Episode 13 | LIVE from the #AmericanSouth Site Selection Summit Day Two | Interviews with Brian Rothamel, Jay Garner, and Uconda Dunn

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 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 here with Brian Rothhamel. Brian is the Economic Development Director in Culpeper County, Virginia. Brian, welcome to the podcast. How are you this morning? I'm doing well. Thanks, Ray. I'm really glad to be joining here. Yeah, yeah, this has been a great, this has been a great conference for us so far. Please tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and a little bit about Culpeper County, Virginia. I'm lucky enough to be the Economic Development Director for County of Culpeper. We're in North Central Virginia. It's a beautiful county. You get to see the mountains. We have nice flat areas as well. People really enjoy our outdoors. The most exciting thing about Culpeper is we're leaning really hard into our workforce development. So that includes our career and technical education center. That's brand new. It's just a year old and working to make great workers for tomorrow with our public school system. Oh, cool. So it's not only just about making good graduates, but making good workers and we're really leaning into that. So it's been great being in Culpeper. I've been there for a year, a year and a half, and really enjoyed my time. Good. Well, what brings you to meet the consultants? The thing I love most about this event is that it's a smaller event that you get a lot of interaction with the consultants, whether that's in the hallways, in the networking breaks, but also the consultants just get a chance to tell you what's happening, what they're seeing, what they wish we knew. It's kind of a peak behind the current. It's really enjoyable just to hear them say, this is what we're seeing right now. We went last, I went last year and Dallas had a wonderful time and the changes that are happening. You know, when we talked about Dallas, there was discussion about EVs. This one, we were talking about how they're looking at workforce, how the mega projects are taking up a lot of space, but there's still other projects out there and how you can compete for those. I really appreciate the time the consultants spend. And we had so many consultants this year. I think 27 or more, they've been a really good, good batch of consultants. It's been really, and had just had great conversations, like I said in the hallways and stopping and saying hello and thanks for telling us about that. The most important thing that I heard last year that always echoes in my mind is as a site consultant, they want us to do well. You know, when they're recommending our site, they want us to show well. So events like this help us show better and show well when we get the opportunity. That's a great point and that's a great way to look at it because if you can take a way that it's adversarial and it's not at all, everyone wants you to succeed and they so they want you to succeed in where you can succeed. And there's a degree of site elimination. We know that as part of the process, only one wins, a lot lose. As economic developers, it's like playing baseball, right? You're going to fail more than you'll succeed. But for them, each one that they're putting forward, they want to see do well. If they can give us just the things that we can think about so that we can show the best we can, I really appreciate that. I really appreciate all the time that the consultants had here. Brian, you made a statement. I think it was yesterday that really stuck with me. And I thought about it last night and again this morning, you, when we were talking yesterday, you said, you know what, your personal philosophy is, just don't be afraid to fail. Oh, absolutely. I mean, we fail a lot, right? We're going to lose a lot. But you have to be willing to compete. You have to be willing to be in the arena. I'm a UVA basketball fan. So obviously, we know about the national championship in 2019 and 2018. We also know about losing to a 16 seed. Thanks for Purdue for bringing company to that. No pressure. They have to win the national championship next year. But you know, the thing that Tony Bennett talks about, you have to be willing to show up and, and yeah, being able to get out there and we do a lot of things in the public. And sometimes that means you're doing things in the public and you go, Oh, that was not good. We have to stop. And that's okay. Stop. You learned something? Absolutely. And regroup. Absolutely. Well, it was a great point. I really appreciated you saying it because it made me stop and go, yeah, exactly, Brian, that's exactly right. Yeah. Because that's the only path to success. Yeah, if you do nothing, you're guaranteed. You know, nothing's then right. You do something. Yeah, it might not work out, but it also might. And more often than not, as you're doing something, you get so passionate about it that you find ways to make it work. Right. That's a good thing to say. Find a way to make it work. Yeah. So you go down a path that doesn't mean you have to, that path is always straight. Yeah, that's for sure. It's definitely not straight. Cool. Well, we're talking to Brian Rothamel. He's the economic development director at Culpeper County, Virginia. Brian, let's have three very important questions to end this up with cats or dogs? Dogs by a lot. But my wife will listen and also know that, I'm happy with our two kids. We don't need to add any more madness to the mix. But if you have a dog at your house, I love other people's dogs. Love petting other people's dogs. Cats might have a, I think I'm allergic to them, but not everyone. The doctor doesn't always agree with that. Question two, bourbon or scotch? Bourbon. Okay. Definitive. Yes. I enjoy it. I can enjoy a good drink there. Good. Absolutely. What is your favorite southern airport? Favorite southern airport. Recently flew out of New Orleans in January and breezed through on precheck. And it's very, I think they just finished renovation there. They did. And that was, that was very nice. Spent some time in Dallas. I've gone to Dallas, two or three, I've gone through Dallas three times now. And I figured out how it all works. Yeah. So that's, that's been great. It's a city on its own. Yeah. The Uber driver told me that it's bigger than, I'm trying to remember what, but like land mass, it's bigger than, I forgot what city it was. But yeah, it is, you know, go through all, I call the beates, you know, the, all the circles. Yeah. To get from terminal to terminal. So, yeah, New Orleans was really nice and really pretty airport now. And I've enjoyed my time in Dallas as well. Let's flip it for a final question. What is your most dreaded US airport? I haven't gone through Atlanta yet. Okay. I haven't flown out of Atlanta yet. And I'm always worried about going through TSA. But for sure, I do not enjoy when I connect through Chicago. Yeah. A lot of people, it's very busy. And I've connected through both Chicago airports. And I've had some trouble, but I'm, I'm told Atlanta, I shouldn't have a problem this afternoon. So, listen, we've had, there have been three or four folks over the past couple of days who are fans of the Atlanta airport. They say it does what it's supposed to do. I love connecting through there. Yeah. So maybe it's just in my mind, you know, it's such a, it's one of the busiest airports over the busies. It is. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe I'm just scared of going through intimidation. Yeah. I get it. So check with me in a couple hours. I'll tell you. I will. Yeah. Text me. Let me know if you're, it's a, it's a frown emoji or a smile emoji and we'll have a, we'll know. Well, Brian Rothamill, thank you so much for stopping by. Yeah. And just real quick, I want to say thank you so much to SEDC for this event. Being in Atlanta has been great and had a, I've had a great time. So, thanks for having me. Good. More to come. Thank you, Brian. See you. And we're fortunate to be joined by Mr. J. Garner, President and Founder of Garner Economics. J. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. We're excited for it. We're excited for you to join us. We're excited for you to be here at Meet the Consultants. We've had a good couple of days so far. Please, but although I know you need no introduction for our listeners, please tell us a little bit about Garner Economics. Sure. So Garner Economics has been around for just over 20 years. We are celebrating our 20th anniversary this past January. So 20 years and five months now, right? I have been in the economic development profession for 43 years. Half of that as a practitioner running economic development programs throughout the South and in the last 20 years having my own business. We're here in Atlanta. We're a boutique firm. There are five of us. We do site location consulting, primarily in the manufacturing sector, some distribution, but very heavy in food and beverage and metal fabrication. And we do strategy work. And then, you know, I'm on a podcast. I got to do my shameless plug, but, and I am a co-author of an Amazon bestseller called Economic Development is not for amateurs. And so we're on the second edition of our book right now and it has done extremely well. Congratulations. Now, shameless help on a plug. Say that title and where listeners can get it one more time. Sure. It's economic development is not for amateurs and you can get it on Amazon. Perfect. Yeah, perfect. Well, yesterday you were part you discussed preparing a winning workforce for our attendees here. That's an important topic and I wish you'd share with our listeners who couldn't be here. What are key takeaways for our listeners regarding developing and sustaining a workforce? I think number one is that academia and business need to be on the same page in creating the curriculum that businesses need and economic development people, the folks that are here at this meet the consultants are the catalyst or the facilitators to make that happen. That's number one. Number two, whatever your target industry strategy is, make sure that you have a strategy to create those niche curriculum offerings to those targets. So for example, there are a number of communities that are engaged in the aviation sector. They're trying to attract maintenance and repair operations. They're trying to attract actual suppliers to like Boeing or Airbus that have facilities in the US and you've got to have a workforce that can accommodate those types of businesses. So working with your community colleges, working with your technical schools is a recipe for success. Let me twist it just a little bit to ask this question this way. What are some common mistakes that you see communities make? That's a great question and the good news is I'm seeing fewer mistakes now. I think there's a greater level of sophistication and professionalism amongst the economic development community and the people who are within these communities now throughout the US but especially in the south because SCDC has been around forever when it was SIDC and now SEDC. I think what I would use to see is that a community tries to be everything to everybody and you fail when you do that. You've got to have a focus and try to be good at a few things, not try to be good at everything. It just doesn't work no matter how big or small of a community you are. Number two, a number of communities used to say, well we don't have the resources, meaning we don't have the money. So we can't do economic development but I've seen a lot of communities, small communities that are constrained with resources and they're still exceptionally effective because they find partners that can help make it happen. Then chapter 10 of my book, Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Well. And so you see places like Texas that has a half cent sales tax for economic development and they are resource rich and they get things done. And a number of communities have copied that that aren't in Texas, not many states have. So I think focusing on that, remember the one last thing is that details make the difference. And so the little things related to the charm factor of a community, the aesthetics of your community, picking up litter, mowing the medians in the right of ways, planting flowers in your central business district, all of that goes a big way in talent attraction. And that's what our focus was on yesterday when we did this presentation, was what communities can do to build that talent pipeline, get people to stay or move to your communities. Excellent. What do you see on the horizon? Let's say over the next 24, 36 months. Well, I think there's going to be a greater emphasis. Well, let me step back. Right now, there's a tremendous amount of federal stimulus money being used for product development. You name it, but a lot of it is for product development. I don't think as much for workforce development as you should, probably because there's a huge pot of money from that workforce bucket that's already out there. So because there's so much federal stimulus that we're going to see at least through this next presidential election, people at communities are going to try to continue to extract that. I think all things like that will eventually go away. It has to because that's the way you have to manage inflation. So what will happen after that? I don't think anyone really knows. If we did, we'd be really wealthy trying to. Yes, absolutely. We are talking to Mr. J. Garner of Garner Economics. J, thank you for being a part of this. I know speaking for our other SEDC members, myself, everyone, thank you for being a part of this. Your insight is such a great takeaway because one of my constant beliefs is it's easy to work in a bubble, but we have to pop the bubble ever once in a while and turn to J and say, J, what are we doing right? What are we doing wrong? And that's which will lead me to this question. What is one tiny tip when you're speaking to communities that you'd say, please don't do that? Everybody tries to hype what they have. Some of the hype is real. Some of it is contrived. And so there's three words that I try to tell communities, manage the hype, manage the hype. Because somebody like me or the actual company is going to see everything is measurable now, everything. Right. And so if someone says we have the best of this and best of that, but they can't validate it, that's just hype. It's not fact. And that's why I say be honest with yourself, manage the hype. Got it. That is great advice. Well, now I'm going to close out with three really important three or four really important questions. Okay, there's Stumpers. I'll tell you first question. Catch your dogs dogs dogs unequivocally. Yeah, bourbon or scotch bourbon. I got sick off a scotch in Korea one time and I hate scotch. What is your favorite southern airport? Well, right here in Atlanta, I live in Atlanta and I'm here in Atlanta because of the airport and why is that? Because I can fly really anywhere in the continental United States, almost nonstop. Second tier airports, third tier airports. And that's why I'm here. Now, do I love being here? Well, I'm in a suburb of Atlanta called History City. Sure. And we really enjoy being here, but I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for the airport. Let's flip the question. What is your most dreaded US airport? Any of the New England airports like New Work, LaGuardia, JFK, sure, without a doubt. Sure. I get it. Yeah. We're speaking with Jay Garner, Garner Economics. Jay, thank you so much for joining us and I would be remiss if I didn't ask you, what's the name of your book one more time? Economic development is not for amateurs. Second edition. Check it out on Amazon. And also, I'll do a little plug for my musician, friends out there. So I'm a musician. Excellent. What do you play? I play drums. Cool. I'm in a big band jazz orchestra. How many piece? 16. Excellent. Here in Atlanta called the Southern Ayers. Big band jazz is sort of a dying genre. I hate to see it, but it's, you know, the Count Basie Frank Sinatra, Michael Buble has tried to reinvigorate it and he has to an extent. Harry Connick Jr. So check out the Southern Ayers on YouTube also. Nice. We'll do it. Jay Garner, thank you so much for being part of this. Thank you for taking a moment to talk to us. Have a good rest of the day. Great. Thank you so much. Take care. And folks, we're with Yuconda Donne. She's with the Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance. Yuconda, welcome to SEDC. Good morning. Thank you. It's a joy to be here. This has been a great event. Tell me a little bit about yourself and tell me about Eastern North Carolina. Great. Yes. So I am currently serving as the Vice President of Business Development with the Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance. We are a new public-private partnership. And I say new. We're about three years old and we were founded to be able to respond more quickly to business needs and the change in environment within our community and within economic development. So we are doing a lot more outreach. We are doing a more harder marketing efforts of our community and we're able to kind of be more nimble in our approach to business attraction and retention to better serve the companies that are in our community and looking to come into our community. Okay. Tell us a bit more about exactly where you're located within and what communities? Yes. So Greenville North Carolina is our county seat. We are within Pitt County and we are located 40 miles east of I-95. So I-95 through Wilson and then Greenville and we're about two and a half hours from the coast. So we are in a sweet spot so you can be at the beach on a Friday evening and time to have dinner or you can be in Raleigh in about an hour and a half from our community. So we are home to East Carolina. Go Pirates. Yeah. And so we just love the attractiveness of Eastern North Carolina. You had mid-beach. Well I'm glad you're here at SEDC. Meet the consultants. Tell me what have been some real takeaways for you at the event. You know for me something that we are currently focusing on is site development and site preparedness and kind of identifying those sites. So yesterday's panel discussion that talked about sites and how we need to approach sites development now from you know the smaller footprint to the larger footprint and make sure they are actually ready. Make sure that we have the due diligence done on them. Make sure you know even if it's possible for us to have the ownership of it. If we can do that to do that to start advancing those sites because the inventory of buildings is really low and we all know that. And so the sites have to be ready to respond for our lack of buildings. And so that is something that is really important and what we are focusing on in our community. So having that panel to reiterate what we're doing is in the right doing the right steps and in the right timing was really important and good to hear. Good. We're speaking with Yuconda Dunn. Yuconda it's really nice to have you here. What do you see on what's the next 24 or 36 months going to look like for your organization? We have a brand new 100,000 square foot shell building coming out of the ground with the 100,000 square foot pad. So we are really excited about that. That has been a joint venture between the city of Greenville Greenville Utilities Commission, the Greenville E&C Alliance. So it has been good to work with those public entities to be able to bring this to our community. There's certainly a need. So we're really excited about that. We are submitting for a mega site. So we are hopeful that we are that it will be a state funded venture that we receive funding to kind of help advance a mega site. And then again we are looking at our next parcels to create our next corporate park because we are down to roughly 60, 70 acres in our in our current park. So we need to figure out where our next park is going to be. And then do some development on some parks outside of the city in our small municipalities as well. So we're looking at infrastructure funding for those those parks and making sure we have those ready. Good. Sounds like you have plenty on your plate. I have a lot on my plate. Are you headed out today? I am. Yes, I'm actually headed back because our offshore wind task force for the state of North Carolina is meeting in Greenville tomorrow. So I am headed back. They are actually reading with second graders today in one of our elementary schools. Talking to them about wind energy. Sorry, I hate on missing that. But it is good to understand where we are and there's a focus on supply chain. And we feel like Greenville is a prime market for the supply chain for the offshore wind market. So they will be in our community tonight for dinner and a reception and then have their meeting tomorrow which will include the university and our community college so that we can make sure we're training the workforce and preparing our community to be able to be in the offshore wind space. Excellent. Congratulations. We're talking with you, Conda Dunn, Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance. Now, Yuconda, I have three or four really important questions. Oh gosh. Okay. Cats are dogs. Dogs. Dogs. Bourbon or Scotch? Bourbon. What kind of bourbon? Oh, so my husband has now become a bourbon enthusiast. So my house always has Wilfert Reserve, Buffalo Trace, Angels Envy, or all the tops and then Uncle Nearest. So those four are always in our house. Okay. Okay. Now, what is your favorite southern airport? I don't have a favorite southern airport. Then that makes our next question really simple. No, no. I guess I would have to say whose favorite southern would be Charlotte, I guess. That's the one I spend most of my time in. How is the refurbishment going at Charlotte Airport? It's always something going on. But everything is really looking so great. I've been traveling out of this airport for years. I'm a North Carolina native. So just to see the growth at Charlotte Douglas is incredible. It is so incredible. I am a rocking chair fan. I have taken more than one nap in a rocking chair. You and my husband. Yes. That he be lines for a rocking chair as soon as he gets off the plane. That's his thing. Yeah. Well, let's flip the question for one final question. What is your most dreaded US airport? JFK. Yep. I've heard that twice already. We have been joined by Yuconda Dunn with the Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance. Yuconda, thank you for spending a few moments with us. Absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you today. Absolutely. Safe travels and good luck on the wind. Thank you. Yes. Take care. ♪♪♪