Source: refdesk.com

Do you wish there was a quick way to find out about websites that are credible and current?

Wish you could find an article on a website you saw three months ago, but the url has changed and you can’t locate what you need?

Want a quality check of a site before you take the trouble to visit it?

Then set aside a minute first to go to www.refdesk.com’s Site of the Day (Refdesk.com – Site of the Day Archive).

Refdesk.com serves as a “fact checker for the Internet” and provides” indexes and reviews of quality, credible, and current web-based resources.” The Site of the Day highlights a site it finds of interest and that you might too, with topics ranging from health to coupon sites to images from NASA and more. Here are a few of the featured gems: Continue Reading

Source: Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation

For 2012, the unemployment rate dropped and the overall business creation rate dropped too.  Coincidence?

Not according to Dane Stangler, the director of research at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The foundation – the world’s largest devoted to entrepreneurship – recently released its annual Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, an interactive report of annual entrepreneurial activity nationally, by state and by select MSAs, dating back as far as 1996 (Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity).

Stangler notes, “While a stronger economy is good for business growth, it also means the unemployed find jobs instead of starting firms,” and the data backs him up. In 2012, there were approximately 514,000 new business owners per month as compared to 543,000 per month in 2011, with the overall decline in business creation rates driven entirely by a significant decline in rates among men. Entrepreneurial activity remained unchanged for women, though men still held a substantially higher rate of business creation than women.

In the TVA region, it is noteworthy that Mississippi was among the highest rates of entrepreneurial activity in the country.  Also, Georgia is one that has experienced the largest increase in entrepreneurial rates over the past decade. Continue Reading

Courtesy of Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau

Congratulations to the Nashville region for being ranked No. 1 in job creation in the United States.

Based on the newly released job growth numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 the Nashville region saw a 3.9 percent growth in jobs over the 2011 data – the highest in the nation.

“Leading the nation in job growth is a reflection of the vitality and attractiveness of the entire Middle Tennessee … Continue Reading

The National League of Cities recently released its Annual Local Economic Conditions Survey.  This paper and email survey gauges the performance of local economic indicators and drivers as assessed by city officials. The survey presents a mixed bag of conflicting signals:

• Workforce skills are not keeping pace with employer demand
• Small improvements have been made in housing starts, commercial and residential property values, business activity and health of the retail sector
• Continued lack of growth in incomes and employment

Workforce Skills – Fifty-three percent of city officials surveyed nationally report that workforce skills are not keeping pace with employer demands, highlighting the changing nature and composition of the economy. Local workforces are lacking the skill sets that match demand. An additional concern among city officials is the lack of growth in the postsecondary degree population in their communities. As the report points out, workforce concerns, coupled with the failure to meet the basic needs of the most vulnerable populations (i.e., food, heating and clothing), signals structural versus cyclical economic challenges. These are serious barriers to sustained economic growth. Continue Reading

TVA has an affiliation with the Professional Learning Laboratory, a network of professional economic development trainers and their guests, who offer webinars on topics specifically designed for the economic development practitioner, their staff, and supporters. The webinars are offered at a discount for individuals or groups through the TVA registration link below.

Webinar: Seeing What’s Next – Trends Impacting Economic Development

Presented by:  Steve Grable,  Jones Lang LaSalle; Ted Abernathy, Southern Growth Policy Board; Dean Whittaker, Whittaker Associates, Inc.

Dates:  Thursday, April 25, 2013

Time:  1:00 P.M. Central; 2:00 P.M. Eastern

Register Now

What the Webinar Will Cover

While the future may not be knowable, it is certainly thinkable. As a leader, it is important for you to recognize the trends that will be impacting you and those you serve and know how you can prepare to benefit from these changes. Seeing what’s next can enable you to better serve your clients. You can help them to anticipate change rather than just react to the changes taking place around us.

This webinar is intended to provide you with insight into the major trends impacting economic development and corporate real estate in North America.  You and your organization will benefit from understanding the fundamentals of these changes and how you can capitalize on them.

Join the conversation to learn about: Continue Reading

Economic development professionals are in the community service business, so finding ways to help our communities on a pro bono basis ought to be easier than it sometimes is.

One strategy to finding ways to make a difference is to consider what we have to offer. As businesspeople, we know about business. Recently, employees in TVA Economic Development in Nashville made a difference for local high school business students by sharing our expertise. We partnered with students from McGavock High School in Nashville on a Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee program to create a new business and, in the process, an outstanding learning experience.

TVA’s Jerome Terrell, Haley Rogers, Joie Brown and other TVA staff volunteered over a 14-week period to support the students in building their own business from scratch. As part of Junior Achievement’s JA Company program, the students elected officers, chose a product and a name, sold stock and product, then liquidated their company by returning the stockholders’ original investment. Continue Reading

LinkedIn’s use as a professional business tool continues to rapidly evolve. Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn’s global membership has grown to more than 200 million users in 200 countries, including 74 million in the U.S. As the network continues to expand, feature updates have made it easier for members to stay on top of professional connections and industry trends.

LinkedIn search is the latest tool with enhanced features. In the last year alone, more than 5.7 billion searches were submitted on LinkedIn. Millions of professionals connect with each other through LinkedIn search. With the latest updates, search is getting even smarter and more streamlined. A unified search experience now eliminates the need to search for people, companies or jobs separately. Continue Reading

TVA and Deloitte Consulting have approved the first metro-area primary data center site in Corridor Park in Knoxville.

Corridor Park is located on the Tennessee Technology Corridor, equally distant between Knoxville’s McGhee Tyson Airport and Oak Ridge. Corridor Park’s designated land use is for data centers and advanced scientific and technology research, as well as office, manufacturing and warehousing uses.

TVA has hired Chicago-based Deloitte Consulting to identify and evaluate locations for data centers in the seven-state TVA service area. Deloitte’s study found the 10.6-acre site in Knoxville readily accessible to transportation, with a strong telecommunications infrastructure and full availability of reliable electricity—all criteria for a primary site for a data center company. Continue Reading

Since 1978, Site Selection magazine has been handing out annual Governor’s Cups to the chief executives of the states with the highest number of capital investment projects the previous calendar year. It’s kind of the Oscars of economic development.

While no one in the TVA service area got to write an acceptance speech this year, there was a peculiar geographical slant to the results that shows economic development in our region is working.

As a matter of fact, we are excited that five of the top 10 contenders for the 2012 Governor’s … Continue Reading

It seems very difficult to get and keep anyone’s attention in today’s fast-paced, video and technology information-driven world. Might it be time to start a new campaign called *”Be Here Now,” both in our business and personal lives? To help you decide, let’s look at a few scenarios where people could be judged to be inattentive, or possibly even rude. Continue Reading