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Good afternoon and welcome to the City of Cleveland, where we are devoted to creating conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's Friday, June 26th, and I'm Todd Bailey, director of economic Development at Huntington Bank.

And pleased to introduce today's forum, which is the John W. Barkley Memorial Forum and a part of the City Club's Building Success Series.

Right now, Northeast Ohio feels like the place to be.

The region is competing for investments in manufacturing, technology, aerospace and energy, to name just a few sectors.

We are also making headlines, recently ranked among the best cities in the country in terms of cost of living, and we are home to world class universities, healthcare systems and cultural destinations.

Building success here in Northeast Ohio truly starts with collaboration, building a more vibrant regional economy and accelerating growth and job creation.

Our speaker today, Matt Dolan, is chief executive officer at Team NEO, where he took the helm in early 2025.

Matt knows what it takes to advance regional competitiveness, drive solutions and create economic growth.

With a career spanning law, business and government.

Matt has deep understanding of the region's opportunities and challenges.

Many here worked with Matt during his time in both the Ohio House and the Ohio State Senate.

There, he chaired the Finance committee in both chambers, giving him keen insight into the importance of collaboration and decision making required to strengthen Ohio's economy.

Additionally, Matt was instrumental in shaping the economic development tools used by Jobs Ohio and Team NEO to attract new businesses, support the expansion of existing companies, and drive job creation across the region.

This structure and these tools are the envy of economic development organizations across the country.

Today, we will hear more from Matt Dolan on how Team NEO has evolved under his leadership, and how he's taking responsibility to attract more businesses, jobs and opportunities throughout the 14 county region.

Before we begin, a quick reminder for our live stream and radio audience.

If you have a question during the Q&A portion of the forum, you can text it to (330)541-5794, and City Club staff will try to work it into the program.

Now members and friends of the City Club of Cleveland, please join me in welcoming Matt Dolan.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Huntington Bank, and thank you all for being out here today.

I look out and I see a number of board members led by our board president, Don Taylor.

Thank you for taking the time to come out here.

I also see a lot of our partners in the economic development ecosystem.

And while we're going to have an opportunity to talk about Team NEO today and what we're working on, what we want to do, what we are going to take responsible for, it does take a collective effort.

So GCP here on Erie.

Thank you all.

If I miss somebody thank you for being out here because it really is a we we effort.

And Dan thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak at the city Club.

I joke with Dan before this is actually the first time I've ever been on City Club stage by myself.

Ive had opportunity to be in debates on the city club stage, where someone like Dan would ask me, how are you going to solve Ohio's economy?

You have 60 seconds.

So Dan, maybe unfortunately for the rest of the audience, thank you for giving me a little more time today.

So let's get started because we have a lot to cover.

And I say we because what I'm going to be talking about today is about what we have accomplished and what we are going to do, and that we is really the work of the professional, skilled and competitive staff at Team NEO And a lot of them are here today.

So this is in fact a joint effort where we understand our responsibility and we want to see it through.

But I'm not going to make any assumptions because I don't know that everyone here really understands Team NEO.

So we're going to do a little education.

101 Team NEO is an economic development entity.

We are a jobs Ohio Network partner.

Jobs Ohio is our statewide economic development partner.

What makes Jobs Ohio and Team NE part of state government.

We are not funded by state government.

In fact, we are funded by the liquor proceeds from for the state of Ohio.

So as we approach the weekend and the July 4th holiday, please responsibly do all your part for economic development.

So we are again are the regional partner and we're responsible for 14 counties, you know, without a slide, without a map to show you.

Perhaps the best way to describe our 14 counties is if there is a Guardians, Browns or Cavs shirt in your house, you're in Team NEOs territory.

If your neighbor might have a Steelers outfit, you're probably too far east for Team NEO But we are responsible for the traded sectors.

Our mission is to retain, to expand, and to attract jobs and businesses in the traded sectors to Northeast Ohio.

So what is the traded sector?

The trade sector are those industries that make and sell goods that they can sell out of state.

But the key factor that drives us is the traded sectors, industry, manufacturing, technology.

They don't have to be here.

They can choose where it's best for them to operate.

It's our responsibility to make sure it is here.

So as was said in the introduction, I've been 17 months on the job here at Team NEO, and we're going to be talking about things that we're going to do and things that we maybe need to improve on, but I don't want to give anybody any impression.

The Team NEO hasn't been successful.

In fact, prior to my arrival, Team NEO, amongst the network partners, which there are seven of them set the record the most wins for any network partner in the history of jobs.

Ohio was done by Team NEO last year.

Yes.

Last year we had 92 wins, which compared to the next closest network partner at 63.

Again, in difficult circumstances, Team NEO is the winner.

But as a new CEO, just like any of you would do, you look at the organizations and you say, you know, where could we do better?

But I also asked the question, which I guarantee has passed the lips of nearly everyone in this room and everyone listening.

Why does it seem we always lose to another city, or another reason or another state?

Why aren't we getting those generational opportunities?

Why aren't we getting those perception changing businesses?

Or we can change our identity with particular successes?

So we approached Team NEO with that in mind.

How do we do that?

So today I'm going to talk about five priorities.

These are these are the way I entitled the priorities Intentional storytellers product story and accountability.

Let's talk about intentionality intentional.

So a Team NEO, one of our responsibilities is to go visit the trade sector companies throughout the 14 counties.

And we certainly, as I said, on the top, we rely heavily on our local partners to go with us.

But as I began to look at our program, as we began to look at the program, it became clear that we were kind of measuring activity and not outcomes, and we needed to change that because I didn't want our our people to just be information providers for businesses.

We need them to be advocates for businesses.

We need them to know that the business to know you know what, what we can do for you.

We want you to succeed here as bad as you do.

So we put all our brand team through sales training.

We merged our research team, and Bernie now get together to make targeted decisions about which industries, which businesses we need to go visit.

What are the economic conditions that make this business right for expansion?

What are the assets that we have?

What are we seeing in the world supply chain that would give an opportunity to a local business?

So it's intentionality that we are now bringing to the businesses so that they have the opportunity to understand what Team NEO does.

And what Team NEO does is we provide the incentives necessary for businesses to decide to expand and grow here, and we listen to the businesses well.

Next is storytellers.

You see, we are responsible for the attraction efforts of economic development.

That is, we are responsible for going outside the state of Ohio and bring businesses here.

Well, as I looked at our our program, I realized while our effort was great and our results weren't bad, we were not competing with our peer states in Ohio or our competitive states, cities around the nation.

We didn't put the necessary resources behind an attraction program that you should expect from the entity responsible for doing it.

So we solve that problem.

We worked hard.

We went to investors, we raised the money.

We want to thank the Cleveland Foundation for stepping up.

And now, for the first time in Team NEO's history, we have lead generators in Europe, in Asia and in North America.

What that means is that same intentionality that we are bringing to our local companies is now being brought to industry sectors that we believe we have a right to win on Geographic's, what we think would situate well in Northeast Ohio, we are telling the story of Northeast Ohio on a daily basis.

And most importantly, we're creating that relationship that you absolutely need to have to convince a company that you're going to leave your home country and come to the United States.

And we certainly want you to come here, and we now can do it in their home language.

So when we then make our market visits, we have already established the relationship.

They already know what our region is looking like.

And now we can be just as competitive as Columbus, as Cincinnati and all our markets throughout the state.

Well, we also are providing an opportunity to do intentional marketing in Europe and in Asia and in California, in Illinois.

But it's intentional marketing.

It's going after industries, it's going after sectors, it's going after geographic.

Because one thing you have to understand about economic development, marketing is when we approach a business, we don't come with fancy pictures of Lake Erie or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or talk about the wonders of Akron, their Canton and Amish country or Cedar Point.

Those are all wonderful opportunities, and we all know what it means to us.

But our job is very clear and very straightforward.

We need to convince that business that it makes economic sense for you to site your business in Cleveland, Ohio.

Akron, Ohio.

Canton, Ohio, or all throughout the 14 counties.

We often don't even talk to the CEO.

We're talking to engineers and HR professionals.

Does it pencil out?

That's our objective.

And the first decision people make is the product is where am I going to site my building, where am I going to build it, and how fast can I build that building?

You know, I mentioned that our team is incredibly competitive and economic development is very competitive.

And it's no more competitive than sites.

It's where can a business go and place their business.

And we have some good sites.

You know, the sweet spot for the industries that we deal with is 30 acres to 150 acres.

We have a fair amount of sites that size.

But guess what?

So does every other region we are competing against.

But it's our history that we all love.

That perhaps puts us a little bit of a disadvantage from our sites over others.

The best way I can describe it is, you know, I mentioned, why don't we win those generational opportunities?

Well, let's step back 80 years ago and look at Cleveland and think about the businesses and industries we won, and think about what Cleveland was like at that time, or Akron was like at that time.

There was space, there was Greenland.

We were growing.

Well, we are competing against Columbus, who essentially is Cleveland 80 years ago.

So we have to solve this dilemma we have here in northeastern Ohio that is our developers, our owners of these industrial properties come to us and say, I am not going to invest in my land.

And till you give us an end user.

And for years, economic development entities have been saying, well, we can't get an end user until you invest in your land.

That's a problem that Team NEO i And we started last year.

Our sites team put together a program which is very simple but intense.

It is saying we want all of our industrial properties to go through scrutiny by professionals so that we can we can determine which of our sites is ready to get jobs.

Ohio money.

It's ready to get brownfield remediation money from the state, and can get to a point where it's ready for a decision, because when a company looks at a property they're looking at through three lenses, how much time is it going to cost me?

How much risk am I being exposed to, and how much money is it going to cost me if we can't solve those three problems, they look at our property and move on, and you don't get a second chance when it comes to choosing a piece of property.

So now we have those sites, but there's always something that allows that site not to be ready.

There's always something we look at that site and go, boy, if we could get that done, then we wouldn't be talking about how we're going to remediate a problem to an end user.

The problem is already solved.

Well, working with jobs, Ohio Team NEO now has the opportunity to match our developers investment in their property.

The last bit of property, whether it needs to be grading, whether it needs to be tree removal, whether it needs to be infrastructure hookup, whether it needs the basic due diligence that's necessary to get your property ready to build.

We now can go to our developers and say, we will work with you.

We will match your investment.

Let's get it done.

So when the end user or opportunity to come is there, we have solved those problems and we get more opportunities to look.

So we have our we have our intentionality, we have our storytellers and we have our product.

Well, I have learned a lot in my 17 months here at Team NEO, and I've also brought a little bit of knowledge that I had to Team NEO.

Well, what's the first thing I learned?

I learned that there are a ton of players in economic development.

There are site selectors, site consultants, project consultants, lead generator brokers, developers, incentive specialists, business recruitment managers, just to name a few.

But what I learned is that every single one of them, when they decide for their client where their client go, they look at one thing metropolitan statistical areas.

MSAs Well, here's the reality of Team NEO.

Those 14 counties, there are six MSAs in those 14 counties.

Which means when all those people who are making decisions to decide where they're going to expand or where they're going to grow, where they're going to cite, they are only seeing a slice of our story, and we need to tell a better story, because the observation and knowledge I brought, both in the private sector and the public sector, is that we know we have a habit of being a little fragmented, up here in Northeast Ohio.

So we approach this problem by saying, look, we are better if we can identify ourselves as one region, but we don't need to change letterheads, we don't need to merge political boundaries.

We're not merging entities.

We're not rebranding anything.

What we are saying is a one region strategy is the ability for us to use our collective data to tell the story of our region.

What does that mean?

Well, that means when we show our collective data, we are 18th largest workforce in the nation.

We are seventh in manufacturing, 15th in healthcare.

We have 231 workforce training entities.

That's over 100 more than Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis.

We have 25 colleges and universities, 21 fortune 1000 companies, be it from Miami, more than Miami, more than Charlotte and more than Columbus.

We have over 800 foreign owned companies, and together we are the 19th largest economy by GDP in the country.

But you know what else is true?

In every one of those stats?

Cleveland, Akron, canton, Mansfield, Sandusky, or any other city is not in the top 25.

So we are much stronger together.

And team NE over the last few months has worked with Mayor Bibb, with Mayor Seamus, maybe mayor, shire County Executive Ronen, County Executive Shapiro, our 14 county leaders, GCP Akron chamber strengthening stark.

And we begin to understand that yes, Team NEO needs to go out and talk about us collectively, that we all understand that if we are part of a larger region, we all will do better.

We will all get more opportunities to look.

And there's one more thing we learned.

And particularly when you hire somebody who's going outside of the state and advocating for you, you know, directional entities don't mean anything.

Imagine if Tampa Saint Pete walked in and said, yes, we're from south northwest Florida, or Dallas-Fort Worth comes in and says, yeah, we're from northeast Texas.

They don't.

They identify.

And so we have, again, working with all of our partners, we understand for the purposes of traction only only in Cleveland is this news is that when we go outside of this region, we're going to identify ourselves as Cleveland, Akron and Canton.

We are going to meet our businesses with what they know.

So I said we aren't rebranding anything.

It's a very simple philosophy.

We are simply going out telling our best story under a name that you can find on a map.

That is our goal to get more opportunities in northwest Ohio or northeast Ohio.

Well, we'll take over them next.

So look, you know what I'm doing today.

I'm doing what a lot of you guys do in your businesses.

So it's nothing more than we sat around in our conference room and said, how do we get better?

What tools do we need to put in place?

You know, what resources do we need to raise?

Where are we going to apply those resources?

So this isn't fanfare, this isn't the wow moment.

This is just you looking behind the scenes to say this is the responsibility of Team NEO.

And so you might ask yourself, what's different?

What's changing?

Well, the practicality of what we're doing is certainly different.

And I know on this stage there's been many speeches about where we're going, you know, maybe speeches about how we haven't been so good.

So what is different?

And I'm saying to you today, what is different is that Team NEO is going to take responsibility for what it owns an economic development space.

And that's why I've been so focused on trade sectors.

There is so many things we need to work on retail, commercial, residential, entertainment, and we have great groups that are working on those, and we ask them to bring the same intentionality, the same vigor to get get to get those problems solved.

As Team NEOs committing today that we will do to bring jobs to being bring new payroll, to bring new CapEx to Northeast Ohio.

We will present the metrics to you.

You can judge whether we are meeting our responsibility and where are we going to apply these priorities, because, as Todd said, there are many opportunities great opportunities that we have an opportunity, a great chance for in our space.

We are going to focus on aerospace, aviation, automotive supply chain, electronic component, supply chain, polymers and advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and food processing.

In fact, I'll share with you on Monday, we're going to announce a deal where we beat out Indiana for a food processing job creation.

So we have our strategy.

We have our targets now.

It's only left us is to execute and go get those wins.

So I do want to talk about two things with my time with you.

Two things that are in the news a lot.

One is AI and of course one is data centers.

So AI gives me a chance to talk a little baseball with you.

If you go to Progressive Field, which we hope you get a chance to go over the next ten days and you look up on the scoreboard.

Those of us have been watching baseball a long time.

We'll look over and see that that doesn't look like batting averages anymore.

In fact, it's not.

It's OPS.

I won't give you a definition of what OPS is if you want one.

I see Neil Weiss from the Guardians is here.

He can tell you.

But what it means at it's core is that baseball has decided that that is a statistic that decides which players are the most productive.

And the more productive players we have, the more competitive we're going to be.

So a Team NEO, we understand that.

We understand that companies are going to be using AI, they're going to be using technology.

They're going to be using automation because we want them to be more productive.

So it's a subtle shift where a network partner of jobs, Ohio and jobs are extremely important part of what we're trying to accomplish.

But I know that if we lean into CapEx incentives, that if we lean into technology incentives, that we know we will create more opportunities for businesses to be productive and productive.

Competitive business bring vibrancy and job creation to the area.

So we know what businesses need to do, and we're going to meet them there.

I also want to talk to you about data centers.

So data centers are a big part of the news.

And let me just tell you up to top, we're pretty straightforward.

We treat data centers like any other business that would come to Ohio.

That is is there the correct site for it.

And do we have local participation and willingness to host it?

But data centers really aren't like any other industry.

And they made a big mistake when particularly the hyperscalers, when the hyperscalers came in, they came in and struck their deal before they even talked to the locals, before they even had an opportunity to share with what they wanted to accomplish.

As a result, a lot of information started flowing about what these data centers do or don't do.

And there began this discussion about what is real, what's not real.

And it led to this idea that data centers are bad.

And let's shut them all down and let's do moratoriums.

I'm not here to tell you whether that's the right or wrong thing for an individual city.

We as when we look at a particular piece of property, we will tell the owner or developer of that property, we don't want a data center here.

We think there's more value to the community and to our region by not having a data center there, but there are some sites that maybe it works.

But from our perspective as lead economic developer in industry sectors, when the Cleveland Akron Canton region is talking about moratoriums, about shutting down businesses, there is a chilling effect to other businesses.

It's not maybe that they're worried that, oh my gosh, the data centers are coming in and they're going to take up all the energy, or they're going to take up all the water.

By the way, if if data centers want to prove that they don't do that, just just tell us and we'll find out what the facts are.

But this is what we face when we talk to an advanced manufacturer.

And he's looking at us and they say, you know, we use a lot of energy to are we going to face pushback?

Is it going to take time for us to site our business?

Are you going to put a moratorium on our type of manufacturing?

So the responsibility to deal with these issues needs to be in public, needs to be factual, and needs to understand that every discussion that talks about closing down economic opportunity is a chilling, chilling impact on our opportunity to bring growth here.

So this brings me to the title of my speech.

You know, in hindsight, if only outsiders knew what we knew.

In hindsight, I wish I would said when outsiders note we knew.

But it is not what you think.

It is not the idea that, boy, all we have to do is get people here and they will just see how great our region is.

That is 100% true, but that doesn't work with businesses, that doesn't work with decision makers.

We have to decide what will pencil out for them.

Where does it make financial sense?

So what do we need to know?

What do we need to work on is we need to know what does success look like?

Because having regional alignment doesn't just mean let's get collective data and present outsiders.

It means that we are rallied around a set of metrics that identify the indicators of economic vibrancy that we are going to hold ourselves accountable for those indices that maybe aren't working, we're going to identify them.

We're going to work on them.

We're going to hold people responsible for them.

We're going to hold ourselves comparable to 12 competitive markets around the industry, because outsiders need to know that when they come to Northeast Ohio, there is a region who gets it.

There is a region who knows that workforce, energy sites, incentives, schools, everything that they need to be worried about is being worked on and can show that we are successful.

So in October, Team NEO is going to present that regional alignment with our vibrancy economy indicators.

These will be public metrics that will let our outsiders know that when we Team NEO jobs, Ohio, GCP, our local chambers, Akron Chamber, our partners, when we all act towards our responsibility at the highest level, we they will know we can compete and we can win.

And how do I know we're going to win?

How do I know that Team NEO is g It's the same place I started.

It's because of the staff.

It's because of the team.

Quickly we did bonus metrics.

We changed how we're going to award bonuses so that our team works together.

But you know what our team did?

They added regional metrics as part of their responsibility to achieve.

They wanted to know is our work raising GDP growth?

Is our work hiring wages?

Is poverty going down?

Are there more conventional workers because of our work?

Because reality that's the outcome that matter.

That's the outcome that communities feel.

And those are the metrics we're going to decide.

Are we a more prosperous, a more competitive and a more vibrant community?

Look, I know, I know the passion, the skill set, the work ethic, and yes, the competitive spirit of the staff.

And I feel very comfortable standing in front of you.

That Team NEO is going to do its part to make sure we know that success happens here in Northeast Ohio.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your questions.

We're about to begin the audience Q&A for those tuning in via our live stream and radio audience.

I'm Steve Auvil Cleveland office managing partner Squire Patton Boggs, a member of the City Club board and a member of Team NEO's board Today, we're joined by Matt Dolan, chief executive at Team NEO, an exemplary leader of an important organization in our region.

Mr.

Dolan is discussing the team work underway to attract more businesses, jobs and opportunities across northeast Northeast Ohio's 14 county region.

We welcome questions from everyone city club members, guests and those joining our live stream at City Club or live radio broadcast at 89.72 Ideastream Public Media.

If you'd like to text a question to Matt Dolan, please text it to (330)541-5794.

That's (330)541-5794 and City Club staff will try to work it into the program.

May we have our first question, please?

so I'm Councilman Slife.

I represent Ward 15 on Cleveland City Council.

And the fact that we always text A 330 number in Cuyahoga County, I think is one of the reasons why I've been advocating for a long time that the fragmentation of the region into multiple MSAs is a challenge.

I'm a former site selector, just for reference, Dallas and Fort Worth are the same distance apart as Cleveland and Akron.

But in all of the data, Cleveland and Akron are treated separately, so Cleveland doesn't get any of the benefit of being near the University of Akron.

Being near Kent sites available in Twinsburg, that's treated completely separately.

So I've said to you, Mr.

Dolan, that this is a goal of mine.

My understanding is that the determination of MSAs is set by the federal government, specifically the Census Bureau.

So until we get a change in this geographic designation at the federal level, I worry that we're going to be showing up with our alternate data to site selectors who have already done their research and found Cleveland or Akron or wherever to be inadequate for their needs.

What are we doing to make sure that the federal government recognizes this need, that if we are to compete as Cleveland, Akron and Canton simultaneously and in partnership, that we need a redefinition of the metropolitan statistical areas?

And what advocacy can we do up to make sure that that happens?

Thank you.

Sure.

So the first part, look, it's our responsibility to change the narrative.

So that's what we are committing to today.

So as we market outside, as we work with our lead generators, as we go overseas and outside of Ohio, it's our job to create that narrative because, you know, we're we're shakeup.

He's going to be so proud of me.

I'm going to geek out here for a second on stats.

So what we learned is that was our original tent.

We wanted to see if we can get a change MSA.

And we learned that maybe it's the one last thing in the federal government that is purely objective and there's no political influence that can be had.

And so what needs to be achieved?

Again, I won't walk out too much, but in order to emerge an MSA officially, you have to have 25% of commuter traffic going from the largest city in one region to the largest city and the other, and vice versa.

And right now we're probably, I think, 17 and 19%.

We have to get to 25%.

We have to get to 25% by 2028.

So they'll do it by 2030.

We're quite frankly not going to get there.

So we decided, all right, let's do what we can do to change the narrative.

the excitement around here is just palpable.

I mean, I remember the 80s and 90s and it's just amazing.

Also, shout out to jobs, Ohio's advertising in other states because we're getting it in other places.

So my question is the role of talent and how this fits into your strategy, including strategic moves around boomerangs like myself?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Because I pride myself on finishing on time.

They said you need to be done by 12:31.

I finished right at 12:31.

However, that meant I skipped over the talent and workforce section of my speech, getting a feeling that that question is going to come up.

So thank you for doing that look.

Talent and workforce deserves its own City Club panel, and I'm sure it has over the years.

It is the essential part of of what job growth is all about.

Can a company look at northeastern Ohio and say, yes, there's regular talent.

There's produced talent every year.

Well, here's what we know at Team NEO.

The facts are we're not going to grow our way out of this.

So we have to understand, though, that the workforce that we need for today's businesses and tomorrow's business is already here, but we have to focus, which means we have to upskill our current employees.

We have to make sure our underemployed have access to credentialed and licensed job so they can live a family, sustainable wage.

And imagine if we said to businesses, you know, every year there's going to be roughly 40,000 new workers coming into your area to fit your needs.

What we have that every year we graduate 40,000 seniors from high school, most of which are not going on to 4 or 2 year universities.

Are we doing enough to make sure that those individuals are prepared to go into the workforce in the jobs that create a family, sustainable wage?

Well, team Neil, we are understanding that we are part of a huge ecosystem and there are many players in this.

So let me just identify you collectively or generally we we are going to lean into the idea that we feel because we talk to so many businesses every day, that we are the collaborator and the coordinator to make sure that businesses in the trade sectors knows what the workforce entities remember.

We have 231 of them in the 14 county region.

We have to hold those 231 accountable.

Are they teaching what our businesses need to have?

Are they understanding where tomorrow goes and our universities and our community colleges need to do the same This suggests that they need to do it.

They're not.

They are.

We're just not doing it at the scale we need to do it.

What are we doing in specific?

Well, we have a connection to career programs where we are going into colleges and universities, and now we are going into K through 12.

And essentially we are teaching the teachers and the guidance counselor how to connect with businesses, how to make sure that the curriculum that you're teaching matches up with what your local businesses need.

And of course, with jobs.

Ohio, we have a talent acquisition services, which means once we get you here, we're going to make sure that we work with you beyond the signing of the deal, to make sure that we match you up with a workforce entity that's going to produce the workers that you need, and we're going to help subsidize that.

Now, real quick.

There are a couple of programs that we need to make sure we get out there.

One is a relocation grant.

Relocation grant is saying if you are a company in the industry sectors and you meet the 71 criteria for the jobs that we're looking for, you will your company will receive $15,000 per person that you bring from out of state to a permanent job here in Northeast Ohio or Ohio.

Second, in August, jobs, Ohio and Team NEO and all the partners are rolling out and Earn and Learn program, which, again, is designed to fill a need in our industry.

And right now we're starting with technicians.

So we need to upskill our employees.

We need to retrain employees and retrain the underemployed.

What this is is an opportunity for businesses to have access to $10,000 per employee so that they get they get their employees the training that they need to do to meet their demands.

So it's a it's a huge, huge part of what we need to accomplish.

And, you know, bit by bit, we're going to we're going to take it on.

But we shouldn't underestimate this.

What I said earlier, none of us are in the top 25.

The workforce collectively with the top eight in manufacturing.

So we have the workforce here.

We just need to make sure it meets the business needs.

Thank you, Senator, and thanks for coming to the City Club.

You are always welcome here.

Talk to us about the impact of the incredibly aggressive immigration changes on jobs in Ohio, and specifically on both the low end service jobs, health care providers, retail needs and the highest end educational jobs and opportunities.

And are we committing are we committing economic suicide with our immigration practices?

Thanks.

So I'm going to, you know, to find that question in the space that I'm aware of in the trade sectors, because certainly there's an impact across all economies.

But we know what the impact is on trade sectors.

So first let's talk on the high end.

Yeah.

We have seen a decrease amongst our 25 universities and colleges of foreign students coming to get their education in the United States.

And we also understand that while some do come here and leave, a lot do not.

In fact, I know cases here and they've made a concerted effort to make sure that their foreign students get hooked up early with job opportunities here so they, in fact stay here.

So that is a big chunk of degreed skill set that we need in Northeast Ohio that is not generating.

We also recognize that when we go overseas, you know, we could have a debate about the immigration policy, whether it's illegal immigration, valid immigration, it's clearly a story.

And the companies looked like this, you know, even if we while them with all the the statistics that say it's going to make you better, you're you're going to pencil out.

They ask us pretty blunt questions.

Are we going to be able to get some workers in if I, if I go back and forth am I going to be stopped at immigration?

You know, so whether it's real or not, it is having an impact.

And certainly as you go around and talk to particularly factory owners.

And what we have seen is that it is harder and harder for them to get a workforce, particularly after the news came out a few years ago.

And now we'll see what happens with the Supreme Court yesterday.

So the answer to your question is yes, it is definitely having an impact.

It is something that we need to work on and recognize that legal immigration has had a big positive impact, not only on our culture, but it is certainly a factor in our workforce.

I was intrigued by your mention of the international lead generators abroad.

So my question is, who are these international lead generators and how do you find them?

Well, that's easy for me.

I just say, Mindy.

Mindy McLaughlin's our global development strategy leader.

So she's the one that goes out so, so in her time.

But what what the purpose was, is to go and work with people who are economic development experts and host nation experts, understand what we need to achieve, what industries we're going after, begin to create those relationships.

As I said, create the intentionality that I talked about with Mindy and other on our team to make sure that we are, in fact, narrowing in on the right companies who have who have the right to win here.

And look, this is the first time we've had it.

So there might be some trial and error, some might work out, some we're going to have to reframe.

But again, it's the idea that the Cleveland Akron Canton region now has boots in the ground 365 days a year in three continents.

That's something we haven't had before.

I'm Katie McKinley, Katie Capers McKinley, and I'm a kid from Akron who moved to Columbus in 2017.

I married a Saint Louis native, and we came back up here so we could go to law school.

I want to thank you and your staff, especially Kendra, who I think I saw somewhere here for hosting the Ohio Women in Government for an event really demonstrated your interest in engaging with us.

I asked a question at that event that ended up taking the rest of the time.

I asked the first question at that event, and we talked about it for, I don't know, Kendra 20 minutes.

And my question was when I came back, when I came back home from Columbus, I noticed that there were so many different people and organizations who all believed that they were doing something important and great, and that they weren't working together.

What is the impact at the state government level?

What's the impact in financial terms on the amount of capital that ends up in this region as a result of that fragmentation, in your opinion?

Well, first of all, I won't take 20 minutes.

So the people behind you.

I'm also going to embarrass Kendra since she already got a shout out.

It's her birthday today, so happy birthday Kendra.

So I'm just going to speak from that from a couple other hats that I warn, you know, Cleveland and Akron and Canton and all our cities.

They do individually very well, but it's usually around capital dollars.

It's usually around a one off project, you know, can we get a building built?

Can we improve our cultural center?

Can we get a theater downtown?

You know, that's pretty well done up here.

But when we look at the policy initiatives, that would have a real impact on what happens here in Northeast Ohio, we're not as good.

Look, we represent 40% of the state's economy.

But if you look backwards on our history, you know, we are the ones that drove Ohio.

We were the ones that drove United States.

But because of that, we have unique challenges.

So we need policies that would help us remediate buildings that need to be raised, that properties that need mediation for environmental issues, that we need upfront money to get our sites more ready.

And we've seen an erosion of that over the years because they just don't understand.

It doesn't make sense for their community.

I represent a rural community.

We don't have environmental issues to that level.

We don't need to spend that much money as a state.

Well we do, we do.

So one of the things to in your coordination is we need to recognize that we not only need to speak to as one voice outside of the region, but when there is opportunities to say this public policy would make a huge difference.

On the on the impact of Northeast Ohio.

We need to come together collectively on that.

And we're working.

I know GCP works hard on Akron, Chamber works hard on, but we need the business community to get behind it.

We need to be able to say, you want Northeast Ohio to be that impactful part of our state.

Well, give us the policy that we need to make sure it can happen.

I am Bob Barker with Hanna Commercial Real Estate.

We've seen a lot of deals get canceled for local impediments, whether it's zoning or city council or moratoriums.

You've mentioned how can Team NEO help with that?

Well, I mean, I think we see a lot of deals.

I can't say we see a lot of our deals canceled for that reason.

I think over the past, I would say eight months, if we've seen a deal canceled or stalled, it really is more dealing with macro economic issues than maybe that's something local.

That doesn't mean that there are individual spots throughout our region that are can be difficult to work with.

And I'm just going to make a generality here.

Look, being in politics and now seeing it from this side, you know, information is key, but accurate information will get results.

I mean, we just don't talk about what is real anymore.

We talk about what somebody feels or read somewhere and that becomes their fact.

And their fact then ignores the idea that there's there's an expert who will say something different.

So, you know, let's just say sometimes it's you're a township trustee, you ran for township trustee because you care about your community.

You want to see it get better.

You had no clue that when you're a township trustee and there's a piece of property that someone was talking about, data center, that you're going to be in a shopping mall one day and you're going to have constituents coming up screaming at you.

How can you allow this evil to happen in our backyard?

So they get a little cautious, they get a little shrinking.

And instead of saying, well, let's just take the time and let's figure out what's right and what's wrong, and maybe we can work with them to take care of those issues.

We tend to react really quick, go to those moratoriums, go to the zoning, shut it down.

And as I said earlier, that's the chilling effect that we're starting to see.

Hello.

Hi, I'm Holly Rowe.

I'm on the committee.

The HIMSS and the Center of Excellence committee, and we do a lot of work with AI.

And I was just wondering if you're working on a framework with between the companies training the workforce, how they're going to use the AI and how we're going to protect our workforce from being replaced?

So first of all, I have to say, because I'm sure the team is looking at me going, if I say anything about technology, they're going to laugh.

So I'm going to speak in terms of economic development.

So clearly what I said before is we have to recognize that that is a change that is happening, and our willingness to provide incentives for that to happen here needs to change with it.

But here's from talking to businesses.

Here's what I see.

And this is what I hear.

If a business is using AI to be more productive, they're successful.

If a business is using AI to cut staff, their productivity sometimes is not as great.

So I think it's coming, it's here.

And businesses just have to know how to use it to make sure that there is most productive and competitive as they can be.

Hello.

Our last question is the text question.

It says what messages and stories about north east northeast Ohio are resonating most strongly?

In which nations what what stories are resonating?

What stories about Northeast Ohio are resonating most strongly?

In which nations?

Okay.

So again, I'm going to I'm not going to say stories because we don't play in the story we play in.

This is why it works for you.

Here's what we're seeing is that the opportunities, aerospace and space right now and the opportunities that's coming to NASA, Glenn and Armstrong out in Erie County are real and something we have not seen before.

And so what we are, what we are seeing is that they're looking at Northeast Ohio to say, boy, with the programs that we anticipate coming out of Glenn, we want to be part of that.

We want to come here.

We want to use the test facilities.

We want to commercialize what's happening that is real.

The other thing that's real is that, you know, Akron has always been known as the rubber capital.

Guess what?

Now they're being known as the polymer capital.

We are on the brink of being the materials, the advanced materials capital of the world.

Akron University runs one of the best programs in polymers in the nation.

We have companies here creating an industry.

You know, that is what we are selling.

You know, our fastest growing business last year was food processing.

It didn't reach the numbers, but that we would want.

But the percentage is why our location, you know, we're a day's drive from 66% of the United States population.

We don't have natural disasters.

Now we have a map that we show all the national disasters around the country, and there's one spot that's white and that's us.

Now we usually get laughter.

Until you tell them, guess what Your insurance costs are here in Northeast Ohio compared to Florida.

California in Illinois.

So the story is our cost of living, our quality of life.

The reality is we need to target those sectors that know that they can come here and win.

Thank you to Matt Dolan for joining us at the City Club today.

Once again, I'm Steve Auvil Cleveland, office managing partner of Squire Patton Boggs, a member of Team N Forums like this are made possible thanks to generous support from individuals like you.

You can learn more about how to become a guardian of free speech at City Club.

Today's forum is part of the City Club's Building Success Series, presented with support of Huntington Bank.

It is also the John W Barkley Memorial Forum.

Mr.

Barkley was a City club member for 70 years, joining in 1916, just three years after the founding of the City Club.

He began his career as a social worker and had several jobs in Cleveland, the Cleveland school system.

Before joining my law firm known by many of us, Squire, Sanders, and Dempsey, Mr.

Barkley also served as the mayor of Shaker Heights in the 1950s.

We are grateful for the support of the Barkley family who have made this annual forum possible.

Thank you once again, Matt Dolan, to our members in friends of the City Club.

This forum is now adjourned.

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