(lively upbeat music) - Welcome to Business Forward.

I'm your host, Matt George joining me tonight, Chris Setti.

Chris is the CEO of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council.

Welcome Chris.

- Thanks so much.

I appreciate the opportunity.

- Well, I'm glad you're coming on because I usually go straight into talking about personal stuff first.

But we have so much to talk about.

- All right.

- I'm skipping it.

- Okay.

- All right, so there's a new document out and it's called the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.

And your fingerprints are all over this, right?

- Well, my organization's fingerprints are all over it.

- Okay.

- It's a group effort.

- It's a group effort.

So this is a strategy from 2021 to go to 2025.

Before we get into that document, there was a community, I'm gonna call it a community happening that we had.

It was called the Big Table.

Let's start with what that even means.

- Sure, so the big table, it started about a year and a half ago.

It was an initiative started by the CEO council by a lot of different organizations, my organization, all the regional chambers of commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

We're all a part of this.

And if you remember back in the, when we could...

It almost seems ludicrous now, to even think that we all were able to gather in one room.

And we had about 700 people over the course of a day to talk about the Peoria region.

And what we loved about it and what we were worried about.

And what were some of the challenges that our region faced.

And some of the opportunities we could take advantage of.

It was, there was a lot of great momentum.

And it was really from that first event that we started talking about this Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.

We'll get to a little bit later.

That, the work of of the Big Table carried forward.

And what we didn't want was like a one day effort where everybody got together and felt good about themselves and the work they'd done and then it just died.

Nobody ever did anything.

So, the group kind of continued on, had follow up conversations.

We held a Big Table events in all of our rural counties, all of our counties in more of the rural areas.

So at I met Amora in Brimfield.

And then we followed up and we had another big table in October of this past year.

Of course, we had to have that via zoom.

But it really covered.

It covered four areas.

It covered quality of life issues, workforce and education, entrepreneurship and innovation.

And then, and I'm losing track of the fourth one at the moment.

But, oh, and diversity and inclusion.

- Yeah.

- Those four issues as a platform for people to really start talking meaningfully about those issues.

- All right, I think what was amazing about it, was from the early start of that, you're hoping for 200 people and 300 people.

And then all of a sudden, you start seeing this uptick.

Which told me a story.

And it means to me personally, that this community cares.

- Absolutely.

- Absolutely, I believe that we all love, where we live.

And I think it's... Or at least we want it to be better, right?

And there were a lot of time invested in that day.

There was a lot of time and money spent just to plan both that day and the online version.

But a lot of people took a day off of work, and sat through all four sessions.

- Yeah.

- And we're there all day long.

And I do think that means a lot when we get that level of input which was why it was important that we just didn't waste it on the one day, but tried to move that forward.

Use the information and the feedback and the energy from that data to keep moving forward.

- So what is Many Voices, One Vision?

- Pardon?

- Many voices... - Many One Voices, One Vision, right?

- Yeah.

- Is that, we each... And it respects the diversity of the people that were gathered.

- Yeah.

- They came from lots of different backgrounds.

They have lots of different experiences.

Some of them are transplants to the Peoria area like myself.

- And myself.

- Oh, and yourself, right?

Some people born and bred here.

Folks that are in the corporate world, some in the nonprofit world, some folks that have never had a job.

But the idea that we might have, that we can share in all those voices.

But we all have this common vision of moving the Peoria area forward.

- So, this is a region of the strategy.

This is a regional initiative.

Am I correct?

- Right, so maybe just a little bit of a framing.

So, the U.S. Economic Development Administration has been around since the 70s.

And they are a federal agency under the U.S. department of commerce.

And they work in regions to help regions come up with economic development plans because they recognize that economic development isn't just a city thing or isn't just at the neighborhood level.

And economic development is really a regional thing.

You are the head of an organization that has a regional pull to it, right?

You've got facilities across many locations.

You've got employees that come from all over.

- Right.

- And that economic development is best when it's thought of in a regional context.

And so our organization is what's called the District Planning Organization for EDA, for Greater Peoria Economic Development Council.

Works with EDA to create these plans every five years.

So the last plan was actually the focus forward plan that was actually developed in 2012.

But really wasn't formulated into the CEDS, Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy till 2015, 2016.

So it was time for us to really renew our efforts at looking at this, a regional plan around economic development.

And we decided to call it the Big Table and brand it as such because that was really the basis upon which it was built from a public input standpoint was the importance of those conversations at the Big Table events.

Really fueled the creation of this regional strategy.

- And when I was talking to you a couple of weeks ago, you said, it's a 50 page document.

And I'm sitting here thinking, oh, my goodness, I'm not probably gonna not read the whole thing, to be honest with you.

I read the whole thing because that's how important I think it is right now.

This strategy actually has legs and it feels good.

So, we talk about building partnerships.

And a lot of times, it's lip service.

I mean it really is.

Because a lot of times, you'll sit here and you'll see people that should be collaborating, not collaborating.

And I think the Big Table brought everybody to the table, so to speak.

And are you feeling that?

Is your committee feeling that with putting - I think.

this strategy together?

Absolutely!

So the first thing that we did that, from my board was that we wanted the committee that worked on this to be as diverse as it could be.

And reach as many stakeholders as we could.

Because as you read through the document, it isn't just kind of the traditional work that my organization would do about business attraction.

- Right.

(Matt clearing throat) - There are facets because economic developments are very broad topic.

And a lot of different types of work.

There's information in there about health outcomes, housing, transportation, tourism, things that we, frankly, as a day-to-day organization have nothing to do with.

So we needed to build the capacity within the said strategy team to have that.

So if you look, I think it's on page two or page three, is the list of the people who are contributors to this.

- Right.

- And it's a vast.

- Vast.

- It was a big, it was like a 35 member committee which is difficult in its own right.

But it had people like, from Tri-County Regional Planning Commission and the Convention and Visitors Bureau and the health departments.

Because they were important parts of the conversation.

But even more than that, what we really took a look at, and we had an intern that did this who read like every plan that every organization had been involved with.

To make sure, and we, as a shorthand way called the CEDS document, the plan of plans.

That we wanted it to be reflected in this master plan.

The work that a lot of organizations were already doing and making sure that they understood that they weren't doing that work in a silo but they were part of a bigger initiative.

So when the partnership for the healthy communities is talking about healthy eating and active living.

That they realized that there's an economic development lens through which that can be seen.

That people need to be able to be live healthy lifestyles in order to be good employees and avoid some of the burdens of being unhealthy.

- Right.

- So, that's why the word comprehensive is the most important part - Right.

of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.

Cause it is supposed to be all encompassing.

- That's a great analogy.

One that I've used in the past is, it's when you take like truancy as an example and kids don't have a place to sleep, and aren't having breakfast in the morning, who cares whether they get to school on time.

Because they didn't have a place to stay.

It's the same type of mentality.

- Right, and if we're gonna move our economy forward.

We have to make sure it moves forward for everyone.

And there are multiple barriers that either individuals or even our businesses or our communities are facing.

And it takes a group effort.

- Yeah.

And everybody's got their part to play.

But as long as they all recognize they're on the same team with the same goal.

So get this, Many Visions, we said earlier, Many Voices, One Vision.

Many hands, one work.

- What is interesting too, is?

And I love the SWAT analysis that you did.

And how long did it take to do that?

Because there's a lot of good information on that.

- Yeah, so we, it took us about 18 months to put this whole document together.

And just a nod to the designers of the...

It's 50 pages, but it's 50 readable pages.

- It's very readable, that is my point.

- Very.

We wanted to make it a legible document, an accessible document, a pretty document.

Something that people would read that it had graphs and some pictures.

That wasn't overly wrought with taxed.

I've seen CEDS that have been done before that are 82 pages - And it just came through our shelf.

- 12.5, right?

And so our goal was to make it something that people might actually pick up and read.

But the SWAT analysis was, is really an important part because it, the CEDS has basically four parts to it.

The first is just an explanation of what it means to say, what is our regional economy?

And then it goes into the SWAT analysis.

We had some really great conversations that we actually had to revisit because of COVID.

We had to check cause we had developed all of that SWAT analysis.

And we were actually close to the end of this document in March of 2020.

(Matt laughing) - And then.

- You thought you were.

(Matt laughing) - Yeah, we thought we were.

And then Dr. Bender, who I know you spoke with said, he is the analogy that Mike Tyson had.

That everyone has a plan till you get punched in the face.

And that's really what happened in this last year.

So we actually went back and looked at our SWAT analysis to make sure that some of the things we might've said were strengths are they now weaknesses.

Or some of the things that might be weaknesses, might they be strengths.

And really try to refine that because we do, have some really amazing strengths in this community.

- Yeah.

- But we would be lying if we thought that we were perfect, obviously.

And so the SWAT analysis was a really intentional look at the things that make up the DNA of our region.

And what are the things that then fuel that next part which is that action plan.

Based on, how do you capitalize on your strengths?

Minimize your weaknesses, take advantage of opportunities and minimize your threats.

- Right, so the action plan will trigger outcomes.

How do you track outcomes?

Like what are you... How do you track progress?

- Sure, so there's a couple of ways to track progress.

So the action plan is broken up into four different goal areas.

So the first one's around economy and business really.

It's all about the economy.

So we kind of debated what to even call that one.

(Matt laughing) But the shorthand is the economy.

But it's really about business creation and business growth.

The second one is around workforce development and education.

The third is just around our quality of life.

And how do we improve that?

And then the fourth is how do we capitalize on our natural resources?

Which is something that we don't often think about, is what amazing natural resources that we have in the region.

So there's a series of objectives within each goal area and strategies, and then tactics.

So first is just the, I would call it the anecdotal tracking of this organization takes ownership over this particular strategy.

So the Regional Workforce Alliance which I think you're might be a part of through the CEO council, is taking over the... Or is taking ownership of how do we get career pathways, right?

- Right.

- Or people with multiple barriers to employment.

- Right.

- So we'll be able to track that what are the successes that they're having in developing programming.

But there's a whole evaluation matrix in the back.

That really talks about, okay, how are we doing?

That if we say we want more jobs, do we have more jobs?

- Right.

- How are we doing?

Recognizing life has a way of getting in the way, right?

You could have been humming all along on job creation and then COVID happens.

And, a lot of job loss.

But still being able to... We're gonna be building out a website here in the next few months to really be able to put some transparency around this.

- Okay, good.

- So that we can see where we are.

The point of evaluation matrix is not to cast blame or say, oh, you're not doing your job right?

And so what's working and what isn't working?

And how can we use data to make more decisions about what maybe needs more or less emphasis.

(Matt laughing) It's not a I got you moment.

- Right, absolutely.

- You're exactly right.

Let's improve our economy, our... Everything about middle Illinois, let's just get better.

And reading this document, that's what it felt like.

So what role does diversity, equity and inclusion play in the strategy?

- Yeah, I think that's very important.

And I even alluded to it earlier.

That the region can't move forward if not all parts of the region are moving forward.

And so, in Peoria County in particular, but it's not at Peoria County, it's not a city of Peoria issue.

It's a regional issue.

It's the racial, economic disparities are, should be considered just a mash of problem in Washington and Morton and Woodford County as they are to the people in the city of Peoria.

Because we need to address this as a region.

And so as you look through the different strategies, many of them can be viewed through that economic disparity lens.

And the, how do we...

So when we're talking about how do we create small businesses, more small businesses?

Then we now should we be thinking, how, what solutions are we building that are also accessible to people, who are in more marginalized communities?

So that's a real challenge.

And it's when we throw out in the document saying, we need to be intentional about the choices that we're making.

And the programs we're putting.

I'm so proud of the Convention and Visitor's Bureau discovery in Peoria and what they did in February.

And highlighting black businesses in... - That was, it was aweseome.

- It was awesome, right?

But it was an intentional moment for them to use what they had as a tool in their marketing efforts to shine a light on on certain types of businesses.

And I think we need to be able to do more of that.

- Yeah, I agree.

And so just kind of leading in.

So recently, I was speaking to Paul Lehman from Distillery Labs.

And, we talk on the show all the time about entrepreneurship and all of that.

And new business creation.

But how do you see this as a driver for this strategy?

How do you even get it started?

You got a lot of people involved with this.

How do you get everybody speaking the same language?

- Well, hopefully the document at least helps start that conversation, right?

- Yes.

- But it is just 51 pages of paper, right?

And so with a lot of goodwill behind it.

But it means nothing if nobody, five years from now, even knows what we're talking about.

So a lot of it, is aligning forces that, I think that sometimes... Somebody once said to me that, that Peoria is really great at building silos too, right?

We're build big yellow machines.

And we also build silos.

The truth is we don't build silos cause at least in silos you're, everything's contained.

The issue here is that we're all working, at sometimes and accidentally across purposes.

So it's really about aligning those forces.

- Yeah.

- So that we've got really great organizations that are helping with entrepreneurs.

That everybody understands what everybody else is doing.

And that we're all part of the same thing.

So Distillery Labs is a big part of what this strategy is.

Because, maybe an underlying theme of the CEDS document is diversification.

Cause it's really about resiliency.

- How, as a region do we become more economically resilient to any kind of shock?

Whether that's the closure of a large business, a natural disaster or this COVID pandemic.

How can we become more resilient?

- Right.

- And we're only gonna be more resilient if we have more small to medium sized businesses.

And so a lot of the underpinnings of the CEDS document is how do we do that?

- Yeah, and leading right into my next thought (Chris laughing) because I talk about a lot on the show.

We were always known as just, not just but manufacturing.

But we're so much more than that.

Agriculture, healthcare, there's so many other places and areas that drive our region.

But I'm gonna throw one out that I'm close to human services.

- Human services is an enormous.

And that's actually, we got some great public comment cause we actually put this out for a public comment.

We actually had some really great public comment from the human services groups that said, hey, you really should take a look at us, as not just part of the social fabric which obvious it is.

And really a big reason we have the quality of life we have, is that we have a social safety net and organizations.

But in and of yourselves as a, just as an employer and the kind of economic impact your company owns employees over 400 people, the Center for Prevention of Abuse, Easterseals, these are big organizations - Big!

we would kill for.

- Everybody's very excited about natural fiber welding which everybody should be.

They have 80 employees.

Now, Center for Prevention of Abuse has 125 employees.

And we don't sometimes celebrate them in the same way and have the same kinds of conversations.

So I do think that, human services as an industry is really important.

Another one we point out in the CEDS, is that I don't think people think about a lot is the insurance industry.

- Yeah, you know what, I don't think about that.

- We don't think about it and we don't, it...

The U.S. government will define what is a cluster.

And we definitely have our manufacturing cluster.

And our insurance industries here doesn't raise to the level of being officially a cluster.

So we call it a micro cluster.

Which is just something we made up.

(Matt laughing) But, Illinois mutual, Pearl insurance, RLI, Pekin insurance.

Those are four companies that obviously... - More.

- And then State Farm just down the road and Country companies.

- Country companies.

Just in the Bloomington normal area.

Not to mention all the individual real estate agents that are selling those products.

But those four companies all here in our immediate backyard are originators.

And those are the...

So we're not Hartford, Connecticut.

We're not Des Moines when it comes to insurance.

But it is another part of our community that we at least should acknowledge as being important.

- It's a very important thread now that you say it.

- Yes.

- Cause when you actually map out all of those companies, - Absolutely.

they're so... - That's, the beauty of the CEDS work is you get to uncover some things you weren't even thinking about.

Because you're right.

We tend to think about the Peoria area as a manufacturing.

And now, obviously now, we're thinking a lot more of it as a healthcare.

And that's the largest employer by industry is healthcare.

And will probably continue to be so with the growth of OSF and UnityPoint, UnityPlace, you're gonna continue to see that, agriculture has always been used.

So the reason that we're here, to begin with.

- New cancer center coming in.

- The new cancer center.

But when we think of agriculture, we tend to think of all of the the corn and the soybeans that are grown and pumpkin.

But we have Libby's plant here.

We have precision planting, which is an innovative company in Treemont and Morton that is an agricultural manufacturing.

The Ag lab, there are places like that.

Agriculture is more than just the farming part of things.

- I wanna bring up something, let's talk attitude for a minute.

Because I think this is pretty important.

And I've been in a lot of meetings with you about there's, people are not always optimistic.

It drives me nuts.

(Chris chuckling) - It drives me nuts too.

And maybe as a...

I'm a relative newcomer, I've only been here for 17 of my 48 years that, and I've lived in Chicago and Denver and Los Angeles and other places.

So I've seen some of the difficulties of other communities.

So I don't think that, that negative attitude that we sometimes hear is something that is exclusive to the Peoria area.

I think there's always just a, probably a sense of dissatisfaction with your current state of being.

But I do know it's something that we need to get over because we live in a really great community.

We have a lot of great things that are at our disposal here in our region.

It's where I've chose to raise my family.

- [Matt] Yeah.

- For the last 17 years and for the next 17 years.

- Me too.

- But I think that was really kind of the impetus behind the Big Table too.

At the beginning was... And I said this somewhere else, no one's gonna love us unless we love ourselves first, right?

(Matt chuckling) And there's something about economic development that is just that man on the street, that person on the street.

And what their attitude is about the place that they live in.

Because you never know who's overhearing your conversation.

- [Matt] Right.

- And how you talk about the place you live might be where rubbing off on people who are trying to make a decision about where to move their company or where to move their home.

And so I think it's important that we have a positive attitude about where we live.

- Yeah and here's something interesting.

I was... You mentioned Ted Bender and you talked about Brian Wright at PNC and yourself and myself and Paul Lehman from Distillery, we're not from here.

- Right.

- But we've made this our home.

Our families have grown up here or are growing up here as we speak.

And I think it is a great place.

- And we made conscious choices to live here, move here.

- [Matt] Yes.

- We were conscripted to move to Peoria- - [Matt] That's exactly right.

- We were... We made the choice.

When I was living in Denver, my wife is from Peoria and I'm from Los Angeles.

We chose Peoria.

And many of us, you, me, others, we've had opportunities to leave if we wanted it to and we've chose to live here.

And that says something about our community that people choose to move here and people choose to stay here.

- And there is a brighter future.

This is a great document, I love the document actually- - [Chris] Thank you.

- You know how many different types of committees and everything that we have talked about- (Chris chuckling) over the past decade of trying to move a region forward.

But this one, I said it earlier, it has legs.

There's something else and I... We don't have enough time to go deep into it.

But there's population loss but there's bigger...

There's cities like Chicago that are losing... Let's get those people to move down to Central Illinois.

- Absolutely.

- That's what we need.

All right, so how can the viewer make change, help make change?

- So, we all play a role in the economy, right?

We're consumers, we're employees.

We might be employers, right?

So I would say... And some of this work is weighty.

And it's not, everybody can't just jump in.

But everybody can do something, right?

First, have a positive attitude, Shop locally.

- [Matt] Shop locally.

- It's by far the thing that you can do the most of, is shop locally.

And care, care for your neighbor, care for your community.

And I think that there's ways to plug in, you can volunteer with lots of the human service agencies- - Yes.

- That we talked about earlier.

- Yep and I'll end with this Chris.

You do great things for our community.

You've got a great team around you.

You care.

That compassion's there.

I love shop local.

(Chris laughing) Eat local.

Keep doing it, keep doing what you're doing.

And we're gonna make this change.

We need to make this change.

- Absolutely.

- [Matt] So thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you.

- That we appreciate it.

So this wraps another show.

I'm Matt George, another episode of Business Forward.

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