- We are honored to be joined by our longtime friend, Evan Weiss, who is the CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, and a new dad.

Good to see you, Evan.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- As we speak, at the end of April, you have a four-month-year-old son, right?

- That's true.

Four and a half.

Four-and-a-half-month old.

- How awesome.

- It is awesome.

It's intense.

But it's awesome.

Every minute.

- By the way, we've done several segments on childcare, which I know is particularly near and dear to Evan's heart right now.

Also with some of his colleagues at the EDA.

Tell everyone what the Economic Development Authority is.

- The Economic Development Authority is like it sounds; it's an entity, every tool that we have at our disposal to try to help big businesses, small businesses, research, energy.

We are really uniquely positioned nationally to kind of do it all.

We really take an expansive view of what economic development means, from residential development to the innovation economy, to things like childcare and food security.

- Let me also disclose, the EDA is a longtime underwriter of our programming.

So let's try this.

We're taping, as I said, at the end of April.

The FIFA World Cup extravaganza, it's huge.

The EDA's specific involvement in FIFA, talk about it and its significance, Evan.

- Sure, so the EDA received from the budget, $5 million- - From the state budget.

- From the state budget, I'm sorry, yep, to program towards basically making the event feel real to New Jersey in two ways: memorable, so that they experience whether or not they have a ticket to go see a game at MetLife, and also something that impacts small businesses, primarily, positively.

So what we're doing, along with our partners at the host committee and Choose New Jersey, is providing opportunities for big events around the state and small community events to have a piece of that money; and could do what I just said, to kind of put on little events, big events all around New Jersey to connect people to the World Cup, drive economic activity to small businesses, and again, hopefully put some great memories, especially for kids about the World Cup happening.

- Film in New Jersey.

Help us understand the Film Ready New Jersey program.

What exactly is it, and how significant is film in New Jersey and the future of film from an economic perspective, Evan.

- It's a key part of our economic development strategy.

It's a strategy that Governor Murphy really kicked off, and I think had some vision around seeing, you know, with the potential that film had, reclaiming that industry that was born here.

I'm in Newark right now, and was born in West Orange, right down the way.

Celluloid film was born in Newark.

So Governor Sherrill has really seized on this opportunity and is exploiting it.

I think a lot of people read the story that we, New Jersey, are the one exception nationally in terms of where film activity is increasing.

That's in large part about three things.

The first is the talent that we have in the New Jersey-New York area, that is second to none anywhere, including California.

It's about the infrastructure that we're building here in New Jersey and Newark, at Lionsgate, in Bayonne with 1888, and then of course with Netflix at Fort Monmouth.

And it's a very smart sense of tax incentives.

Helps us compete.

- You know, there's another economic issue that is often not discussed as an economic issue.

A graphic will come up promoting our initiative called, well, it's an initiative called Start Strong NJ that we are affiliated with.

It's creating greater public awareness around the need for affordable, accessible, quality childcare.

Graphic's up, check out the website.

Here's the question to Evan.

Why is childcare, and again, with a four-and-a-half-year-old son, as we're doing this program, you can appreciate this more than most, why is childcare such a significant economic issue, Evan?

- I challenge you to find any family that can make an economic decision that's not about their kids first, if they don't know where their kid is gonna be during the workday, or what if they have a job that's at night.

Everything is downstream of kids.

So not incorporating that into planning doesn't make sense.

'Cause talent is the number one thing that any employer in any sector is looking for.

And so childcare, again, which is fundamental to that.

- Along those lines, to what degree do you believe that the businesses that you interact with in your previous roles and also in this role as the CEO of the EDA in the state, to what degree do you believe most businesses understand that it's not charity, it's not just something nice to do, it is necessary to strengthen the bottom line of your company.

It's smart business.

- We're getting there.

I think there's a lot of progress, especially since COVID, and people recognizing how important that is.

But I think they're delayed in terms of understanding just of that underscores everything.

So I think a big part of what we're doing is in some ways trying to show, like we do with anything else, we talk about incentives.

We're trying to incentivize businesses in the same way we are to center things like childcare versus their economic thinking, frankly, to be competitive.

We need to be good at that compared to New York, New York City, et cetera.

It's a key part of our talent strategy.

- Evan, what message do you have for businesses who talk about the affordability or the lack thereof?

New Jersey's not a great state to do business in.

The expenses, it's not affordable.

- New Jersey is a state that is great to do business in.

I think the businesses prove that.

It's a state that we need to be better at and get better at doing business here.

The message right now is just how seriously we're taking that, and the message I give to businesses, big and small, pharmaceutical, film, you name it, is tell us in detail what you mean.

We don't just want kind of general complaints: it's slow, it's hard, it's too expensive.

Tell us exactly how, and we will work on that.

And I think it's really great to have that spirit of partnership.

You're willing to work.

Us, the legislature, especially Governor Sherrill, this is the main thing she wakes up thinking about in an economic sphere.

And I really have had good interactions so far with businesses, 'cause we're taking each other seriously.

- As the website is up for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority right now.

We've done many programs talking about grants and loans that the EDA is involved in, in providing to folks in the business community.

Give some folks advice right now.

They go on the website.

What should they be looking for?

- They should be looking for kind of where we can fit into their story.

Do they want to stay a small business that's there for the family, there for the kids, or do they want to grow?

Having some idea of what their business plan is really helps.

I'd really recommend looking at our loan products, because we can be very competitive with other lenders.

But we can also, if you don't want one of our products, we are very good at dealing with banks and CDFIs, other places for you to find capital.

And we're also very good at dealing with other governments.

So if you have a small business, medium business is having trouble with your city or having trouble with, you know, another part of the state, that's also a great way for EDA to help break through some of those barriers, and also pitch the Business Action Center that Lieutenant Governor Caldwell is leading.

That's another great place to stop, in addition to the EDA, in finding some help how to navigate the state.

- Evan Weiss is the CEO of New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Evan, cannot thank you enough for joining us.

I wish you and your team all the best.

Thank you.

- Thanks, Steve.

Always a pleasure.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Education Association.

Atlantic Health System.

Rowan University.

PSEG Foundation.

Valley Bank.

The Burke Foundation The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

The Fund for New Jersey.

And by NJ Transit.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Media.

And by BestofNJ.com.

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