster areas of collaboration.
Following the discussion, a proposal to form committees with specific focus areas was agreed to as a next step. The Business Advisory group will reconvene in mid-April.
The Alliance would like to thank the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago for hosting the Business Advisory meeting.
Alliance's Letter to the Editor Published 
"We at the Alliance for Regional Development are gratified Joe Cahill acknowledges the need for "a single, overarching (economic development) organization that draws leaders from across the area" ("Here's a smarter way to generate economic growth in metro Chicago," Dec. 13). Although he did not mention the Alliance, it has been changing the culture of economic development for over five years and welcomes the Chicago Regional Growth Corporation as a partner...."
Continue reading the article from the Alliance on the 'Letters to the Editor' page by clicking HERE and scrolling to the section titled, "A United Midwestern Front."
Workforce Leaders in the Mega-Region Present to Milwaukee Group 
(L:R) Earl Buford, President & CEO, Employ Milwaukee; Kelly O'Brien, President & CEO, Alliance for Regional Development; Ian Abston, Director, Hoan Group; and Karin Norington-Reaves, CEO, Chicago Cook Workforce  Partnership.
(L:R) Karin Norington-Reaves, CEO, Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership; Kelly O'Brien, President & CEO, Alliance for Regional Development; and Earl Buford, President & CEO, Employ Milwaukee.
Leaders in the workforce industry across the mega-region presented to the Hoan Group on February 1st in Chicago. The Hoan Group is comprised of Milwaukee’s future civic leaders with a goal of providing connections and focused leadership development to help create change.
Speakers included Earl Buford, President & CEO, Employ Milwaukee and Karin Norington-Reaves, CEO, Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership. Kelly O’Brien, Alliance President & CEO, moderated the panel. The goal of the panel was to showcase how workforce coordination can be beneficial across the mega-region.
Discussing an example of a successful collaboration, Buford and Norington-Reeves, explained the Midwest Urban Strategies Initiative.  This is a first of its kind effort in the country and was funded by a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Region 5 grant. The Initiative represents a coordinated effort in the Midwest to bolster regional planning through systematic approaches in attracting and retaining businesses. Led by Employ Milwaukee, 11 other workforce boards including the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, OH, Detroit, MI, Gary and Indianapolis, IN, Kansas City and St. Louis, MO, Minneapolis, MN, and Wichita, KS, are members of the Midwest Urban Strategies Initiative.
These 12 cities and boards share and apply best practices in workforce development and integrate efforts and resources to fully maximize federal, state and local funds and initiatives, to build a competitive regional workforce system aimed at revitalizing the midwest economy.
Special thank you to Ian Abston, Director of the Hoan Group for sponsoring a full day event in Chicago where the group participated in a tour of 1871, heard a panel presentation on the Midwest Urban Strategies Initiative, the importance of collaborating across state lines, and concluding the day with a happy hour.
Overview of Alliance Board of Directors Meeting
The Alliance Board of Directors convened via phone for the quarter 1 meeting on March 21st.  Paul Jones, Board Chairman, called the meeting to order.
Agenda items included a review of the January 24 Strategic Doing meetings, a review of the March 12 Business Advisory meeting, Working Team updates, planning for the 6th Annual Summit on Regional Competitiveness and updates on the  EDA grant report.
The Alliance in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago will host the 6th Annual Summit on Regional Competitiveness on Monday, October 29, 2018 from 8:30 am to 2:30 pm.
A report is currently being drafted detailing the engagement of the OECD in 2010, the formation of the Alliance for Regional Development and its successes, to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration. The report will also be shared on our website.
The Board is scheduled to reconvene for the quarter 2 meeting  in June.
Chicago Released Pitch Video for Amazon Second Headquarters Location
Following the announcement of Chicago being one of the 20 cities/ metro areas under consideration for Amazon's second headquarters, the city of Chicago has creatively pitched a video touting Chicago and its assets.
Chicago enlisted actor William Shatner to introduce the city's bid for Amazon's second North American headquarters (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is reportedly a huge "Star Trek" fan). The video connects the city's rebirth after the Great Fire and its evolution to a tech, economic and cultural powerhouse with Amazon's rise as an ecommerce Goliath. The video was created by FCB Chicago.
CLICK HERE to watch the video.
The Alliance Board of Directors
Chairman of the Board:      
Paul W. Jones, Wisconsin                
Chairman (Retired), A.O. Smith Corporation
Indiana
Thomas Keon
Chancellor, Purdue University Northwest
William J. Lowe                  
Chancellor, Indiana University Northwest
David Ryan                        
Executive Director, Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce
Tyson R. Warner               
Executive Director, Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission
Illinois
James Ford                                
President, TRES LLC
Greg Hummel                        
Partner, Bryan Cave LLP
Michael Pagano
Dean, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago
Mark Rust                               
Managing Partner, Chicago Office, Barnes & Thornburg, LLP
Joseph C. Szabo               
Executive Director, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
Wisconsin
Deborah L. Ford 
Chancellor, University of Wisconsin-Parkside                             
Michael G. Hahn         
Executive Director, Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission
Frank Unick
Chief Financial Officer, ULine
Kelly A. O’Brien                    
President & CEO, Alliance for Regional Development
To explore sponsorship opportunities, we invite you to visit our Sponsorship page, download our Sponsorship Opportunities PDF, or  contact Kelly O'Brien at 312-602-5148 or kobrien@alliancerd.org.
To see other Sponsors logos, please visit our website, www.alliancerd.org 


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