♪♪
Hello, SEDC, and welcome to the SEDC podcast,
presented by our friends at Insightful,
who every day provide real-world innovations for economic development.
Insightful believes your digital tool should work as hard as you do for your community.
That's why Insightful creates data-rich modules, websites, and digital outreach
designed to make your visitor take notice without complicating your day.
From core four modules, three pillars digital marketing strategies,
and comprehensive websites to research and analysis, videography, and collateral design,
Insightful works tirelessly as your on-call EDC marketing department.
So thank you to the team at Insightful for partnering with SEDC to present the podcast.
Now today, it's just me, Matt Tackett, again, flying the ship solo,
as our great director of operations, Matthew Darius, is behind the scenes today,
getting the real work of SEDC done.
So we're looking forward to having Matthew back on the next episode,
and listeners know that when Matthew and Matt are both here, we have the segments,
the listener feedback. We have a little bit of fun, try to pretend to be comedians,
and have that classic Matthew and Matt back and forth that listeners love,
and especially we love as well. So we're looking forward to having Matthew back
on the next episode, and listeners also know that when it's just me, Tackett on the pod,
that means we get to dive right into the good conversation and welcome our special guest a
little quicker. And that's what we're going to do today, as we are so excited to welcome a
globally active industry leader, a world-renowned economic development expert and speaker,
and also a great friend to SEDC. It's one of the good guys. It's Mr. Bruce Tackettman of Research
FDI. And if you don't know Bruce, he is an award-winning serial entrepreneur and philanthropist
who began his company in 2010 while working out of his bedroom. A decade later, research FDI is a
marketing firm specializing in investment attraction services for economic developers.
It has over 75 full-time multilingual consultants and partners in key market
hubs across the globe, and has helped secure over $5 billion in new capital investment.
Bruce is also an internationally recognized thought leader on foreign direct investment trends
and lead generation strategies. He has published several topical thought pieces through research
FDI's monthly research reports and is a regularly commissioned participant on panels at leading
events such as the International Economic Development Council, SelectUSA Canada, and the Economic
Developers Council of Ontario. And here's a little hint. Bruce will soon be able to add the
Southern Economic Development Council, SEDC, to this bio very soon, and we are super excited about that.
Bruce's passion for economic development is matched by his innate desire to give back to his community.
That passion saw him co-found Avota, a Montreal-based annual program that helps young adults with
neurodevelopment conditions find ability-specific jobs and receive ongoing training and support
through target programming and networking opportunities. In addition, Bruce supports and finds a local
Montreal NGO, Demos Kratos, whose mission is to educate at-risk youth about civics and advocate
for civic education. Furthermore, Bruce leads his company on principles of diversity and inclusion,
boasting a firm with over a dozen different nationalities and supporting social causes such as
the old brewery mission, the black business and professional association, and Project Rainbow
Railroad. And with this episode, SEDC is excited to celebrate that we've gone international as
Bruce and his family, loving wife Kim and son Jacob reside in Montreal, Quebec in Canada.
Bruce, thank you for your partnership with SEDC and our members throughout the south.
More importantly, thank you for your friendship and the continued economic advocacy in our region
and our nation. We know you're busy and we have so much to dive into here today, but before we get
into the weeds, welcome, sir, to the SEDC podcast and how are you today and where in the world are
you also? Matt, first of all, thanks for having me on. It's great to be with you, great to be on
the podcast. Today, I'm in snowy Montreal. Today, we have 10 inches of snow blanketing our great
city. It was a little hard to get the little guy into school, but snowy Montreal is my destination
today. That's where our headquarters is. So snowy Montreal is where I am today. Oh, geez. Well,
you know, we're dealing with some snow in the south here too. We've had a little bit of a
dusting here, so that's a big event in the south. So do you have any tips for us dealing with all
about? Yeah, it's funny. When you guys in the south get some snow, you guys kind of hide. You
guys don't necessarily know how to drive your cars, but here we're kind of used to it. So we
have this full speed ahead and try to avoid icy patches and always good to get those snow tires
on in the winter. Yeah, really. Okay, so you mentioned the little guy and we've got a question
about him later. So but you had what does it take to miss school in Canada? Do they ever call it off?
I think you need to lease 15 or 20 inches of snow. I think here we're used to it. Like our
infrastructure is built for that. Like this morning I woke up and I kind of thought to myself, oh,
is my little guy going to be on this podcast too? Is he going to be jumping on me while Matt's
asking all these questions? But it takes a long way to answer the question to say that it takes a
lot more than just 10 inches of snow. Yeah, yeah, well, I had the same thing. I just rushed my little
girl. She didn't have school today for whatever reason. They just kind of canceled it on her side.
She's in pre K, but I just had to rush her out the door. Otherwise she'd be here in her too. But
sooner or later, Bruce, we ought to get our kids on a podcast together and just see what happens.
I think that would get ratings to a new level. Okay, well, you never know what we'll talk about
on the podcast, but Bruce, let's dive into you and let's dive into research at DI. We mentioned
a little bit about you and your organization in the intro, but you're the founder and CEO
of ResearchFDI, a globally active economic development, intelligence and barrier breaking
organization. You're a great partner to so many SEDC members. You've been a great partner in
Fran to me. So for those that maybe are introducing themselves to you for the first time, can you
talk to us about ResearchFDI? What do you do and how do you help communities move the economic needle?
Well, great question. My thanks for the question. Really, we've worked with communities from A to Z,
really helping them know what their strategy and consulting needs, whether a company needs a
five-year strategic plan, whether they need a benchmarking analysis, needs to evaluate what
their target sector should be, or maybe examining existing sectors. We work on the business intelligence
side. Now, six years ago, we created FDI, 365, which is a business intelligence platform,
which helps identify companies before they're about to expand. So we have many economic development
organizations around the world subscribe to that. We also use internally to help with Legion. And
we also produce databases to help communities with supply chain analysis, identifying which
companies might be at fit for supply chain, identifying high-growth companies in the form of a database.
Our most popular service really is the generation, whether that be through virtual appointments,
road shows, targeting different target geographies, for example, a community-well-end travel to LA or
Chicago. And they might want to have pre-set appointments with Target with C-level executives
in their target sectors. And also, we do some matchmaking at trade shows and industry events like
IMTS, Head-Over, Paris Airshow. So those will be very popular services for us to offer to our clients.
Yeah, you'll see, SCDC will be part of handover. In just a couple of months, we're recording this
in January. I know you'll also be at SelectUSA this year. So we have been kept me at KAD before I
got to SCDC. We have been a client of yours. We subscribe to the FDI 365 platform. I qualified
lead today. It was just such a great data set for us. And we leverage that as best as we could. But
how about some other shout outs? Are there other SCDC member clients that we may be able to
shout out real quick? Yeah, over the years, we've worked with one East Kentucky and Chuck Sexton.
Together, we recruited a Canadian company in the FDI project called DAGCOR together. That was
Canadian Steel and Lumenham Company that expanded into East Kentucky. I know you're East Kentucky
guys. I thought I'd definitely use that one as an example. We're very active in the Carolinas.
We do some work in North and South Carolina. And yeah, we're very active with Texas. We do some
recruitment for Team Texas. So we're very active in the South. And we have many great friends and
clients in the US South. And we're always looking to find projects a place there.
Yeah, no doubt. And just what a great time to be working with this community of economic
development people in the American South. We're just momentum and success as skyrocketed. We're
capturing investment and job creation and average wage of our states from 2022. And it's just been
another incredible year. And we know there are so many future focus strategies to just keep that
momentum going and become the global FDI leaders. But it's great that you're such a great partner
and part of a small part of this, this massive successful operation that we have here in the South.
But you mentioned, you mentioned handover. So will you be exhibiting at handover? Or will you just be
will you be there kind of supporting clients with meetings? Typically, we work with clients
at handover. We support them with qualified meetings at the event. So headovers got maybe tens
of thousands of attendees. So we have the narrow that down with really six, eight or 10 companies
that would be considering expansion state in North America, considering expansion within Europe.
So our job is to identify of the 10,000 or 15,000 attendees. Now we're down to 2025 that really have
a project that would be interesting for our clients to speak to around the world. So supporting
our clients with meetings also with representation. Sometimes our clients from North America can't
get over there. So our Europe, we have 10 staff that work in Europe. So they'll be able to represent
our clients at the event and be able to uncover projects. So representation and lead generation,
I believe will have maybe two staff members at the event. So if you could find them through the
massive people, we'll be there. Yeah, yeah. So this is a little bit off of script. But if you
are part of handover and you need some qualified expert needs assistance, please reach out to
our friends here. But also so peek behind the curtain here. We will be at handover. So we'll
look forward to seeing our friends from Research FDI there. We will be exhibiting at SelectUSA as
well. And I know you would though, because when I got to setting where our booth needed to be,
I got as close to you as I could. So I can't wait to be part of the part of SelectUSA and just
have some fun work, also to the Kentuckians too. And you know, they do the massive bourbon reception
throughout the life of the events. So we'll have a good time to get there. Yeah, so it's good to
get as close to the bourbon as possible. Yeah, the the Kentuckians do a really cool bourbon
reception. And then there's another massive reception. And I think it is, I think it's Puerto Rico,
right? Or they break out the ROM or is that someone else? But it's a really popular. Puerto Rico
does not only bring up the ROM, they have a control dance party. So it's a Puerto Rico take SelectUSA
event planning seriously. That's definitely one we should be considered to go to.
Yeah, SelectUSA is so much fun. So we'll look forward to seeing our members in DC in May one
week before our Meet the Consultants event. So thanks for going off, off script with me there,
just to dig into a little bit of that. But let's go back to to Research FDI. So you started that
in 2010 as solo, talented, eager entrepreneur, you know, one person shop. Now you have 75 full-time
consultants that work all over the world. And you've helped companies secure over or communities
and EDOs secure over five billion in capital investment. I mean, both of those are just
really, really amazing statements and just fascinating testaments to your talent and drive
into just how important and needed what you do is. So, and I don't even know if this is a fair
question or something that we can really talk about in the amount of time that a podcast will
allow. But can you talk to us kind of about that journey from conception to now and just kind of
a silly question, has this just exceeded your wildest dreams that you had in 2010?
Well, great question, Matt. You know, I always kind of believed in myself. Even in 2010, I believe
that it would reach this point and beyond. I still believe it could get a lot bigger and better.
I believe it could happen. I was kind of frustrated in the early years, especially in the first
three to five years. I wanted to be done faster. I wanted the company to be a machine much faster.
But it really took a lot of infrastructure building, you know, when you go from like
1 million sales and 2 million sales and 3 and 4 and beyond. Every step, you know, every step,
every service, everything needs an infrastructure. So you have to be patient and you have to be very
cerebral and really disciplined in how you build your organization. So it's not the, obviously,
not the easiest thing in the world. Back in 2010, I had nothing to lose. I had $300 in my pocket.
I was ambitious. We didn't have a lot of capital. Didn't have a lot of resources. But yeah, like
you mentioned, had the drive. I had the belief in my vision for what this business could become.
So with those things, the hard work, anything is possible.
No doubt. I mean, thanks for, you know, really allowing me to ask that because I think it's just
such a fascinating, inspiring story. And, you know, and we've been friends for some time now, but
you have always impressed me for a handful of reasons here. So one, just because of your
entrepreneurial accomplishments on a worldwide scale, not just, you know, because it's in economic
development, because it's in business. And it's just such a great success story. And you're a
relatively young person too. So we're about the same age. So just another kind of silly question,
but in such a short amount of time, just how were you able to make the global connections with
enterprise that allow you to facilitate such meaningful connections with economic developers
in the south and beyond? Because I think that's just, it's always something that I look at you
and just admire. There's Bruce. He's built what he's built, and he has connected all over the world
with enterprise and leverages those connections in such important ways for the south and other
regions of the nation. Well, I'm gonna back up a little bit. Matt, are we even still young? I don't
even think we could even go to the young professionals of people. I think you and I are over 40 now. I
think they'll kick us out. But I don't know if we're young anymore. Yeah, we definitely aged out of
those by a few years. And, you know, the gray hairs on our head, I don't think they'll let us
send those receptions anymore. Yeah, that will definitely get a test security ticket out of those,
but yeah, to answer your question, it's unbelievable. You know what, some executives
are companies will divulge to you whether that be through email, social media, whether you're
meeting them at person at events like select USA or hand over like you're meeting before. It's amazing
what executives will divulge to you if you just simply have a conversation with them and
you do your research, try to figure out what they're interested in, what their company's accomplished.
If you go into a conversation with executives prepared, it's unbelievable what they could divulge.
And also getting two people in the same room, whether you get a community who's really driven,
who really wants to make, create jobs and impact in their community. And you meet an eager CEO,
say in the manufacturing sector or technology or biotech sector who wants to grow. It's amazing
what could be accomplished if you get those two in the same room. So anything is possible
as long as you get those two together. So it's an unbelievable industry and the power
of one-on-one meetings, whether that be virtual or person is unbelievable. And, you know,
doing your homework and research, this industry creates an impact. It really creates jobs and
major impact in the world today. So it's unbelievable what could happen every day where we're uncovering
15, 20 new projects, unbelievable what could happen. So stay with it and anything could happen,
really. Yeah. And isn't it amazing? I feel like we say this on every episode. But, you know,
for as seasoned and mature and sophisticated and data-driven as economic development is,
isn't it so true that at the heart of this thing, it's a relationship business. And when you care
about that and you nurture that, it is amazing. One, for what you can find out and different
opportunities, but also just what can happen. I mean, transformative things can spark from
connection in relationships. And SDDC or through working with you or elsewhere. But
it's just so cool that just pretty much every episode, we get to say, it's all about relationships,
isn't it? Absolutely. Like, for example, when I heard that you were taking over at SDDC, the first
thing I thought to myself, how could I support Matt? How could I support SDDC? Because Matt's
my guy. I work with you in Kentucky. I have to make sure that research that's supported at
SDDC more than ever. We always enjoyed going to the events, but we never sponsored before. But
when Matt, when you became the lead, the first thing I thought to myself is, how do we support
this organization? How do we get more involved? And we want to continue to support SDDC, especially
with you being the president. Yeah, you're so kind. I mean, you've always been kind to the
Kentucky ins, you've always been an important part of SDDC. And we're so excited to just continue to
see what evolves with our partnership and our relationship. And so we can't thank you enough. But
look, we I know this, I knew this in Kentucky, you're so supportive of other states and other
organizations as well. And it's just such a testament to the kind of partner that you want to be. And
we, you know, as an association guy, I just really appreciate that and just speaks to your
companies, speaks to who you are. And I know this about you too. And I plan to talk about this a
little later in the podcast. But you don't just show up and speak or don't just sponsor and
sit in the back like, you're part of it. You're in the weeds of the conferences, you're hanging
out with people, you're meeting people, mentoring, providing education. I mean, you're just such a
great, valuable part of conferences. And I really thank you for that.
Yeah, you know, when I'm training up sales staff, we're having a young guy just
wearing our sales team right now. And I really explain that going to an event like, like a
CDC or an industry event, like head over, really, it's truly like a nine a.m. to like two a.m.
situation. It's a really all day situation where you can meet people and elevate or have a
conversation for 15 minutes. You could constantly be networking all the time. So really, it's
truly a game day every time you have one in the conferences. We're not the kind of people to
sit in the back and just say to ourselves and stay on our cell phones. We like to be
in the action, try to identify projects and make great friendships. And some of our best friends
are people in economic development. We love supporting our clients charities. We support
type one diabetes research. We just supported the Special Olympics and on Terriwors,
that had a major event in St. Thomas. So yeah, it's important that we give back to the communities
we serve as well. I love that you put that in your bio too, that we got to read. I mean,
just thank you for your philanthropic heart and all that you do. And when you think about, I mean,
think about the conferences. I mean, you're right, in any state association or regional or
national association, you've got this convergence of people who are responsible for billions and
millions of dollars of deals, millions of jobs created, stronger families, communities and states,
and their future focused, eager, competitive and ready to go to continue that success. So
when you've got a group of people like that together, it's a really, really important, powerful
convergence. And there's so much opportunity there and you're right. I think the magic of
conferences is in the hallways or at the receptions or at dinner after that. So it's just such an
important element. I mean, the conference, you'll get your educated content, but you need to be
present and active after five o'clock or after a reception, because that's where I think a lot
of just unspoken value is. Oh, absolutely. I think it's the best show. So let's go. Let's turn to
to FDI here. So just in your role and who you are, you are one of the leading FDI experts on the
planet. So you focus on FDI clearly, as we've got to speak about, you also focus on domestic
enterprise. So can you talk just a little bit about what you're seeing relative to
global and US economic development activity and maybe how that specifically impacts the American
South? Absolutely. So 2022, what an amazing year for investment. There was around 5,500 projects
in research at the eye accounted for 5,500 projects in the US. About 3,200 were from the
domestic United States and the rest of them were considered FDI. So the main source countries for
FDI of course, for the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Japan, and France, truly a remarkable
year, just even despite the pandemic, really a lot of activity, 14% increase from where it was in 2021.
When you're looking at FBI projects in the US, New York attracted the most projects followed by
Texas, California, Florida, and Massachusetts. But the US South, as a whole, attracted 43% of all
FDI projects. So your your SEDC enterprise, 43%, about 800 projects, 900 projects, all FDI
were from the US South, which is a tremendous, really tremendous amount. And 25% of that
was manufacturing projects. So that was a tremendous, the top states for FDI, of course, Texas being
number one, followed by South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
Wow, that's so I hadn't pulled that stat myself yet, but that's really impressive. So 43% of all
all American FDI was in the American South, 17, 17 states really impressive statement to say. But
look, I mean, we'll just continue to expect that momentum to carry on. I mean, when you think about
different geopolitical issues or instabilities or energy issues abroad, look, the United States,
the American South will continue to be a really great, very attractive investment for FDI. So we'll
continue to, we'll expect to just keep on, and keep on rocking. And when you think about
the American South, we are so competitive, competitively advantage relative to workforce,
for example, our workforce is at 10, 10 year, perhaps all time record highs as far as labor,
availability and workforce participation, we're seeing our states just continue to move the needle.
I mean, there's there's a massive arms race specific to product development, for example,
we are readings, sites and investing in product and property unlike ever before. So it's just
such a great time right now to continue with, to continue to capture and seize upon what will
be continued momentum specific to FDI. And I know you're you're a big part of that. And
we'll just look forward to continuing to celebrate groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings and seeing
you along the way as we do. But when you when you think about everything that you just said,
and the success that we have and the opportunity that that we have going forward,
how about since we've got you, how about a little bit of free advice here if we can, what are
what are a few things that communities or EDOs should should consider the best position themselves
in the super uber competitive global marketplace?
Yeah, it's great question. I think really comes down to positioning and marketing really
identifying what you're good at really doing assessment of what your community has in terms of the
real estate assets workforce, understanding where you are at first, and then going ahead and
marketing yourself in that in that way. Also, what some things to consider is partnering with
in a regional groups. It'd be very hard for a county to go over to Germany and market themselves,
say, as a small county, say in Kentucky or Oregon to go over to to Germany and market itself. It's
very important to be part of a broader group, whether that be a state association, whether that be
12 or 15 communities, marketing themselves together. You know, you look at order from the border into
Canada, there's organization like some of the Southwestern Ontario marketing lines where
15 communities in Southwestern Ontario market themselves together, rather than doing it as
individual cities or counties. That's just I remember a big proponent of regionalism that way,
you get to in front of bigger opportunities, ultimately shared success, which ultimately
leads to supply chains. Really, I would look at really positioning strategy and regionalism as
some key areas that I would look at when positioning your community.
Yeah, no doubt. And as you were saying that, I just kind of another question popped in my head.
You know, we had talked about, you know, for as sophisticated as our processes are, that I always
say, we had said, you know, at the heart of this, this is a relationship business. So I think about
you and what you do, or maybe someone looking into economic development from the outside of the
industry, you know, this is, this is, you operate at the highest levels of business. Okay, this is,
this is sophisticated things that economic developers do, but, but it's not overwhelming.
And it's not intimidating. And you certainly don't make your practice that way. So just,
just to have curiosity, can you, can you talk us through about your process and what it looks
like, say when a community decides to work with you? Yeah, it's a great, great question. I think a
lot of the work has to be done beforehand. I think really you have to speak to someone, say you
meet them at a conference or meet them through word of mouth or through it. However, I think you
have to identify, you know, what their pain points are and whether your services to even be a value
to them. In some cases, you may have a conversation with someone and realize, you know, I don't know
if you need the agenda or I don't know if you need a database or at the 365. So you may speak to
someone and realize, hey, there may not be a good candidate for your service. And in that case,
or maybe there are a couple years away from using it. So really, first step is just trying to understand
what a community, what their pain points are, what, what they need. Once you've identified that
there's a fit between, you know, research FBI and the customer, really kind of having a kickoff,
we really hone in on the criteria, hone in on exactly what they're looking for, looking at the
target sectors, geographies, making sure that the research you do is really valuable. And from
there, you know, assigning a senior project manager to work with the client day in day out and then
from their executed strong project, that's really the steps we take.
Yeah. And how good does it feel just to know the type of difference that you're making, you know,
I went back to when I read your bio, you obviously have a philanthropic heart. You are also
obviously someone who's talented in business, smart, very analytical, data driven person. So,
I always like to ask people, you know, why did you get in economic development? But I think it just
makes sense for you for the type of person that you do, or you are in the type of things you want
to do and the impact that you want to have. I mean, it just makes sense. You know, you have your
philanthropic side, you have your business side too, but it's in economic development, where you
get to facilitate potentially transformative things and get to make a difference for communities and
families. So that's got to be just the type of person that's inside in your heart. That's got to
be what drove you to economic development, I would imagine. Honestly, like, I'm just like
everybody else, I kind of fell into it. I answered an ad and a newspaper, you know, back in 2006,
I kind of just fell into it. I'm kind of glad I did. I feels like there's like 80% of the people
in economic development fall into it. I'm really glad I stumbled on this industry. It's really
created a lot of memories, a lot of impact in terms of job creation, giving back to causes and
so many great friendships. I'm really glad that my that I've entered that ad of the newspaper
back in September of 2006. Otherwise, I don't know where I'd be maybe I'd be selling tractor
equipment or maybe in this case, snow equipment here much for y'all, but I don't know what I'd be
doing, but I'm happy that life took me in this direction. It's really led to an amazing run.
Yeah, I don't know what I would be doing either. I mean, it's funny, you know, probably most
everybody that we talk to and a lot of people associate with our with SCDC or with other state
associations. I mean, look, we all got lucky and fell into this in some kind of way. And I think
we have all collectively realized that so over the past few decades, there's been it's become
entry points are are a little different. I think there's there's more academic resources. There's
more trainings. There's more certifications that you need to do to certify that that you're ready
to step in to the so it'll be funny. I think maybe we won't hear so much of that in in 20 years
from now, but you're so right. I mean, I fell into it got lucky. I and I'm so thankful that I did.
You know, without this, I always had kind of a calling in me like, I wanted to do something
that I thought mattered, you know, and I think that the money wasn't necessarily as important to me,
although there's certainly great financial opportunity as in the economic development profession.
But I just want to feel like I'm doing something that matters and I'm doing something that's
impactful and helpful. And I just don't think you can do any better than then economic development.
I mean, I really believe in what we do as a profession and just that's why I'm so appreciative
of people like you that break down barriers to make economic development more powerful
and successful in the American South. So I really appreciate that.
No, no doubt. I'm going to embarrass you. I could see you one day being a governor of Kentucky.
You're being in politics. Like you got you have that you have that way that that you have that
economic development background. You have, you know, the perfect perfect family, the perfect,
you know, life in Kentucky. I could definitely see you in politics one day.
Oh, geez. Yeah, I don't have the skin for that. I don't think. I mean, I just, I don't think I
could, I don't think it would be good for my blood pressure for one. Yeah, but yeah, I'm definitely
interested in that. I love following the people that lead our states or our communities or on
city councils and love talking economic development with them anytime that we can. So we, it's been
fun talking about what you do in your organization. But we've asked you a lot of softball questions
here. So we're about to put you on the hot seat and really, really get it going there. But before
you go on the hot seat, tell us where maybe people can see what state associations or what
conferences will you be at over the next few months. Great. Yeah, I'm going to definitely be,
I'm going to be the next conference. I'll be added IDC leadership in Tucson,
Arizona, I'm not sure when this podcast is going to be out. That's taking place this week. This
week, I think Sunday, Sunday, January 29th, that's when IDC leadership will be then followed by the
Ontario Economic Development Conference, February 7th to the 10th. And then after that, I'm going to
be at the Sykes Electric Guild in San Antonio. And the next one will be in select USA and May.
Okay, cool. And then we'll see you at the SEDC annual conference later on in the year in August
in Williamsburg. Yeah, we're in Mississippi the world. Yeah, but have have a good time in San
Antonio. We just did our annual conference there in 2022 right on the river. You're at a different
hotel than we were at, but it's just such a great place for a conference. And that's, you know,
San Antonio's a really conferencing kind of town. It seems like everything in Texas goes there and
they're getting some national things too. So I know you'll have a good time while you're there.
Call me if you need any food recommendations. Yeah, I will. I've never been to San Antonio.
I'm really excited and I definitely will take you up on that. Oh, it's cool, especially where you
will be. There's the Riverwalk there is fantastic. You're like basically connected to the Alamo. You
can walk indoors and get there plus great food there. So it's a really, really great vibrant,
culturally neat towns. So really looking forward to seeing the pictures and hearing about what a
great experience everyone has there. So, so all the nice things are said and done here. So
here comes Matthew will insert some spooky music, but it's time to go on the hot
something. So for those that don't know, Bruce like me and for whatever reason, like a lot of
economic developers is an avid karaoke here. So here's a question. It's the last call at
wherever you are, whatever reception. It's your turn to sing. You're the last person. You've got to
go out strong. What's the song that you pick? Now, Matt, I think you know my answer to this
question. I think you know, I love to sing proud to be an American by Lee Greenwood, you know,
like, you know, what what what else is a nice Jewish Katie and boy going to sing,
besides proud to be an American to end the night, right? But like, I actually, I actually love that
song. I actually fell in love with it. It was actually in 2001, it was right after the Twin
Towers fell in New York. And I remember the present the time George W. Bush was throwing up the first
pitch at the Yankee game. And at that at that game, Lee Greenwood sang proud to be an American. It was
such an emotional game. And you would think Lee Greenwood's song would be Hopper in the South,
but here you had all these New Yorkers singing that song. And just it really had an impact. So from
that moment on, I love the song, I would sing it wherever now. Whenever I go to the US, I sing the
song, people see the irony of a Canadian singing that song. So I love it. I try to sing it as many
times as they can. But sometimes the karaoke bar match does not have proud to be an American. So
as recently in Orlando, they have it. So I had to sing. I had to sing. I wanted that way by
backstreet boys. And of course, I tore down the house. So either always league with, but if my
backup is a little backstreet boys, I've heard, I've heard you sing Lee Greenwood a couple of times.
So, you know, whatever behind me, carton, I knew that was going to be the answer. But now seems
like me and you and a few others recently, I've lived on a prayer of on Jovi, I think, was one of
those that we've belted out recently, the last time we carried the okie together. But you're so
right about about Lee Greenwood. And especially after 9-11, there was a resurgence of that song.
And I had actually forgot that it was so, so widespread after 9-11, because I remember that song
in desert storm in the early 90s, they played it in our elementary schools in eastern Kentucky
before we started the day. So that's kind of where I got to know that song. So every time I hear it,
I associate it with early 90s in East Kentucky before school.
Now, let's drop some other job of major knowledge on you and I'm not good right now.
He actually tried to create a Canadian version of the song. You could check it on
if you're bored, you could check it on YouTube later, but it's not, but just have a quite
same range to it. It doesn't quite go. So I couldn't get into the Canadian version of the song,
so I'm going to stick with the US version. Oh, wow. Okay, no, I didn't know that. So we'll check
it out. Matthew may put it on the tail end of this podcast here. So, okay, so good. I get there.
Oh, one follow-up question to this. First select USA at different times, you'll actually throw
an international karaoke party. Are we going to expect that this year? Stay tuned. You never
know what's going to happen. Oh, there we go. Okay, okay. Well, good teaser there. So,
okay, moving on. In a few years, when they make a movie about you, who will play Bruce?
I'd love to say Brad Pitt or George Clooney, but probably more like Danny DeVito.
I said, you know what's funny about that answer? I said Brad Pitt too, and Matthew Dariis laughed at
me. I didn't think that was fair, but you and I can, we can be Brad Pitt. I mean, I'll see you that.
Yeah, listen, let's go with that. If Ben Stiller's not available, let's go with Danny DeVito, I guess.
I love all those guys. I really like Danny DeVito. So, okay, good. Now, you know,
you know airports everywhere across the world. For whatever reason, we like to have airport
conversations on this podcast. So, we always ask our SEDC members, what's your favorite airport in
the south? But for you, it's a different ballgame. So, what's your favorite airport on the planet?
Oh, it's a great question. I'll tell you my least favorite airport, but it definitely in
Istanbul, Turkey, I got detained for five hours. I didn't do by. I bought my family some souvenirs.
I bought them a replica of the Burj Leepa, which is the tallest building in the world,
but the Burj Leepa has a sharp edge to it. So, the Turkish authorities thought that I was
trying to smuggle a knife into the plane. So, I had to explain, no, no, it was the Burj Leepa,
my little guy and some of my staff. I was in a room for five hours, didn't have my cell phone.
I didn't know whether I was going to leave Istanbul and make my flight, but luckily,
I was able to persuade him that it was just a souvenir, but now that wasn't the question.
What is my favorite airport? I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to have a southern airport for my
answer. I love the Charlotte airport. It has great bars, great restaurants. It's easy to make your
connection, I find. It is getting busier now as Charlotte grows. For me, Charlotte is my favorite
airport. What about you? I'm curious what your answer would be. It's a good question. So, I really
like the Charlotte airport too. I was just through there recently. Yeah, cool bars in and out, but
it is getting a lot busier. There's a lot of activities there. I don't know. I mean, my favorite,
if you can't say your home airport of Lexington or anywhere in Kentucky, honestly, the surprise
shock people, it would probably be Atlanta because I go through Atlanta so much, but the good thing
about Atlanta is so many different terminals. There's so much good food everywhere in Atlanta.
There's also a lot of Delta lounges. That's my criteria. Like anywhere you are in Atlanta,
whether you just got off and you're making a connection, there's a Delta lounge right there,
which is really cool. So, that's why I appreciate it. I like Atlanta too. It's easy to make your
connection and as direct as it's been much, I like that one too, but Charlotte has the number one in
my heart. Yeah, yeah. I think Atlanta may still be the busiest airport in
North America. I mean, they have directs everywhere. I took a direct from Atlanta to Shanghai a couple
of years ago, which was amazing, something that I wouldn't have really expected that you would
have that far down south in our continent, but they do. It's really happening airport.
Bursh Khalifa, you mentioned, is it still the tallest building in the world?
It is. Yeah, I was at a reception there back in March, economic development reception there,
and you could look up and it's just ginormous. It is still the biggest, but again,
just when you're going to the Turkish airport, don't bring any replicas, otherwise you might face
detainment. Yeah, really. That must have been some smooth talking. I always like to follow kind of
building heights and building size. So, I didn't know if it had been eclipse. Yeah, I think in Saudi
Arabia, they're building something called the Jeddah Tower, the King Tim Tower. I don't know if
it's built yet, but I think that at least they plan for it to be the tallest building in the world
when it's done, but we'll have to check on the progress or the status on that on Matthew Darias.
Okay, out of the airports, what's your favorite hobby?
All right, you wouldn't think of it if you looked at me, but I know I play a lot of softball in the
summer. I love playing. We have this executive softball league in my community and my community
of coaching group for that Canada. We have about 100 middle-aged guys with
maybe a lot of Christ is playing baseball and I was in the league for 10 years and last year,
we captured the World Championship. So, you could imagine the celebration that we had all over the
streets of Montreal with that trophy was unbelievable. So, we rented a party bus with the trophy
and the celebration lasted until the wee hours of the night. It was unbelievable. So, I love playing
softball and softball catcher. So, yeah, I definitely get some, I like to say I get exercise in the
summer, but we drink too much beer in the exercise, but it's a great hobby. It's good clean fun twice
a week. That's what I enjoy doing in the summertime. I bet you guys were a sight to see, just like
a group of, say this with love, middle-aged guys walking around with some kind of trophy,
like it's the Stanley Cup around Montreal just going crazy. So, I bet that was a lot of fun for
the people that were watching you all too. Yeah, I think one of our teammates also made us
necklaces and said, champions on it. You could imagine middle-aged guys and streets in Montreal
with necklaces, I'd say, champion, the trophy and all with several adult beverages in us. So,
it was quite the sight to speak. Yeah, here's the difference in the Stanley Cup celebrations.
Okay, those guys, they probably had a good time. They probably got up and like worked at out or did
something active the next day. I wonder if they're like, how much aspirin or how much recovery time
did you guys need after your celebration? Well, the next day was Sunday. It was very kind of,
it was kind of difficult to explain to my wife, like, hey, I'm not going to be useful until noon.
That was quite the explanation, but I think winning this softball championship wasn't quite
the explanation she was looking for. That's funny, but you know what, if that happened to me,
that would be one of my points of pride for the next handful of years. So, I totally gave it.
So, okay, aside from all that you do for economic development and your hobbies,
you're also a podcast expert. So, for those who don't know, a research unsensored bird,
it's on the research FBI website. It's such a cool, really great, fun podcast conversations
with people all over the world who are doing this at a really high level. So, we've learned a lot
from you and we really appreciate, and I was telling you just as friends, hey, Matthew Dairius and I
are about to get into the podcast game, you just immediately said, well, let me know how we can help.
We know everything about it just reach out to us anytime. So, I really appreciated that. So,
you're the expert. You've been doing it forever. What tips can Matthew and I have?
Don't do it. No, it's great. It's really fun. I think keeping the podcast short,
I think keeping them within 30 to 40 minutes. I think our audience really likes to have short
podcasts, 30 to 40 minutes, where they go on a walk or they're at the airport. So, Chris,
30, 40 minutes podcast, that's some main advice. And really having engaging guys,
trying to find sometimes less is more. But maybe you don't want to do too many podcasts.
You want to kind of have space them out and really have good guests. We were fortunate enough
to have you in our last episode and we're going to have Jonas Peterson next, he's the chairman of
IDC and he's president of South West Michigan first. It's good to have really good guests or
you're lucky enough to get a celebrity. We got Ariel, Hovani, who worked for ESPN at the time. He's
big MMA reporter. So, you've got a celebrity, you've got a great guest. But I think sometimes
less podcasts, but like short and like to the point and with awesome guests.
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. So, thanks for that. Oh, really? I didn't know you were having the
celebrities on the research on censored podcasts. So, that's something to aspire to. So, last question
here. And I think sooner or later, we're going to do a whole podcast with economic development
parents and just talk about, you know, we burn bright, we're busy, there can be stress and travel,
a lot of hours, you know, how do you balance kind of a work, home life in a really successful way.
So, I'd love to maybe talk to you about this in the future and what we want to dive into it. Just
kind of on the personal side of our people. But, you know, just like me, you're a dad to a super
cute little pre-kinder gardener who looks just like you. So, we need the Jacob update. And just
how fun is this period right now? And then, too, like, how do you do it so successfully? I mean,
I see you on Facebook. You're super present. You have so much fun. What are some tips for
bouncing work and home? That was a great question. You know, of course, I love being dad. It's a
great spending time with Jacob and my family. That's obviously my number one priority. Even
definitely much more than economic development. The number one thing you could be is a dad and a
husband. I think being a dad in any line of work, I think you really have to prioritize
where your time is going. You know, yeah, we do have to travel a lot. We do have to do all this
things. When you are home, you do want to be present. You want to maximize the time you have
together on the weekend. If you could cut your travel short to make sure you're in time,
you're home in time for the weekend and do it. So being a dad is a number one priority and try
to spend as much time and cut your travel short as much as possible. But also try to spend quality
time, make the time you have meaningful and just try to enjoy it to the most you can't.
Yeah, no doubt. It's good tips for all of us. So, Bruce, thank you so much. We want to keep
to your recommendations and keep this short and crisp. And hopefully, we're under that 45
minute mark. But you're off the hot seat, my friend. We made it together. What'd you think?
Great experience, my man. I'll do it anytime. Thank you for all your support. Thanks for being
great friends. Research at the R. Thanks. Thanks for all that you do. Now, how do people get in
touch with you really quick? Absolutely. Feel free to send me an email at Bruce at research
at di.com or feel free to add me a LinkedIn. Have to be engaged with you and looking forward to
seeing your listeners at the SEDC annual conference. No doubt. Thank you so much, Bruce. Thank you to
SEDC members. Please feel free to find us on the web at www.sedc.org and stay tuned for
the next episode with an American South leader on the SEDC podcast presented by I insightful.
Thank you.
Bye.