At 10:15 a.m. on April 17, 2012, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake will disrupt our way of life in Utah - especially along the Wasatch Front. How do I know the exact date and time? I’m not psychic, but I know the right people. The State Division of Homeland Security are conducting a drill on that date and at that time to help us be better prepared for an earthquake that could come at any time. “The Great Utah Shakeout” is a statewide preparedness drill designed to train police, emergency agencies, hospitals, businesses, government agencies and schools how to be better prepared if or when a large earthquake should occur along the Wasatch Front. They have created this great website with video, manuals, posters and general information.
You can help by signing up to be a coordinator for your business or organization. You can also download information about your home and what you can do to make your home safer. Living along with Wasatch Front, we all know that it is a matter of time before we experience another large earthquake. Because so much information is available on the website, now would be a great time to re-evaluate what you have done to prepare both at work and at home.
Check out this video and Be Prepared to participate on April 17th.
One of the other hats I wear is sitting on the Business & Marketing Business Advisory Board for Granite School District. One of the things they are involved in every year is the DECA competition held at every high school in the state. There are local competitions on marketing, accounting, advertising, business law, merchandising and other business related topics. Winners at each school then go to a regional and eventually end up at the statewide competition. Statewide winners can then attend the national conference and participate in the competition with high school students from across the country.
This year, the National DECA conference is coming to Utah. This is a “BIG” deal. Not only do thousands of kids come here to compete, but they also bring advisors, parents and other family… a good chance to travel to Utah to see our beautiful state. In terms of the actual conference and competition, the local districts are looking for volunteers to come and judge the various competitions. There are two dates: Monday, April 23, 2012 for the Collegiate DECA International Career Development Conference and Monday, April 30 for the High School DECA Competition. The Collegiate competition needs 150 local judges and the High School competition is looking for 1000 local judges. That’s right 1000 judges. The competitions will be held in Salt Lake at Little America and the Salt Palace.
Because of your many skills as business leaders in your communities, I’m asking that you consider volunteering for this great event. If you are interested in participating, go to this website and register. Many students, teachers and administrators will thank you for your generous time.
January is a great time of year in Utah. What makes it so special is what’s going on around the state. Besides skiing on the “greatest snow on earth”, there are other noteworthy activities. The Utah State Legislature begins its 45-day session. There is always something going on at the Capitol to entertain/educate us. And speaking of entertainment, the annual Sundance Film Festival is on. It’s always great for those of us who love to star-stalk.
One of the other big attractions in Utah right now is the Winter Outdoor Retailers Show, where manufacturers of outdoor products converge in Utah to show off their latest and greatest. While scanning through the Deseret News today, I came across an article that highlights 8 Utah companies who are presenting products at the show. The great thing about that is that not all these companies are large. In fact, the majority of them are small companies making their products here in Utah.
From high tech products such as batteries and custom boots to some unusual products like a fire starter that you can burn in your hand (for not very long), Utah companies are embracing their outdoor roots and are beginning to shine on the national and international stage. Congrats to all of them.
The meeting presentations from the January Alliance meeting in St. George are now online in the resource section of our site, located here. I think we all agree it was a fantastic meeting with great information presented. One of our presenters, Marlin Eldred from Davis County, presented a matrix of possible ideas for upcoming meetings. If you get a chance print out the matrix and fill it out. During our board meeting, we had quite a discussion about what topics we should cover this year. We are very open to your ideas and would like to hear the topics that may be of interest to you. You can also reply to this blog with any ideas you may have.
The upcoming meetings for 2012 will be:
April 12 in Salt Lake City. This meeting should be great. We will be touring the City Creek development after our meeting.
July 13 in Richfield. More details to come.
October in Park City. More details to come.
We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting in April. Keep your ideas coming.
This year, one of my goals is to set up a blog for Salt Lake County Economic Development, the organization I really work for. We have a wonderful website that we set up a couple of years ago. It needs a bit of a facelift, but I’ve been waiting for our IT organization to implement the new content management system (for almost a year now). So I’ve decided that while I wait, I will implement a blog and then incorporate it into the current website, in hopes that a new site will also come this year.
In doing my research on how economic development organizations are handling their blogs, I came across this great training video through GIS Planning. The video interviews Neil Stechschulte from City of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin on the success of his blog. He put it together a year ago and has had some pretty impressive hit numbers. The thing I like about this video is that Neil is a “one-man-show”. He doesn’t have staff to put up the posts - he does it all by himself. In the video, he discusses how to put the actual blogger site together, how to track the traffic through Google Analytics, and how he put together a Project 365 - blogging something everyday. If you haven’t put a blog together for your community, it is definitely worth the 55 minutes it will take to go through the presentation. GIS Planning has also put together their Top Ten Economic Development videos on this site. They are free and well done.
I’m always on the look-out for some positive press on Utah. This past weekend the New York Times reviewed the Canyons Resort in Park City and gave it a wonderful review. Most of you who grew up here remember it as Park West. We used to ski there because it wasn’t as crowded or expensive as Park City. We’ve seen it change hands a couple of times and go through some growing pains.
But if you haven’t been there in the past couple of years, you are missing out. Check out this article and see the what the press is saying about us.
Being the news nerd that I am, I go home every night and click on the ABC National News with Diane Sawyer - who I love. They have been running a series called “Made in America” where they have been trying to encourage us to purchase products made in America. One of their stories featured a contractor who made a committment to use only American-made products in building a new home. What he found was that he could purchase most all products made in America, it just took a little extra time to research and find vendors.
Another story highlighted a family who agreed to have everything that wasn’t made in America taken out of their house. In the end, they were left with a glass vase and some flowers. That was a sad commentary to me on the number of the products we purchase everyday not made here. When we purchase American made products, we create jobs and we suppport our small businesses.
Fast forward to today and the Christmas shopping season. ABC News is challenging every American to purchase at least $64 worth of product made in America for Christmas. Their calculations show that by doing just that - $64 - we would create 200,000 jobs. With our economy struggling - we could use those jobs. Personally, I’m doing my part in purchasing Blue Bonny Ice Cream for my family.
One of the other big attractions in Utah right now is the Winter Outdoor Retailers Show, where manufacturers of outdoor products converge in Utah to show off their latest and greatest. While scanning through the 
