Editor’s Note: “The Economic Development Side” originally appears in the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce’s weekly member e-newsletter. It is written by Rhonda Dishner, the Economic Development Alliance’s executive assistant.
Members of the prestigious Site Selectors Guild held their seventh annual conference March 19-21 in Cincinnati, OH.
Although not a member, the Economic Development Alliance’s president, Lou Ann Nisbett, was in attendance. She’s been to all seven of the group’s annual conferences, including the 2017 meeting in Little Rock. She attends the conferences because, as noted in the welcome letter of this year’s program, they create “a unique and unmatched opportunity for networking and interaction with guild members.”
Site Selectors Guild is the only world-wide professional association of site selection consultants. The guild sets a high standard for membership; its list includes less than 50 consultants. And only a limited number of conference registrations by non-member economic developers are accepted each year. Nisbett makes a point of being among those selected to hear from the panelists and make use of those publicized networking and interaction opportunities.
In addition to the latest information on the usual topics such as labor-force needs, economic incentives, site development, energy, and the site selection process itself, Nisbett reports that a new-to-the-picture aspect surfaced this year that was highlighted in some related way by most of the experts who spoke.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
She said the keynote speaker, an architect and the co-CEO of the #1 ranked global design firm, called it “disruptive technologies,” using the phrase to encompass automation technology that’s coming quickly—and especially in the automobile industry. He also noted that most people haven’t really given it much thought.
As it relates to business, “disruptive” means a radical change involving a new product or service.
Recognized as a key contributor to his company’s pioneering design innovation strategies, the principal speaker was mainly talking about the transportation revolution of driverless cars and trucks. In his talk, he said there are currently about 260 million drivers in the United States. Within the next 12-15 years, gas-powered cars will no longer be the norm in favor of electric and alternative fuel sources being considered and perfected. And automobiles and fleet trucks will be driving themselves.
This future possibly could include less vehicles—and less environmental issues—as ride sharing or ride hailing services, bike lanes, walking lanes, etc., gain acceptance and popular support.
Those predicted changes bring up a range of questions to ponder, the speaker said, referring to future uses for massive parking lots, gas station real estate reuse, car insurance costs, safety in and around a car that’s driving itself, cybersecurity threats, and highway design—to name a few.
After that thought-proving talk kicked off the main conference program, Nisbett heard the technology and robotics theme repeated in most of the panel discussions that followed. It’s definitely something to think about, she acknowledged.
“This is what’s coming,” Nisbett said, explaining that many good jobs in the future will be connected to designing, building, operating or maintaining the automation that sometimes displaces other workers.
“So it’s our community’s job today,” she added, “to make sure our emerging and current workforce understands this and is developing the skills necessary to fill these positions.”