Episode 11 | LIVE from the #AmericanSouth Site Selection Summit | Interviews with Bethany Shockney, Jessica Hill, and Bryan Dowell

Welcome to the SEDC Meet the Consultants 2023 coming to you from Atlanta, Georgia. Hi, I'm Ray Methvin and I have happily hijacked the SEDC podcast for the next couple of days. We're going to spend a few minutes talking to the different people that make the SEDC such a wonderful organization. Stay tuned, folks. And we're back with Bethany Shockney. She's with the Limestone County Economic Development Association in Alabama. She is the president and CEO of Bethany. Welcome to Meet the Consultants. Thank you very much. We're happy to have you here in Atlanta and they're exciting things going on for you in Limestone County, Alabama. Tell us a little bit about what's going on. Well, Limestone County is, again, the fastest growing county in the state of Alabama. We are in a very sweet spot of Alabama right up against Tennessee, right on I-65. In part of Huntsville City Limits is in our county. So we are part of the Huntsville Metro and that is that pretty much says it all for how the growth is going in our area. Huntsville has been very strategic in their recruitment. We have in our shared area, we have Mazda, Toyota located there as well as some other famous brands like Target and Polaris and GE Aviation and others. So we are very diversified in our community. We have a very, I mentioned about the sweet spot. Our sweet spot is the interstate and that increased possibility of great distribution, you know, for being on I-65. We're about halfway between Birmingham and Nashville. So not only are we seeing the industrial growth and interest in our area, but the commercial and residential growth is just exponential. So we're really enjoying that kind of burst. Excellent, excellent. Well, let's talk about Meet the Consultants and your involvement with SEDC. You were very involved with the organization. Yes, I happen to be on the board. I'm the director for Alabama, sharing that with Jason Wright, who is our alternate director and I've been in that position. This is my first year on the board. I've been in with SEDC for a couple of maybe three years now and I really enjoy that. I think this is a great opportunity for us to, you know, cast a little wider net on yet very focused for our region. We work in a very regional capacity in Alabama, but we also, with us being on the state line, we do work across state lines, but this helps us even further with some commonalities of our southeastern region. Yep. Yep. Here at this conference at Meet the Consultants, what's excited you so far? What have you heard that makes that make made you sit up and take notice? Well, we, you know, to hear from a consultant's perspective, I still, I still contend if you talk to five consultants, they're probably all going to approach things a little differently, but they all have, you know, a very common thread as far as our workforce needs, giving us ideas of what the companies are looking for these days from a workforce perspective. Also, you know, that at this location is obviously very important on how they can get to their suppliers. The supply chain situation is, in many cases, is starting to float out quite nicely and be a little bit more amenable for in production. However, it has made companies step up and look at how they do, you know, just in time used to be the thing to do, but now people are forced to hold some stuff in inventory that perhaps have practically shut their production down in many cases on certain products. So I think the, you know, the jury is still out according to them on whether that will change in the near future or not, but right now that's one of the situations we're working for, and we're seeing that in limestone county because we are seeing some of our companies seeking out warehouse space, and we've not had that in the past. So that gave another opportunity for our ecosystem to step up and build some warehouse space. Cool. Excellent. But now let's close out. I have three very important questions. Uh oh. We'll start easily. Dogs are cats. Dogs. Bourbon or Scotch? Bourbon. Favorite airport in the U.S. south? Probably Charlotte. Okay. Charlotte, I like the Rockin' Chair idea. You like the Rockin' Chair? Have you been through? Are you going to be excited to see what happens when they finish the new build out? Yeah, that would be nice. I haven't been up there in a while, but yeah. I've always enjoyed Charlotte Airport. Let's flip the question. What is your most dreaded U.S. airport? Atlanta. Sorry, but yeah, Atlanta. Sorry, Atlanta. We're here at Atlanta. That's right. Well, Bethany Shockney with the limestone county Alabama Economic Development Association. Thank you so much for spending some time with us, and thank you for being in Atlanta. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye. It's fun being here in Atlanta with you. We're at day one. Tell me what has been your big takeaway from what you've heard this morning? Well, I'll say that I'm a little relieved to hear from the consultants today as they're talking about the need for more power, more capacity. You know, as a utility in Texas, you know, we're concerned that we're the only ones sometimes dealing with that problem because we're seeing so much growth in our territory. But hearing from the consultants and, you know, some of my cohorts here this week, it emphasizes the fact that it's not just us, that the projects that are looking to locate along the southern Gulf Coast, they're all needing the same amount of power and it's putting constraints on the utilities to not only serve them, but to serve them in a timely manner. The, you know, the cost and the timeline that it takes to get the resources and the supplies that they need to build the facilities to serve them is really become a constraint. What's your biggest resource challenge from a supply line? Transformers. Really? Transformers are definitely the longest lead item. Most of them come from overseas and there have historically been some federal constraints on where we can purchase them from, what countries we can purchase them from, because of issues regarding a spyware that may be in those components and so concerns about that. But we do think that some of those constraints are going to be lifted so that we can start purchasing from a multitude of suppliers. But we've gone from about a 36-month lead time to just found out today that we're looking at a 44-45 month lead time on transmission transverse. Wow. Wow. Well, let's talk about your involvement with SEDC. I know that Entrigy Texas has been involved with SEDC for some time and you and I actually go back for probably three or four SEDCs at least. So what do you like about SEDC? I like being able to interact with a different group of representatives. I'm a member of a lot of different organizations, Texas Economic Development, International Economic Development. But I've really enjoyed being a part of the SEDC community because it really connects me with states that have commonalities with Texas. Being in the south, there are certain types of projects that we all chase after and we have similar resources and similar communities. And so it really allows me to network with those individuals and share war stories, so to speak, and hear from them about how they're solving problems within their own communities. Jessica, one thing that I know about you that maybe not every SEDC member knows about you is that you are a big-time baseball mom. How's the season going? It's going pretty well. We were trying to coordinate lessons this week but had one win a championship this past weekend and had another one win the championship the weekend before. Wow, excellent. We're on a pretty good roll right now but loves spending time at the ballpark, loves seeing their successes and working through the failures too. That's exciting. How old? They're eight and ten. Eight and ten. That's a great time. That's a great time. We're talking with Jessica Hill in energy, Texas. Jessica, I'm going to ask you three very important questions, probably the most important of this. Our little chat, first of all, cats or dogs? Dogs. Bourbon or Scotch? Bourbon. You were very quick on that answer. I'm not as a Scotch girl. And your favorite southern airport to fly in and out of? Oh, man. I guess Houston because it's close. Okay. I get that. Close to home. You're most dreaded US airport. Atlanta. It's just too big. It is big. I would couple that probably with Chicago though. Okay. Yeah. I get that too. Folks, we've been talking to Jessica Hill at entrance to Texas. Jessica, welcome to SEDC. Meet the consultants. Thanks for spending some time with us. Thanks Ray. I appreciate it. Take care. You too. And we're here with Brian Dowell, one of our wonderful SEDC sponsor exhibitors. Brian, you're with Studio 46. Welcome to Meet the Consultants. Yeah, thanks Ray. For the opportunity to be here. Yeah, we're excited about this. Now, tell me a little bit about Studio 46. Yeah, absolutely. Studio 46 is a video and event production company. We focus primarily in the event production space. So everything you see inside of a room like the conference that's taking place here, the staging, the lights, the sound, projection, all the different aspects of the production that you see. We really come alongside partners like SEDC as well as Kentucky Association, Economic Development, other economic development organizations and other national and regional associations and help them put on their conferences. So they don't have to really worry about where their location is going to be from year to year. They have the same AV partner that helps them go from place to place. And it can be as small as we do ribbon cuttings and ground breakings for one of the construction sites and things that people are having for economic development. But really anything along those lines on the event side. Then on the video production side, really full scale video production company. We can do everything from small commercials to 3D and 2D animation, drone video footage. So we can really pop a new building site right out of the ground, right there on the video and really make some great and compelling media pieces that can really attract people to look at those areas. Cool. And you're agile and mobile so you can respond to any of the SEDC members all across this big SEDC footprint. Absolutely across the entire footprint. We've got offices and locations throughout from Oklahoma to Baltimore, Maryland and kind of all parts in between. So we're able to go really anywhere. Well what brings you to SEDC this time? Yeah, we had the opportunity to come alongside Matt Tackett and the new president and coming president to hear an SEDC and the opportunity to help do some of the production services form here in Atlanta. And going to take it from there and hopefully help them at some of the other locations and see what other associations that we can help along the way. Excellent. Well Brian, how can our SEDC members get in touch with you? Yeah absolutely. You can hit us up on Studio46media.com or any of the social platforms. Excellent. Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Thank you so much for being a sponsor and a little exhibitor. It means a lot to everyone at SEDC. Sounds great. Thanks. That's a really important question. Absolutely. Dogs or cats? Dogs. Bourbon or Scotch? Well, the bourbon I'd have to say. Okay. Okay. And from Kentucky. Okay. I get it. Now, your favorite southern airport? Favorite southern airport? Well I don't know a favorite southern airport. There's a lot of really great ones. I would have to say that I go through Atlanta the most so it's probably the most efficient and fastest airport to get through. Okay. Well, let's flip that question. What is your most dreaded US airport? Atlanta airport. Yeah. It can wear two shoes. It can wear two hats. I get it. It can wear two hats. Folks, we're speaking with Brian Dowell of Studio46. Brian, thank you for your time again. Thank you for being here. Sounds great. Thanks, Ray. Thank you. you ♪♪♪♪