Advantage Greenville Program Survey

Thanks to Adam Landrum of Merge and other members on the Advantage Greenville Program Sub-Committee. They are currently conducting an internet survey about what our members want to hear about in 2010. They are also calling members of AG.

Full results of the survey are not yet available, but, for what it's worth, here is the tag cloud generated from the question - I consider my membership in AG valuable when..

able build business community connect continue development economic economy effort environment events exclusive feel general goal going greenville grow growth helps ideas impact important increased information interesting issues keeps leaders learn local meet members membership network opportunity participate people programs provides relationships specific toward trends truly understand upstate utilize value

created at TagCrowd.com

I think the terms listed show some of the inherent value found in our group and it's an interesting way to visualize survey results, too! More details to follow.

Senator Graham addresses Advantage Greenville

We had about 130 business and community leaders in attendance today as we heard from US Senator Lindsey Graham. He laid out his vision on Afghanistan, health care, energy policy and more. Thanks to our presenting sponsor - Brown Mackey College.

Our next luncheon will be held on December 3rd. Stay tuned for details!

Advantage Greenville Events

The fall is a busy time for AG. Here are a few of the things coming up for our members:

October 15th - 12th Annual Oyster Roast at CU-ICAR
October 19th - Luncheon with US Senator Lindsey Graham
November 11th - Charter Schools Economic Impact Forum
December 3rd - Health Sciences South Carolina luncheon.

Thanks to Brown Mackey College for sponsoring our luncheon on the 19th.

Behind the scenes, we are working on a community talent attraction, retention and development strategy for 2010 and beyond. We have also created several sub-committees for volunteer engagement: Economic Scorecard, Marketing and Membership and Programming.

Look for some good things ahead for AG! We hope you will join us.

AG at NEXT Innovation Center

About 40 Advantage Greenville members met yesterday for lunch at the NEXT Innovation Center to learn more about NEXT and how the new facility fits into the economic development strategy of the community. For a great overview of the NEXT facility, check out this video on www.GreenvilleHD.com.

A major point made at the event - While the community needs to continue to recruit industry (e.g., branch plants) to the area, we also need to build our own companies that are headquartered in Greenville. With the latter, you keep more of the wealth in the community and the impact on quality of life is several factors higher than with branch plants. This is NOT to downplay the importance of branch plants to the region. We just need to grow more ScanSources, Datastreams and Hollingsworth-type companies.

With that said, the Innovation Center is already drawing attention on a regional and national level which will help us recruit more high-impact entrepreneurs to the region.

NEXT continues to build the regional entrepreneur eco-system. We hope Advantage Greenville members take some time to learn more about the programs offered as well as about the new facility. Take that information and help spread the word in the region as well as beyond when you are traveling. You never know where it might lead..