- Dave Hostetler, Hills Bank in Kalona
- Adam Mangold, Washington County Board of Supervisors
- Ed Raber, WEDG Director
- Dave Ross, City Administrator of Wellman
- Tina Thomas, City Administrator of Riverside
This years event had great speakers, and talked about economic development from different perspectives. There was a lot of talk about the new virtual world and "Web 2.0," and I think I'm starting to get it.
The day started with an address on “Becoming a Pro-Business State” by Brent Pollina of Pollina Corporate Real Estate, Inc. in Park Ridge, Illinois. He said the State of Iowa and local governments need to regroup to figure out how to package better incentives to attract and land projects to Iowa. Here are his top state's for 2009.
2009 Top 10 Pro Business Rankings
| 1 | Virginia | 6 | South Dakota | |
| 2 | Utah | 7 | Kansas | |
| 3 | North Carolina | 8 | Georgia | |
| 4 | Wyoming | 9 | Florida | |
| 5 | South Carolina | 10 | Nebraska |
The luncheon keynote by New York author and commentator David Rushkoff called "Digital Nation: Living and Learning on the Virtual Frontier” was a plea for focusing on growing local business and helping entrepreneurs to thrive. He pleaded for us to focus on people that know how to actually make things, rather than outsourcing.
In my own little world, without lots of big financial resources, I tend to gravitate toward the focus on interesting entrepreneurs, and try to help them develop their business. An interesting array of businesses and entrepreneurs are attracted to Washington County and Southeast Iowa. I can hardly keep up and its always a challenge.
