First THRIVE Economic Development Summit A Huge Success

by Bob Montgomery

Huron County's Director of Economic Development says their first THRIVE Economic Summit hosted at the Blyth Festival theatre was very successful.

The goal of the summit was to celebrate some of the things the Economic Development Department has been working on with their municipal partners over the last year and to look at some of things they're looking at moving forward. Director of Economic Development, Vicki Lass, says that includes things like housing and workforce and welcoming communities. But, the Summit also provided an opportunity to learn together about things like new technologies. “Like Artificial Intelligence and how we can apply that to our work and make ourselves more efficient.”

Lass says sometimes the messaging about those big issues seems hopeless and impossible. “And yet, we're making strides. When we look at what's happening in housing in Huron County, our planning department has been very proactive in pursuing different policies and bylaws so there's an as-of-right density in some areas. We have local builders who are willing to try building apartments when that's something they've never done before. But, the community has really come together and is responding in many positive ways to chip away at that housing issue and we just felt it was time to celebrate all of the good things that are happening in Huron County.”

The Economic Development Department also looked at the ways in which work has changed. “Years ago you would have three or four hundred competitors for any one job and now a job seeker has four or five really good options in front of them, and an employer may not get any more then ten applicants. So those sessions where we focused on recruitment and retention were both for the employer and the employee.”

They are also facing the same crisis in owner-operated businesses as they are in the workforce. The issue is that many of the owner-operators are aging out, and they don't want to lose those local businesses, so a couple of their sessions really focused on that.

Lass says the response to the Summit was very encouraging and one of the comments they received from several people was that it was really great because it offered home town, rural solutions and the Summit provided a great opportunity for them to learn. They're now hoping to host a Summit every year and the response indicated that's what local business people would like to see, so their intention is that there will be a 2025 Thrive Summit.