Thermopolis representatives attend Laramie conference

Last week, several Thermopolis residents traveled to Laramie for the three-day Wyoming Working Together conference, presented by the Wyoming Economic Development Association, the Wyoming State Chamber of Commerce and the Wyoming Business Council/Main Street.

Attending were Phillip and Shurie Scheel, Meri Ann Rush, Amanda Moeller and Howie Samelson.

The conference began with an “enlightening” tour, Moeller said, put on by Main Street. Among the stops on the tour was the business park and the downtown area. In this latter location, they saw where a building had been torn down and a new one was being erected, with a local business being moved in.

Rush noted it was interesting to find the teardown of the older building was $1 million, because it was not maintained by the owner, and it was over $3 million to rebuild. To bring the building back up to code would’ve been only about $400,000. Instead, it was let go and wound up costing twice as much.

“It was eye-opening,” Rush said, “that it takes less to refurbish a building and bring it back up to code than to demolish it and start all over.”

Moeller also pointed out open spaces around Laramie, known as “place making” spaces. These are spaces designed for multiple use. A local example could be Bicentennial Park.

The conference also had several breakout sessions, and among those attended by Moeller was Economic Development Regionalism. The speaker, she said, was Kevin Carter, the executive director of Texas Ground. What they’ve done, Moeller said, is combine 67 counties into one economic area where they all buy in and the bigger towns help the smaller.

Following the session, Moeller said she and her colleagues from Park County discussed regionalism at length, discussing doing more regional things. “The good thing for us is we don’t compete with them in the agricultural sector . . . We have agriculture, of course, but we don’t do the same things.” They also spoke of identifying the target markets, which might change from agriculture to oil to tourism depending on the day, and being flexible enough to adjust to those changes.

The session also covered businesses expanding to areas rather than relocating, and Moeller said this could be something done regionally, as anything done regionally in the Big Horn Basin would enhance Thermopolis.

Another session Moeller attended was Growing Small Business, which had a lot of information about microloans. She said she now has good information and has contacted the USDA to get a microloan or grant to start a revolving loan fund from Economic Development Company to smaller businesses and entrepreneurs. She plans to present the information to the EDC board and move forward with the plan.

Another idea presented during the session was to work with people on the local level regarding business planning, requiring them to go through a full class before any loans are given.

Moeller also attended Workforce Development-Driven Economic and Community Development. During that session, she said, it was presented that 50 percent of jobs will be lost to robots in the next 10-20 years. But, she said, presenters also spoke about what communities need to enhance economic development and make it more inviting to companies and entrepreneurs to expand and grow. Among the important factors were: broadband access, air service, creativity and connectivity — spaces for people to work where they have internet and cell phone service — and being genuine and authentic as a community.

There was also discussion about generational differences, how past generations stayed at the same job for 20-30 years, whereas the newest generation of workers will put their talents out to work for a lot of companies. They may not work from a typical office, Moeller said, and they will work with people from all over the world via the Internet.

One of the sessions Rush attended was Branding Your Chamber, and one topic she thought was interesting was how chambers used to be all about the three P’s — Parades, Parties and Pageants — but they now need to be “the catalyst for business growth, conveyor of the leaders and influence and champions for a stronger community.”

Moeller said, If you put it into simpler terms, the Tourism Board gets people to come to Thermopolis, the Economic Development Company helps the businesses that are here or the entrepreneurs get into business, and the Chamber directs people who are here to those businesses.”

Rush said it was nice to have plenty of options for breakout sessions at the conference, so they could choose which they wanted to attend based on their interests. Moeller noted there is overlap between organizations, and one thing she and Rush heard was that Thermopolis was very well represented.

“It didn’t hurt, too,” Moeller added, “to have Phillip there, who’s a county commissioner. Howie, Shurie, Meri Ann and myself are all on the Main Street board. Phillip’s also on the Economic Development board and the Chamber of Commerce board.”

Though there is some overlap, Rush and Moeller said that can only help local organizations understand better what each is doing, and help form future partnerships.

Friday saw recaps of everything, and Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Murray spoke about getting some crowdfunding together. Moeller said the process allows businesses to either invest their money or request money.

Also on Friday, there was information presented about Economically Needed Diversity Options for Wyoming (ENDOW). Moeller said ENDOW is the Governor Matt Mead’s initiative to diversify the state’s economy. There is an appointed board of people as well as advisories from around the world that have some connection to Wyoming.

Moeller said it was refreshing to see, on a statewide organizational level, these various groups together, though one speaker pointed out Tourism was missing from the mix.

Overall the conference was very positive, Moeller said. Rush said it was interesting that all the speakers were on the same wavelength. They also noticed that everyone attending worked together, making the conference seem less like a competition and more like and ecosystem.

Also during the conference, awards are given out and Phillip Scheel was named the 2017 Chamber of Commerce Board Member of the Year. Scheel said the award did catch him off guard, and he was honored to receive it.

Scheel further added he’s proud of the direction the chamber has taken in recent years, becoming a useful business resource for its members.

Scheel recalled attending the Economic Development 101 breakout session, noting he’s been part of the Thermopolis-Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce board for several years, but was only recently — since being elected a county commissioner — appointed to the EDC board,

During the session, he said, there were several economic development groups represented, and they spoke about the various ins and out as well as the successes and failures of their groups. Scheel said one of the things he discovered is that it’s not all about business recruiting, which has been a focus here. He suggested changing that focus to also include support and retention of the businesses we already have.

The name of the conference — Wyoming Working Together — was a great idea, Scheel said, as it brought together in the same room the various stakeholders in the community, including Main Street, EDC and the Chamber, which will help these offices coordinate their efforts for the town. Already, he noted, there was talk of next year’s conference and inviting people who represent Workforce Services and Lodging Tax. It’s important, Scheel said, to include representatives of these areas, as well as others that are on the front line of economic development.