12/9/1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Tourism Trade Shows [10;'11K E'aGc i1 The County was represetned at the following tourism trade show locations: Atlanta Canada Baltimore Washington London Miami Orlando European Representation Represented in Europe by Basic Service Group: * attended Italian & German travel shows * promote Indian River County through European media * translated our area golf guide into German ECONOAHC DEVELOPMENT DIVISION Events and Meetings * Sponsored annual Industry Appreciation Luncheon recognizing 6 local buildings or developments for their architectural design or landscaping, and named the Los Angeles Dodgers "Business of the Year" * Sponsored the county's first Economic Development Tour which was coordinated through our Existing Commerce Committee, which also held an independent tour of XL Vision * Held 2 Retired Executive's Focus Group meetings to seek assistance and ideas from local retired executives New Ideas * Spearhead local efforts to construct an interchange at Oslo Road & I-95 * Attempted to have a referendum passed for industrial tax abatement * Successful in working with the county for incentives such as local jobs grant program, financing traffic impact fees, waiver of utility deposits * Established a commercial real estate survey to track available commercial property * Began participation in the nationally recognized ACCRA Cost of Living Index through our New Commerce Committee * Established a regional coalition of economic development executives from Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin and Okeechobee counties which now meet on a monthly basis * Joined as a participating member of the Melbourne Community Airport Coalition which is working on bringing additional commercial airline services to the Melbourne area Recognition and Awards: * Named to NASA's Top Ten List of Economic Development Agencies * Received a grant from Wal-Mart for $2,000 in 1997 and $2,000 in 1998 Funding Efforts * In addition to $100,000 from Indian River County, we raised private donations of over $40,000 including the Wal-Mart grant, and funding of $5,000 from NASA for our efforts in their Technology Outreach Program Other * Continued participation in NASA Technology Outreach Program to help local business receive support from NASA to solve their technical problems * hired Milt Thomas as the Director of Economic Development * Continued building relationships with legislators and with key staff at Enterprise Florida * Instituted a better method for tracking new business prospects * currently translating our extensive tourism web -site information to German * responded directly to hundreds of European visitor inquiries WJ December 9, 1997