Have you heard the buzz about the Florida Eight and wondered what it was? Read below for more information and don’t forget to visit their website: www.floridaeight.com

WHAT IT IS:

The Florida Eight initiative provides regional teams with a variety of facilitation services and resources to build their regional capacity for economic development, talent development, job retention and international business opportunities—all priorities outlined in Governor Rick Scott’s 7-7-7 Jobs Plan. Through Workforce Florida’s investment—and consistent with its mission to strengthen the state’s business climate through talent development—this initiative provides research, marketing and other resources to up to eight regional teams as they establish and implement business development plans.

WHERE IT IS FOCUSED:

The initiative supports the economic development regional model used by Enterprise Florida and the Florida Economic Development Council and recognizes the local and regional differences in a large state such as Florida. To that end, regions have the flexibility to form custom teams beyond the outlined boundaries. Regions serve as economic catalysts by collaborating to attract, retain and grow businesses. By allowing the eight regions to form teams for coordination and partnership, based on their respective industry and talent needs, The Florida Eight provides a great deal of flexibility to ensure the teams can best identify how to advance their economic and workforce priorities and interests.

THE TEAMS:

Regional Business Teams (RBTs) are flexible, but need to include regional workforce boards and economic development organizations, and extend into necessary partners like higher education, regional partnerships and other enterprises with strong stakes in bolstering regional capacity. Participation in the initiative is voluntary.

THE TIMING:

Planning for The Florida Eight initiative began in 2008 as a recommendation stemming from a Southwest Florida demonstration project, also funded by Workforce Florida. The Florida Eight project officially kicked off in April of this year, when the first of three team application periods began. The program runs through July 2012 to apply and develop regional plans. Also worth noting is that the regional strategic plans that result from this initiative allow for sustainability and a plan of action that will yield benefits to participating regions for years to come.

WHAT IS HAPPENING SO FAR:

Regional teams are still being formed, but regional teams in key parts of Florida have already begun meeting and developing their plans. A few highlights:

• Northeast: The June 9 kickoff meeting focused on priorities including how to better communicate to incumbent companies; supporting companies with an important role in target industry clusters; and addressing skills gaps and business recruitment needs for the region. The next meeting is scheduled for October.

• South Central: This region understands that talent development is a critical component of successful regional capacity. The team is using the Florida Eight initiative to develop a Marketing plan that links to the regional strategic plan. The plan will also include solidifying target industries or further developing target industries. The first meeting is August 8.

• East Central: Led by the Central Florida Partnership, this team is using Florida Eight to extend its current “Open for Business” initiative to improve business recruitment, economic diversity and retention.

• North Central: Led by the North Florida Economic Development Partnership and Workforce Connection, this team submitted its application Aug. 1. The team will conduct an inventory of economic development resources in the region, and will use its findings to develop a plan that addresses key areas including rural business’ talent and marketing needs; and recruiting skilled workers.

• Tampa Bay: The primary interest of this team is to develop a cross jurisdictional strategic plan to address issues and innovative solutions to business retention, economic diversity to include international trade. The team’s first meeting was July 29.

• Southeast: Led by the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, this team kicks off its work on Aug. 19. Already, team partners have identified a number of priorities to address, including promoting and marketing business retention and expansion resources; expanding international outreach; and ensuring new businesses in the region have the support needed for optimal job growth.

Download Florida Eight Document

Title: 35th Annual Basic Economic Development Course
Location: Tampa

Start Date: 2011-10-31
End Date: 2011-11-03

Description: In its 35th year, the USF Basic Economic Development Course (BEDC) is part of the required curriculum to qualify for the International Economic Development Council’s (IEDC) Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) exam.

It’s Florida’s only BEDC accredited by the IEDC and is offered once a year through USF College of Business. Class size is limited. Early registration is recommended. Sign-up and review course outline at SBDCtampabay.com.

2011 Proposed Course Outline for Basic Economic Development Course

Register Today and Book Your Hotel!

$275 Members $300 Non-Members

Day One – June 23rd

10am                     Plenary Session: How Does Florida Compete Against Other States

11am                     Breakout Session:

1. Broadband
2. Water Quality Issues
3. Renewable Energy and PACE legislation
4. Workforce Florida Funding Opportunities
5. International Economic Development

12pm                     Lunch: Presentation of 2011 Richard McLaughlin Volunteer of the Year and 2011 Marketing and Promotion Awards

1:30pm                 Breakout Session:

1. Tale of Proposal Writing
2. Florida’s Financial Options: Venture Capital Fund $29MM, New $36MM Clean Energy Fund, Bonds, Capital Funding
3. Talent Supply Chain and Higher Education Partnerships
4. STEM Florida
5. Economic Incentives 101

2:30pm                 Break

2:45pm                 Breakout Session:

1. Grow FL and Economic Gardening
2. Space Florida
3. Economic Development Legislation and Policy Development including the Jobs Bill
4. Target Industry Cluster Task Forces
5. Site Selection Consultants: What Will Bring Them to Florida?

3:45pm                 Break

4pm                       Plenary Session: Economic Development Online: Past, Present, and Future

The Internet has transformed the practice of economic development.  The way we communicate with business, engage prospects, and market our communities all require an online component.  This session will cover trends and best practices for leveraging online strategies and tools for success.  Topics will include websites, social media, site selection, GIS, and more.

6pm                       Cocktail Reception

6:30pm                 Dinner with Keynote Speaker (Governor Scott Invited)

Presentation of 2011 Toni Jennings Workforce Professional of the Year,  2011 Eunice Sullivan Professional of the Year, 2011 Deal of the Year and 2011 Excellence in International Business

Day Two – June 24th

7:30am                 Continental Breakfast

8am                       Plenary Session: Supply Chain Logistics in Florida

9am                       Break

9:15am                 Breakout Session:

1. Economic Development Certification
2. Economic Development Councils and City Partnerships:
3. Economic Development Tools for Small to Medium Sized Communities
4. What are Florida’s Competitive Advantages (and how do we market them)
5. The Simulation Industry
6. Florida Banner Centers
7. Reinvigorating Your Business Retention and Expansion Program

10:15am               Break

10:30am               Plenary Session: Innovation Economics

12pm                     Adjourn

2011 FEDC Conference Agenda

The Florida Eight initiative is designed to help the eight economic development regions form or improve business retention teams, provide team resources and project communications otherwise not available, develop business retention strategic plans, help convene key team members, and help teams identify mutual and exclusive roles and responsibilities. Though the strategic plans must include some consideration of diversification in international markets, and lead to improvement of business retention and recruitment, and employment prospects for the workforce; RBTs will have broad latitude in seeking out and securing the right approaches, tools, and resources to get the job accomplished. Flexibilities may include: policy, collaboration, new approaches to incumbent industry data and trends, relationship management with incumbent industries, better utilization of existing or nascent tools, improved data collection, and/or sharing common resources cross-regions.

The Analysts’ Briefing will provide overview of the filing protocol and MOU development requirement for RBT applicants, as well as discussion of the resources that will be made available through the initiative, such as a virtual team ream website for each RBT. The application process for RBTs will be discussed during the briefing as well. Although the briefing will be digitally recorded for later playback, live participation is encouraged so that questions can be raised for all to learn in real-time.

Friday’s e-newsletter will include links to a deeper briefing packet about The Florida Eight, and I encourage you to watch for these details and also share with your regional partners and neighbors. Please share this SAVE-THE-DATE now with those in your region who may be interested in RBT leadership or participation, and reference additional details in the briefing packet <<insert here>> or online at www.workforceflorida.com.

The webinar briefing can be viewed HERE.

The Florida Economic Gardening Institute at the University of Central Florida was established in 2009 and continues to provide services via the Economic Gardening Technical Assistance program, known as GrowFL. With various partnerships throughout the state, including Orange County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council, the Institute collaborates with statewide partners to support the growth of second-stage businesses through localized entrepreneurial ecosystems.  Services provided include business strategy review, market research/competitive intelligence, internet/social media strategy review and search engine optimization assessments.  If you are interested in how to better integrate GrowFL into your local offerings or participate in the program, please contact GrowFL at 407-823-6384 or info@growfl.com.

Please see attached January labor statistics for release March 10th, 2011 at 10:00 am.

Note:   This release includes revisions of historical data due to annual benchmarking.

The next data release for February statistics will be Friday, March 25, 2011.

release-1

3_10_11 Release FAQ

CES-LAUS-two page-1

jan11_unemp_labforce

pocketMar 10th 2011

HousingIndicators02_11rev

Florida Foreclosures by County Apr05 to Jan11rr

Florida Housing Starts by MSA-1

The U.S. Department of Labor,  Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) press release covering national employment and unemployment estimates for February 2011 and the BLS Commissioner’s statement released this morning are attached.

• The national unemployment rate was 8.9 percent in February 2011, down 0.1 percentage point from a month ago and down 0.8 percentage point from 9.7 percent a year ago.  The February unemployment rate was the lowest since April 2009 when it was also 8.9 percent.
• Total nonagricultural employment was 130,515,000 in February 2011, representing an increase of 192,000 jobs (+0.1 percent) over the month and an increase of 1,269,000 jobs (+1.0 percent) over the year.

Note:

Florida’s January 2011 labor statistics will be released on Thursday, March 10, 2011.

Florida’s February 2011 labor statistics will be released on Friday, March 25, 2011.

Statement of Keith Hall Commissioner BLS March 4 2011

BLS News Release March 4 2011

National Labor Force Statistics

The Florida Economic Development Council, in an effort to further improve our professional development tools for our members, will be introducing webinars at the end of February 2011. We want to create a series of webinars around the topics you need the most in order to grow your community’s economy and meet your continuing education requirements.

Our first webinar is focused around incentives. Please share with us what you need to know about the state process when using incentives. You can comment below and ask questions you have about the state process for incentives and also suggest topics for our upcoming webinars!

§  STEMflorida is collecting information on STEM internships and externship. If you have opportunities you’d like to share or questions, email tbarber@fairfieldindex.com.

§  We can provide briefings to regions and economic development organizations or collaboratives interested in learning more about STEMflorida and how your community or region may plug in to the effort.

§  If your region, community, economic development organization, or collaborative is making things happen in STEM, we want to hear about it. Email the STEMflorida project management team at tbarber@fairfieldindex.com.

What is STEM?
STEM is an acronym that stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – usually in reference to talent. STEM can cut across the learning pipeline – from early childhood education through lifelong learning. It can be referenced in efforts focused on talent development, but also retention and recruitment or retraining/recertification efforts. Any career enabled by science, technology, engineering, or math may be a STEM career; it is the technician working with algebra in her water resources field work, just as it’s the doctoral-level bio-tech researcher. Just as the STEM acronym may not be readily recognized by many employers and workers, STEM-career awareness is key to ensuring the right leaders and partners are both engaged and benefiting.

Who is STEMflorida?
Following preliminary partnership and work with the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Council of 100, and the Florida Department of Education, in June of 2009 Workforce Florida, Inc. and Enterprise Florida, Inc. announced the creation of a statewide council to strengthen the STEM skills of Florida’s talent as a way to address the increasing demand for jobs requiring strong foundations in these areas. STEMflorida, funded by a $580,000 grant from Workforce Florida, launched to connect business, economic development, workforce, and education leaders to identify the opportunities for building and measuring the state’s supply of workers with STEM proficiency and skills, in fields that support innovation in existing and emerging industries. STEMflorida drives Florida’s leadership and proficiency in STEM talent development by connecting these stakeholders around the issues that impact and support innovation in Florida’s existing and emerging industries, employers, and entrepreneurs.
STEMflorida has reviewed the competitive priorities of employers who rely on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to win and grow; and professionals who prepare Florida’s talent for the future. STEMflorida‘s Statement of Intent includes four areas:

• Advance STEMflorida so that it is a flexible, dynamic, and responsive enterprise for the next generation

• Ensure that there is one STEM movement for the nation’s fourth largest state by collaborating with and adding valuable resources to state-level initiatives

• Link our work directly to other Florida initiatives that measure and market our growth role on the global STEM stage

• Provide business with efficient and clear pathways to communicate, engage, and compare

Why STEM?
STEM careers have gained global attention in regions and communities seeking to gain the competitive foothold. This is because STEM careers can translate to value for the employer, the community, and the worker: higher wages, greater skills, and a better potential for personal/family sustainability.
Meanwhile, Enterprise Florida’s Roadmap to Florida’s Future outlines a new focus on strategy around target industry clusters. STEM is an axial element within the economic development strategy for a globally competitive Florida.
States and regions around the globe have made STEM a table stake for jobs, capital, and innovation. Rising Above the Gathering Storm, a 2005 report requested from the National Academies by Congress described the workforce needs of the 21st century and the nation’s current gaps and opportunities in providing the STEM workforce. The need for improving STEM talent development has been highlighted by reports of the Business-Higher Education Forum in 2005 and 2007. STEM received special Congressional attention in the 2011 Congressional budget and the reauthorization plan.

Original Document Provided by STEMflorida