Corridor group forms to promote regional business approach

The fledgling Corridor Business Alliance is hoping that an authoritative speaker and a federal grant will help kick-start its efforts to promote the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City area as a business destination.

Among the goals of the alliance are to promote the Corridor as a regional brand known for strengths in such areas as biosciences, medical research and food processing.

Economic development consultant Michael Langley will visit the Corridor on Tuesday to speak at a breakfast event, “The Path to Regional Excellence,” tour the area and meet with local government and business leaders.

Langley is the former CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development in southwestern Pennsylvania, and president of a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm, The Langley Group. He is expected to discuss some of the regional strategies that helped drive the economy of southwestern Pennsylvania, one of the most-recognized success stories in regional economic development approaches nationwide.

The Corridor Business Alliance hopes to stimulate more economic growth by tapping the synergies of a regional approach. It is co-sponsoring the breakfast with Gazette Communications and the Corridor Business Journal.

Dee Baird, Kirkwood Community College executive vice president of continuing education and training services, told The Gazette Editorial Board on Wednesday that the group plans to seek a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to build the initiative. The grant would help with engaging partners in the effort, communicating with the public and analyzing data to “identify who we are” as a region, Baird said.

Obtaining public support for the regional concept is considered crucial.

“It's really going to be up to the region to determine how we move forward,” Priority One President Mark Seckman said.

Business leaders have told the group that a regional concept would

help recruit and retain key talent and foster

entrepreneurship in

the area.

About 300 people are expected for The Path to Regional Excellence on Tuesday. The group also will begin distributing a new brochure, Navigating the Corridor, funded by Alliant Energy.