Leaders look beyond front yard – Alliance oversees creation of Regional Business Plan

In today’s world and today’s economy, no city in a metropolitan region is an island.

Which is why area business leaders are forging a regional business plan that will incorporate voices and issues from across Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties and Clark County, Wash.

“No one area or sector within the region drives the economy,” said Jonathan Schlueter, executive director of the Westside Economic Alliance, a nonprofit organization representing businesses in the west-side suburbs. “It’s all interrelated. When the region benefits, we benefit, and vice versa.”

Modeled after the Oregon Business Plan http://www.oregonbusinessplan.org/ , a 2002 initiative of the Oregon Business Council, the Regional Business Plan aims to be a long-term business strategy for the Portland metropolitan region.

The effort, coordinated by the Portland Business Alliance, brings together companies such as Intel Corp. and Nike Inc. as well as area chambers of commerce, business alliances and agencies such as Metro.

The PBA is coordinating meetings with the various chambers and county business leaders to help find the “commonality of vision” that will help unify the regional plan, said Sandra McDonough, president of the PBA.

Like the statewide plan, the regional version will focus on four major strategy areas: people, places, productivity and pioneering innovation. Under each of those come strategies, from supporting industry clusters to investing in education.

By JON BELL

Full Story: http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=30170

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Business group aims at regional issues

Waukesha County organization plans to work with Milwaukee leaders
By LISA SINK
[email protected]

A Waukesha County version of the Greater Milwaukee Committee has been launched, poised to promote regional cooperation and economic development inside and outside county borders.

Although the group initially will focus on issues in Waukesha County, it hopes to team with its Milwaukee counterpart to improve the quality of life for the entire region, said former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow, who proposed the idea a year ago.

Dubbed the Waukesha County Action Network, or "We CAN," the group of business leaders will concentrate on improving the local economy, public education, cultural and arts activities, and infrastructure such as sewer and water resources, Farrow said.

Full Story: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wauk/jun05/330786.asp