Greetings and welcome to Friday! Will it be a damp weekend? You bet it will! But blue skies and gray whale spouts can’t be too far off, can they?
Here’s our weekly staff update:
Blue Economy::
On Tuesday, I trekked to Corvallis for a face-to-face with Rachael Maddock-Hughes (Sequoia Consulting) to discuss progress on the O2IH 5091c3 creation and upcoming blue grant prospecting. Mark Farley and I have a meeting set up next week with the Eastern Research Group to discuss a deeper dive into blue economy data beyond the scope of the report that was prepared for the legislature. We also received our preliminary executive summary on the coastal green methanol research project we’re funding through our CDS award – a more detailed summary report will be coming soon that I’ll share out to the team. – Paul
Broadband::
A lot of discussion on broadband this week, with the monthly Broadband Action Team (BAT) meeting and our EDA broadband planning steering committee meeting. The first news is that the BTAP grant program (a state program funded with federal dollars) for broadband planning and technical assistance has been delayed (it was supposed to be live this month), but the grant fund pool has been expanded from $1.5M to $6.5M. We’re starting some exploratory conversations on if it would make sense for EDALC to apply and manage a planning grant for the benefit of all Lincoln County (and potentially regional stakeholders). The BEAD funding (the major federal infrastructure funding) looks like it won’t go live until 2024 – frustrating, but allows time for better planning. It’s looking like it makes sense for EDALC to step up and take a leadership role in local and regional “cat herding” to ensure we’re doing all we can as a region. We’ll start diving into what that might look like next week. – Paul
Community Connecting::
Some excerpts from Leslie’s report (link below):
I joined Jason Holland and Laura Kimberly on Saturday, April 8th, at Newport Public Library for the first of the series of discussions on what a Newport Cultural District could become. The participants filled the McEntee Room and Jason is compiling the group’s feedback.
As Paul mentioned in last week’s board update, I was just in Puerto Vallarta, where I soaked up a lot of incredible public art: murals, architecture, outdoor performance spaces, and even play-inspiring interactive art. I discovered a herd of adult-sized rocking horses on the Malecon! Of course, I couldn’t resist trying them out – I laughed uncontrollably and got a quality core workout. Seeing examples of public art ideas mentioned in the first Cultural District discussion was energizing. I’ve brought that inspiration back with me for future phases of the Cultural District effort.
Here’s a link to Leslie’s always informative and thought-provoking full report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_o_lhP_vOAeQPM-lllCXqy7WOS0nM6hXO_SK8sd4j8A/edit?usp=sharing
Creative Economies::
For ART Toledo this week, I attended the ART Toledo meeting Thursday morning and then created artist profiles for the new phantom gallery artists. After, I updated the homepage, phantom gallery page, and the opportunities page. – Sarah
Entrepreneurship Events::
Sarah and I have been exploring different “swag” options for our four entrepreneurial ecosystems events this year (we want some swag that is desirable, useful and raises awareness). It looks like we’ll be developing a “field notes” style custom pocket notebook. We’ve got two providers that we’re looking at, and will nail down the design and provider early next week. We also have our speakers lined up for our May 11th FailFest event at the PAC. – Paul
This week for the Fail Fest event I continued to work on the Fail Fest video and added quotes about failure. I also added the fail fest to the entrepreneur slider, made a fail fest planning section on Monday.com, and created a marketing calendar leading up to the event. On Thursday and Friday, I worked on a press release for the event. Lastly, I did some research on some merchandise for the event and reached out to the SBDC about bringing some business resources. – Sarah
Project Work::
On Monday, I discussed some options and resources with a local woman who owns a gallery and is looking to rent it out, and on Thursday I met with her in her gallery to develop a marketing plan for the property. On Tuesday I put the spring newsletter on the EDALC website and read Oregon’s Emerging Industries report. I continued to work on the Board meeting minutes on Wednesday and Friday. I updated the entrepreneur slider on Tuesday and Friday. On Friday, I updated Oregon Prospector listings. – Sarah
Supporting and Connecting with Partners::
LCSD – Last night, Karen hosted local leaders at the third annual school district leadership gathering. It was awesome to see so many EDALC board members there! What a great event to connect, converse and keep the collaborative dialog going. Way to go Karen (and your amazing team)! – Paul
NOW – This week saw the return of the quarterly economic development and SBDC connect-and-share meeting for the Northwest Oregon Works region. Heather DeSart convened this meeting in the past, but COVID put it on hold (one of the last meetings was my first official meeting here at EDALC). It’s a great opportunity to connect with a larger region (larger than our own CWEDD economic development district), and also to hear what’s going on in the Colpac (north coast) economic development district. – Paul
Letters of Support – This week, we prepared two letters of support for partner funding requests: for the Port of Newport for a Port Infrastructure Improvement Program application and one to the Oregon Broadband Office for second-year funding for the Faster Internet Oregon Initiative.
As a reminder – your Board of Directors resource page is here:
Have wonderful weekend! Thanks for ALL that you are doing out there! Please reach out to me if you need anything at all. Have a wonderful weekend!
Cheers,
-Paul 🙂