April 1, 2025 • 31 mins
In this conversation with Matt Tackett, President of the Southern Economic Development Council (SEDC), we delve into the South as a premier investment location. Tune in to learn about SEDC's global reach, commitment to innovation and how it fosters collaboration among 17 member states.
At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs.
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Episode Transcript
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Matt [00:00:10]:
We have been very, very intentional to brand ourselves as American South. And we are doing that in a way that other regions of the country do not do. And that is absolutely an advantage for us. (00:00):
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Amanda [00:00:27]: That's the voice of Matt Tackett, president of SEDC, the Southern Economic Development Council. We talk about the growth and influence of the Southeast as a region, but also about the benefits of getting involved with professional development organizations relevant to wherever you're based and how they can help mitigate the hard parts of our challenging but rewarding field. Learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com and with that, let's jump in. Well, thank you so much, Matt, for joining us today. We're super excited to talk SEDC and lots of other fun things. (00:01):
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Matt [00:01:06]: Amanda Ellis, thank you so much for having me here. You know, out of all the stuff we're going to talk about at SEDC, and more importantly, the American South, a lot to celebrate. I feel like I finally made it now, you know, being a guest on Inside America's Best Cities podcast. (00:02):
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Amanda [00:01:21]: Yes. Okay. How many members is SEDC up to now? Because you all have been really taking off. I feel like in the last couple of years. (00:03):
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Matt [00:01:29]: I would say we're 1600, 1700 members or so. So a lot of people feel the growth of SEDC and we certainly have been in growth mode for a couple years, but we are still relatively small and that's what makes us special. We're a tight, connected group of the world's best in the profession and we're still, we're still relatively, relatively small but having said that, we have more than doubled in size in the last 24 months. So certainly in growth mode, a lot of new, great new faces. But I think 1650, 1700 is the latest, most current number. (00:04):
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Amanda [00:02:06]: Yeah. Which I feel like is solid considering the pool you'd be working with in our region. So it does seem like things have really taken off in the last couple of years. (00:05):
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Matt [00:02:14]: Well, let me, let me say this to that point. We are very, very mindful of how big is too big, how fast is too, too much growth or how much is too much growth, whatever. We have those conversations all the time. But here's what I know. In our 17 states in the American south, people that are either direct or either serving as economic developers are or serving within the economic development orbit within our 17 states, which is the world's premier investment location, I think there are about 10 to 12,000 people that deserve an SEDC “Hey, will you join SEDC?” ask. Doesn't mean they will but that is a lot of people significantly larger than SEDC's current size. Now, my thing is, I want to hammer the gas pedal down, invite these people in to be part of this really, really special network. So as far as what we can do is specific to growth and size, we've not even scratched the surface. But how aggressive will we be to that end? We'll see. We're having a lot of really good strategic conversations right now. (00:06):
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Amanda [00:03:13]: Yeah. And your staff size, I mean, it's run by two to three of you right now, right? (00:07):
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Matt [00:03:17]: We are, yes. (00:08):
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Amanda [00:03:18]: Small but mighty. (00:09):
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Matt [00:03:20]: SEDC has historically been a staff of two for 75 years. We've doubled in size, we've doubled in programming. We've done a lot of things in the last couple of years with still maintaining that too. We currently have two job openings right now, thank goodness. Right. We are also bringing on a research intern in the spring of this year. So we're still two, but we will double our staff size, believe it or not, here, hopefully relatively soon. (00:10):
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Amanda [00:03:44]: Love that. So what are some of the things you all offer for members that you are the proudest of or think are some of the most impactful benefits? (00:11):
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Matt [00:03:54]: Yeah, well, as far as proudest, I guess. Let me just kind of brag about our members here. So, you know, you've heard me say, okay, we've doubled in size, we've doubled in revenue, or we've probably tripled in revenue, which is really good. We need to keep the lights on here. So more importantly, we have seriously, seriously expanded and diversified our membership service portfolio. So we have done a lot of things and we're seeing that pay positive consequence with the new growth of SEDC or even more importantly, with retention of SEDC. When you join SEDC, for the most part, you stick around for hopefully the entirety of your career. But for multiple years, our retention rates are about 95% and we're really, really proud of that. Especially if you think about, for the Association Chamber people that listen to this, when you think about the growth that we have had, you know, more than half of people in SEDC are new. That's great. We celebrate that. That's really good. That also puts us in a, in a point of volatility to where we can have some serious retention problems really quick if we're, if we're not careful. So for any chambers and associations out there in growth mode, be focusing sincerely or intentionally on retention mode too, so you can make sure that you sustain and maintain everything that you want to do as you capitalize on, on your new growth. But the thing that I am, I think the proudest of, or I know the proudest of, you know, I get to be a really, really small part of a very interesting, very sophisticated, very globally leading, globally successful network of economic developers that are… not only have they built the American south, we represent 17 states in the South. Not only have they built the south into the world's third largest economy, we should be proud of that. I don't think people realize that if you think about what the American south is, the south, we are 17 states, $10 trillion of the US GDP. That is what we are, who we are. That is what we have built. That's the world's third largest economy. Number four is not even close. We're double to number four. Not only that, we are in the world's best position or we are in such a great position to maintain our status as that level of economy and the world's premier investment location. So what I'm proud of the most is. Hey, me, I'm recording this from a library in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, in eastern Kentucky in the mountains. I'm sitting here getting to be part of this, this network. It's incredible. Our membership in 2023 did about $175 billion worth of capital investment. Probably, you know, 125 or this is 2022, I'm sorry, about 170 billion investment that when fully realized, that'll create over 100,000 new jobs in 2023. Don't quote me on these. I'm away from my notes. But $ 210 billion. $210 billion worth of capital investment deals. No other region on the planet does that. At the end of the day, that's 150,000 when fully realized from 2023, 150,000 new American jobs. Think about what that means. Transformative for families, transformative for communities, regions, states, and our, you know, beyond the American south, our entire country. What our people do, I'm so thankful for. So appreciative. I don't think there is any better work that you can do preparing people now for a better tomorrow. So incredibly proud. And oh, by the way, it just happens to be cool to do this in the world's best place for economic development. (00:12):
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Amanda [00:07:22]: Love it. Love how you framed that. I was working on some presentation content earlier and I was pulling some numbers actually on talent growth in the Southeast specifically. And of course, we've outperformed every other region in that sense for several years now. But the specific stat I was looking at, I think said we were the most populous region and we had more than double the growth of any other region? I think. Again, don't have my notes in front of me either, but it was some really impressive talent numbers. (00:13):
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Matt [00:07:50]: No one is investing in product like we are. No one is as serious as we are about giving enterprise site consultants companies quick risk free site selection experiences. No one does that like we do. It just is true. Look at what these states are investing in. Product development, for example. Now the other side of that is specific to your point on workforce in 2021 or 2022, I can't remember, it was probably 2022. We were at all time highs. People probably don't realize this either. This is a really great. I'm so glad you brought this up because we can just put this out here. Post Covid, we were at all time highs for labor force availability and workforce participation. People we are and we are doubling at the growth at the time was double that of the rest of the country. No one is as advantaged as we are relative to workforce. Oh, and guess what? Net migration of people into our region every year when, when Americans move, they move to the South. The last reports that we had the top five states for net migration were all Southern American South. One of our 17 states and seven of the top 10 were in the American South. So that advantage will only accelerate and that gap, that gap between where we are and whoever our next closest competitor is will only continue to grow. So to that point, yes, that is just such a crucial point as to why we will continue to do exactly what we do now. (00:14):
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Amanda [00:09:12]: Yeah, so you just hit a lot of my next question here about selling points of our region and why you think we're thriving so much. What about unique challenges we might be facing in the coming decades as a region? (00:15):
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Matt [00:09:25]: Yeah, good question. So when you think about economic development and we want to talk about challenges, look, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that we all can kind of talk talk about. You can talk about workforce. You know, think before I say this. Think about how difficult it is to, to do economic development well and to, to be successful. When you talk about all the traditional things that an economic developer, industrial developer was responsible for back in the day. Hey now guess what? It has expanded so far beyond kind of the, the traditional, kind of the traditional world of economic development. So that in itself fundamentally is incredibly challenging. It's hard to be successful in economic development. We are who we are because we happen to have the world's best economic developers doing this. When you're in an uber competitive region. Let's be real here. We're the world's best place to do economic development. But we are a collective of 17 competitor states. So we are pushing ourselves. Pushing where- all of our waters or boats or whatever that saying is, is rising together because we're all pushing each other. Some state will have this great innovative competitive advantage. Guess what? Some other state will top that. And then we're just in this cycle of uber competitiveness. And that, that's, that's why we are. But just fundamentally think about everything our, our audience knows about traditional economic development. And I think our audience also knows about some of the new things that economic developers are responsible for in doing and mitigating. Mitigating. Okay. I'm an economic developer here in eastern- say I am in eastern Kentucky. Okay? I've got to recruit business, I've got to retain business. Guess what? I've got to figure out housing issues, I've got to figure out child care issues. I've got to advocate to make sure that I've got all the competitive advantages I need over any other region in my state or any other region in the country. That is an incredibly challenging job. But every time we have a great win in any of our states for a transformed mega project or a smaller project, whatever, anytime we celebrate a win and we celebrate a lot of them here, one of our A+ ready-to-go sites goes off market and some of our workforce is consumed too, which is amazing. So for me, the number one thing is we have got to make sure that we protect and advance our status as the world's premier best place to do business. And we are absolutely doing that. It doesn't mean it's not a challenge when you talk about gotta invest and get new sites ready to go, gotta attract people. All that is very challenging. We do that. We do that better than anyone else. But that, but that's a challenge. And you see what these states are doing on, on workforce and talent traction. Amanda, you're such a great big part of that. We're so, we're so blessed to be able to work with you. But you see our states addressing that challenge. And because of that, you will see our states and communities continue to succeed. So out of everything that we could all talk about, for me, this isn’t an SEDC position. This is Matt's. Look, it's about product, okay? It's about product development. If you build it, they will come. If you do it strategically and whatever other metric you have, this is just my personal opinion, site consultant, whatever other metrics that are measured, a site consultant or business isn't going to even look at that to see if you are advantaged or not advantaged if you don't have a site ready to go. So for me, at the heart of this, if you've got A+ sites ready to go, you're going to be pretty well advantaged when it comes down to site selection time. (00:16):
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Amanda [00:12:35]: Yeah, you made an interesting point there. Talking about how much our field and the issues it looks at addressing has expanded so much in recent years and looking at, you know, if that continues, is that really going to be sustainable to put all that onto this one set of people? I don't know. It's grown so much. (00:17):
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Matt [00:12:57]: Well, the good thing about any state association for economic development or SEDC or national groups, IEDC, whatever, economic development is a hard job. There's a lot of expectation, there's a lot of personal drive, there's a lot of competition. A lot of what economic developers hear a lot is “hey, thanks but no,” you know, so that it's, it's difficult to be successful. So that's, that's why for, for me, you know, I think it is so important that economic developers especially and you know, in any, any field get involved in your, in your association and find, find a friend, find a champion, find, find a mentor and just lean on each other and take advantage of these conferences too and use it as kind of a, kind of a respite just to, just to be together because you certainly deserve it for one. And then you certainly can pick up, just have a great network and great community of cheerleaders and mentors and people to learn from and people for you to inspire as well. So is it sustainable? Absolutely. We've been sustaining it, but it is, it is difficult and is why building a good community and network of like minded driven professionals that are doing the same thing or want to do the same thing that you are, is so important. (00:18):
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Amanda [00:14:10]: So true. You Matt, have led another association before this, right? That was your state group? Am I remembering that right? The Kentucky one? (00:19):
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Matt [00:14:19]: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, shout out KAED, the friends there, the Kentucky Association for Economic Development. I was there five years, really loved it. So hopefully some of them are listening. So hello to them. (00:20):
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Amanda [00:14:32]: So you've been in this association space in our little sweet spot for a while. I'd love to hear your perspective on these professional association groups in general. What's changing with what's expected of them? You know, keeping up with technology, competing with it a little bit because, you know, and more information is available to people for free? What shifts have you seen there? (00:21):
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Matt [00:14:54]: For one, I guess for me there are a ton of good partner organizations and also competitor organizations for profit and nonprofit that are doing the work of convening, educating, advocating, whatever, doing that work that is kind of in the similar wheelhouse of associations. So, you know, and that's good. But the reality is (00:22):
that is competition. That is another venue to where people in this field can be served by in a way that their association could or should as well. So people have choices when it comes to where they spend their dollars. And there is an incredibly fast-moving, fast-growing series of group of organizations and services and just opportunities where people can go to a conference and learn something or I picked up this webinar for free or this group's advocating for us in our profession in a way. So I think associations, because there's ever growing competition, because there are groups like SEDC who is growing or IEDC who is growing, or some of these states are doing things and people have multi state associations in multiple states. Associations need to be mindful of being incredibly aggressive, be mindful of just looking for how can I continue to add value, strengthen what I do and maybe think innovatively about, okay, what are some other appropriate services or actions that I can do that will continue to add value? Because as there are more and more options out there, it just is what it is. You have to be continually thinking about… I need to continue to make sure that we are adding value and serving our members primarily in a way that is appropriate and also in a way that is here within my halls rather than somewhere else. But the thing that I like the least, associations are event companies, event management companies in lots of capacities. The cost of doing business specific to events has exponentially, exponentially increased. So when you see associations that have a certain registration fee or it's increased, it's not because they exactly wanted to. It's because the cost of food or the cost of coffee or you wouldn't believe it, you go to some event somewhere and you need an extension cord. Okay, that's $400. You know the cost. Yeah. Or hey, or “hey organization, thanks for being in our ballroom. Hey, did you need power? Do you need this outlet? Okay, $5,000.” It's incredible. It's, it's incredibly expensive. Okay? It's, it's incredibly expensive and the cost of doing business has increased. Okay. So for, for me a challenge is most of SEDC's members are, are serving in rural communities with smaller populations with budgets under a million, with two staff, and they have a lot of choices. We just talked about competition. So for me it's about, look, the last thing I want for anybody, regardless of size, is for our cost to be a burden of participation and engagement. So the challenge there is, okay with all of these costs. How do we deal with that in a way that isn't then passed on to the members? So we are proud that we are incredibly price competitive. If you look at us and other national partners, we are two, three, four times less expensive. Expensive in lots of cases and I don't want to change that. We've raised prices $25 I think on, on our conferences since, since I've been here and I didn't want to do that.
Amanda [00:18:30]: Yeah, and I think to your point too, of just limited budgets and trying to decide where you're going to engage, you know, those groups in your state groups in your region, like, even if you think about travel costs for those things, which can also add up, you know, it's a lot more likely that you're going to end up with something maybe drivable for you or just a little bit easier to get to than some of those national conferences that like, while great, you know, maybe you're in Tennessee and it's in Seattle this year and that's, you know, a little bit bigger lift. (00:23):
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Matt [00:18:59]: Yeah, no doubt. So we, we ran into that. I mean we're 17 states, fairly large geographically, but yeah, we, we run into that. So that's why for us it's about one, not, not messing with these prices in a way that's burdensome too, and also making sure that our hotels are affordable and stuff like that. But at the end of the day it's about, okay, how can we absolutely jam pack load these agendas with an unbelievable amount of things and an unbelievable amount of really great people that would be impactful to be connected with. Deals have been made and won at SEDC conferences. I'm incredibly aware of that and that's always going to be important for me as I go forward. (00:24):
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Amanda [00:19:39]: What are your thoughts on the evolution of our industry in the next five, five to ten years? What skills and knowledge do you think people are going to really need more of? What areas are we going to have to be more knowledgeable in? What do you think? (00:25):
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Matt [00:19:54]: At the end of the day, economic development's a relationship thing, right? So think about all of the kind of academic challenges and the challenges of the day and all the things holistically that we need to do now. We are doing those. And we are doing that above and beyond. And these associations out there and SEDC and national associations are being very incredibly mindful to empower members with the best cutting edge content and just services and resources to enhance capacities to address everything that you need to do to be successful. The United States is the world's best, safest investment location. As geopolitical stuff is going on throughout the world, the American south will continue to or the United States and the American south above any other region will continue to bring on new FDI. The companies in America will grow. We will continue to do what we do. The challenges will continue to be there and we'll continue to address those. But go back to relationships. As things become harder and people, there are more expectations and people are pulled in different ways. And as technology continues to impact what we're doing, AI is now and will continue to play an incredibly important part of economic development. Enhancing efficiencies and evaluations and just being a really, really important part of what we do. That will make us all better in a positive way. But guess what? Because we will continue to leverage AI and technology and because that will play a really, really important part of helping us with metrics and just helping us every day. The power of human connection, which will never die, will only continue to be more and more important as we leverage more and more technology. Both are good, but the power of human connection will continue to play that as we evolve. That which has always been important will only continue to be more and more important. (00:26):
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Amanda [00:21:43]: Yeah, we're going to move into a fun wrap up question in just a second. But before we do that, anything else you'd like to add about SEDC? Why our region is so great, future of the industry. Anything else? (00:27):
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Matt [00:21:57]: You know, at SEDC we've grown a lot. We're a stronger foundation. We do everything, you know, all those, everything that should be done within sort of those educate, advocate, collaborate verticals where we're doing, we will always be looking to get better. When you think about, you know, within our 1700 members, whatever that network did, $220 billion worth of deals in 2023, like I said, I'm aggregating 2024 numbers right now. We'll see what it is. It'll be close to a record. If not, it'll be slightly, slightly under. This is an incredibly sophisticated group of people who like I said, built the third largest economy, were the world's best. You know, we'll expect just the party to continue. But you bring those people into a hall or into a membership, you know, it's not, hey, go sit in the, go sit in the conference and then go to the reception. That's not what we should be doing. It should be, hey, how can we all come together? How can we leverage this opportunity and this convergence to really be innovated in really, what doors can we kick down? What competitive advantages can we figure out and then implement? What can we do as, as a people to assure that we are, that our status is protected and our advantages are accelerated? So for us at SEDC, you know, all the good stuff that's going on just kind of internally, from a management perspective, that's all good, you know, and that's all worth celebrating. But for me, it's about, okay, how do we truly leverage our opportunity, truly leverage who we are to create or help create impact, and how do we put our. And what can happen when we put ourselves in position of absolute global and national influence? So I think as SEDC continues to grow and evolve, you will see us be involved in incredibly helpful ways and maybe even new ways. In the last 12 to 18 months, what we've been to Europe twice, we have been to Asia. I'm packing up and leaving for Korea tomorrow to go out and recruit and just to make sure that we're building relationships with industry, industry leaders and inviting them to come and thrive where in the American south where we are, you know, despite all the advantage or all of the advantages that we have with people and product, guess what? We're incredibly experienced and incredibly we're people ready is what I like to tell people. And we have all the resources instantly, not only for your business come and thrive, but all the new neighbors that will come. Look at we're people ready is what I term that. But we've launched a research and grant program, for example, to do a lot of things and build a lot of really important, meaningful relationships in Washington. So I think that's just probably what I would leave with is just, hey, thank our members for being part of SEDC. Thank you for giving us this opportunity and come in here, get involved, kick us in the butt where we need to and tell us how we can innovate to do meet meaningful new things that will absolutely pay positive consequence and help your ability to be successful for your communities and your states in a very real way, beyond the education and the networking that's intrinsic and at the heart of everything that we do well. (00:28):
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Amanda [00:25:03]: And one more question I'd like to have you speak to that I was thinking about while you were just talking so when you think about it really, you know, economic development is all these different states, all these different communities kind of competing with each other for the talent to get those big project announcements, all of that good stuff. So when you think about it that way, why are people so willing to share their strategies with each other versus being more like, I want to keep all this close to my chest because it's a competition. (00:29):
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Matt [00:25:32]: You know, I think at the heart of this, economic developers, when you have been, when you've been put in a situation with a community or region or state, you are in a situation of massive responsibility. And like we've said, it is incredibly difficult to be successful. So some of the best, probably, you know, maybe not all, but most, most all of economic developers and professionals, they have relied on mentors or people they've looked up to or they've met friends across across borders or across county borders or state borders, whatever. They have met people that have been incredibly influential and impactful on their careers and ability to be successful. So when you, when you think about, when you think about SEDC, what I always tell people or if anyone's interested in looking at SEDC, I'll say, hey, join your state association first. Get involved in your state. You know, figure out what all is going on. Find, find a person, a mentor, a champion to be connected with and get involved and then give that some time. Then come to SEDC and do the exact same thing except connect with someone in some other state so that you can figure out how they do what they do and take things back home. So I think at the heart of it, economic developers are connected, networking, relationship people. They are also, and I think even, and I've been in other associations too. From what I feel from economic developers, they are more, they value mentorship more than other industries that have been involved in. So because of that there is a, and they're service minded people. There's a very giving, giving attitude or giving heart professionally within, within our, our industry. I think so I think one, I think that's at the heart of it now. I think something that SEDC has been very good at. I've been here two and a half years or you know, around there immediately when I got here I didn't, I wanted us to feel a sense of, look, we're not 17, we're not a 17 state membership association. Exactly. We are the clearinghouse forum platform for the American south, which is the world's premier investment location, business location, you know, staffed by the world's best professionals. So we have been very, very intentional to brand ourselves as American South. And we are doing that in a way that other regions of the country do not do. And that is absolutely an advantage for us. So I think, and our members have seen value from that. State governments have seen value from that. So I think we have done a really nice job of saying, hey, look, we're the American South. You are going to come here. I hope it's, you know, you're going to come to the south, come here, but you're going to come to the south, you know. So I think we've done a good job understanding of we're all in this together, kind of raising this region and we are all going to collect the majority of economic development wins in the country. We're all going to get our share there. So I think that's helped it too. But at the end of the day, look, we're all competitors. We're not, you know, we're probably not all sharing everything, but I think we're doing it better than we have in the past. (00:30):
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Amanda [00:28:41]: I love that. Was a great answer. Well, that's a great segue. As we're wrapping up, remind our listeners where you are based, Matt? (00:31):
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Matt [00:28:50]: Okay. If you know, they've probably heard my accent. Okay. I am in eastern, I'm in eastern Kentucky. It's where I'm born and raised. (00:32):
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Amanda [00:28:57]: All right. If someone were to visit your city, your town for the first time, what would be a bucket list item they should make sure to do? Someone were visiting your neck of the woods? (00:33):
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Matt [00:29:08]: Okay. I was actually just texting someone who I've been in Lexington, Kentucky for 20 years. Let me say that I just got this text. “Hey, we're coming in summer. What are we supposed to do?” Bourbon Trail. It's the only answer. Bourbon Trail. Do that. Have fun in Lexington, Kentucky. So shout out to former home. Also do some horse related things. All of the horses you've ever heard about, ever, aside from all the bourbon you've ever heard about, all that comes from right around that region. So that's the bucket list stuff. Just top of mind too. Good question. Eastern Kentucky, Prestonsburg, Kentucky. If you are going to come here, you are going to walk through our little Hallmark postcard downtown and then I will take you to Billy Ray's and you will get the most world-famous hamburger that you have ever had in your, in your life. So first and foremost you're going to come downtown and just enjoy the quaint Hallmark-esque environment experience that all of our great downtowns in the American South have. (00:34):
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Amanda [00:30:10]: Love it. Well thank you so much Matt for spending some time with us. I really appreciate it. (00:35):
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Matt [00:30:14]: Well you too. Thanks for all that you do. Hey, shout out great webinars that Livability has on the SEDC website. You're so kind to donate your time and your expertise and we'll look forward to seeing you at our upcoming conferences as well. (00:36):
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Amanda [00:30:29]: We love doing that. Good deal. Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast, where we take you Inside America's Best Cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review this show. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can also learn more about us at livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at aellis@livability.com. Until next time, from Livability, I'm Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America's most promising places. (00:37):
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Amanda [00:00:27]: That's the voice of Matt Tackett, president of SEDC, the Southern Economic Development Council. We talk about the growth and influence of the Southeast as a region, but also about the benefits of getting involved with professional development organizations relevant to wherever you're based and how they can help mitigate the hard parts of our challenging but rewarding field. Learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com and with that, let's jump in. Well, thank you so much, Matt, for joining us today. We're super excited to talk SEDC and lots of other fun things. (00:01):
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Matt [00:01:06]: Amanda Ellis, thank you so much for having me here. You know, out of all the stuff we're going to talk about at SEDC, and more importantly, the American South, a lot to celebrate. I feel like I finally made it now, you know, being a guest on Inside America's Best Cities podcast. (00:02):
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Amanda [00:01:21]: Yes. Okay. How many members is SEDC up to now? Because you all have been really taking off. I feel like in the last couple of years. (00:03):
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Matt [00:01:29]: I would say we're 1600, 1700 members or so. So a lot of people feel the growth of SEDC and we certainly have been in growth mode for a couple years, but we are still relatively small and that's what makes us special. We're a tight, connected group of the world's best in the profession and we're still, we're still relatively, relatively small but having said that, we have more than doubled in size in the last 24 months. So certainly in growth mode, a lot of new, great new faces. But I think 1650, 1700 is the latest, most current number. (00:04):
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Amanda [00:02:06]: Yeah. Which I feel like is solid considering the pool you'd be working with in our region. So it does seem like things have really taken off in the last couple of years. (00:05):
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Matt [00:02:14]: Well, let me, let me say this to that point. We are very, very mindful of how big is too big, how fast is too, too much growth or how much is too much growth, whatever. We have those conversations all the time. But here's what I know. In our 17 states in the American south, people that are either direct or either serving as economic developers are or serving within the economic development orbit within our 17 states, which is the world's premier investment location, I think there are about 10 to 12,000 people that deserve an SEDC “Hey, will you join SEDC?” ask. Doesn't mean they will but that is a lot of people significantly larger than SEDC's current size. Now, my thing is, I want to hammer the gas pedal down, invite these people in to be part of this really, really special network. So as far as what we can do is specific to growth and size, we've not even scratched the surface. But how aggressive will we be to that end? We'll see. We're having a lot of really good strategic conversations right now. (00:06):
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Amanda [00:03:13]: Yeah. And your staff size, I mean, it's run by two to three of you right now, right? (00:07):
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Matt [00:03:17]: We are, yes. (00:08):
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Amanda [00:03:18]: Small but mighty. (00:09):
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Matt [00:03:20]: SEDC has historically been a staff of two for 75 years. We've doubled in size, we've doubled in programming. We've done a lot of things in the last couple of years with still maintaining that too. We currently have two job openings right now, thank goodness. Right. We are also bringing on a research intern in the spring of this year. So we're still two, but we will double our staff size, believe it or not, here, hopefully relatively soon. (00:10):
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Amanda [00:03:44]: Love that. So what are some of the things you all offer for members that you are the proudest of or think are some of the most impactful benefits? (00:11):
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Matt [00:03:54]: Yeah, well, as far as proudest, I guess. Let me just kind of brag about our members here. So, you know, you've heard me say, okay, we've doubled in size, we've doubled in revenue, or we've probably tripled in revenue, which is really good. We need to keep the lights on here. So more importantly, we have seriously, seriously expanded and diversified our membership service portfolio. So we have done a lot of things and we're seeing that pay positive consequence with the new growth of SEDC or even more importantly, with retention of SEDC. When you join SEDC, for the most part, you stick around for hopefully the entirety of your career. But for multiple years, our retention rates are about 95% and we're really, really proud of that. Especially if you think about, for the Association Chamber people that listen to this, when you think about the growth that we have had, you know, more than half of people in SEDC are new. That's great. We celebrate that. That's really good. That also puts us in a, in a point of volatility to where we can have some serious retention problems really quick if we're, if we're not careful. So for any chambers and associations out there in growth mode, be focusing sincerely or intentionally on retention mode too, so you can make sure that you sustain and maintain everything that you want to do as you capitalize on, on your new growth. But the thing that I am, I think the proudest of, or I know the proudest of, you know, I get to be a really, really small part of a very interesting, very sophisticated, very globally leading, globally successful network of economic developers that are… not only have they built the American south, we represent 17 states in the South. Not only have they built the south into the world's third largest economy, we should be proud of that. I don't think people realize that if you think about what the American south is, the south, we are 17 states, $10 trillion of the US GDP. That is what we are, who we are. That is what we have built. That's the world's third largest economy. Number four is not even close. We're double to number four. Not only that, we are in the world's best position or we are in such a great position to maintain our status as that level of economy and the world's premier investment location. So what I'm proud of the most is. Hey, me, I'm recording this from a library in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, in eastern Kentucky in the mountains. I'm sitting here getting to be part of this, this network. It's incredible. Our membership in 2023 did about $175 billion worth of capital investment. Probably, you know, 125 or this is 2022, I'm sorry, about 170 billion investment that when fully realized, that'll create over 100,000 new jobs in 2023. Don't quote me on these. I'm away from my notes. But $ 210 billion. $210 billion worth of capital investment deals. No other region on the planet does that. At the end of the day, that's 150,000 when fully realized from 2023, 150,000 new American jobs. Think about what that means. Transformative for families, transformative for communities, regions, states, and our, you know, beyond the American south, our entire country. What our people do, I'm so thankful for. So appreciative. I don't think there is any better work that you can do preparing people now for a better tomorrow. So incredibly proud. And oh, by the way, it just happens to be cool to do this in the world's best place for economic development. (00:12):
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Amanda [00:07:22]: Love it. Love how you framed that. I was working on some presentation content earlier and I was pulling some numbers actually on talent growth in the Southeast specifically. And of course, we've outperformed every other region in that sense for several years now. But the specific stat I was looking at, I think said we were the most populous region and we had more than double the growth of any other region? I think. Again, don't have my notes in front of me either, but it was some really impressive talent numbers. (00:13):
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Matt [00:07:50]: No one is investing in product like we are. No one is as serious as we are about giving enterprise site consultants companies quick risk free site selection experiences. No one does that like we do. It just is true. Look at what these states are investing in. Product development, for example. Now the other side of that is specific to your point on workforce in 2021 or 2022, I can't remember, it was probably 2022. We were at all time highs. People probably don't realize this either. This is a really great. I'm so glad you brought this up because we can just put this out here. Post Covid, we were at all time highs for labor force availability and workforce participation. People we are and we are doubling at the growth at the time was double that of the rest of the country. No one is as advantaged as we are relative to workforce. Oh, and guess what? Net migration of people into our region every year when, when Americans move, they move to the South. The last reports that we had the top five states for net migration were all Southern American South. One of our 17 states and seven of the top 10 were in the American South. So that advantage will only accelerate and that gap, that gap between where we are and whoever our next closest competitor is will only continue to grow. So to that point, yes, that is just such a crucial point as to why we will continue to do exactly what we do now. (00:14):
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Amanda [00:09:12]: Yeah, so you just hit a lot of my next question here about selling points of our region and why you think we're thriving so much. What about unique challenges we might be facing in the coming decades as a region? (00:15):
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Matt [00:09:25]: Yeah, good question. So when you think about economic development and we want to talk about challenges, look, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that we all can kind of talk talk about. You can talk about workforce. You know, think before I say this. Think about how difficult it is to, to do economic development well and to, to be successful. When you talk about all the traditional things that an economic developer, industrial developer was responsible for back in the day. Hey now guess what? It has expanded so far beyond kind of the, the traditional, kind of the traditional world of economic development. So that in itself fundamentally is incredibly challenging. It's hard to be successful in economic development. We are who we are because we happen to have the world's best economic developers doing this. When you're in an uber competitive region. Let's be real here. We're the world's best place to do economic development. But we are a collective of 17 competitor states. So we are pushing ourselves. Pushing where- all of our waters or boats or whatever that saying is, is rising together because we're all pushing each other. Some state will have this great innovative competitive advantage. Guess what? Some other state will top that. And then we're just in this cycle of uber competitiveness. And that, that's, that's why we are. But just fundamentally think about everything our, our audience knows about traditional economic development. And I think our audience also knows about some of the new things that economic developers are responsible for in doing and mitigating. Mitigating. Okay. I'm an economic developer here in eastern- say I am in eastern Kentucky. Okay? I've got to recruit business, I've got to retain business. Guess what? I've got to figure out housing issues, I've got to figure out child care issues. I've got to advocate to make sure that I've got all the competitive advantages I need over any other region in my state or any other region in the country. That is an incredibly challenging job. But every time we have a great win in any of our states for a transformed mega project or a smaller project, whatever, anytime we celebrate a win and we celebrate a lot of them here, one of our A+ ready-to-go sites goes off market and some of our workforce is consumed too, which is amazing. So for me, the number one thing is we have got to make sure that we protect and advance our status as the world's premier best place to do business. And we are absolutely doing that. It doesn't mean it's not a challenge when you talk about gotta invest and get new sites ready to go, gotta attract people. All that is very challenging. We do that. We do that better than anyone else. But that, but that's a challenge. And you see what these states are doing on, on workforce and talent traction. Amanda, you're such a great big part of that. We're so, we're so blessed to be able to work with you. But you see our states addressing that challenge. And because of that, you will see our states and communities continue to succeed. So out of everything that we could all talk about, for me, this isn’t an SEDC position. This is Matt's. Look, it's about product, okay? It's about product development. If you build it, they will come. If you do it strategically and whatever other metric you have, this is just my personal opinion, site consultant, whatever other metrics that are measured, a site consultant or business isn't going to even look at that to see if you are advantaged or not advantaged if you don't have a site ready to go. So for me, at the heart of this, if you've got A+ sites ready to go, you're going to be pretty well advantaged when it comes down to site selection time. (00:16):
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Amanda [00:12:35]: Yeah, you made an interesting point there. Talking about how much our field and the issues it looks at addressing has expanded so much in recent years and looking at, you know, if that continues, is that really going to be sustainable to put all that onto this one set of people? I don't know. It's grown so much. (00:17):
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Matt [00:12:57]: Well, the good thing about any state association for economic development or SEDC or national groups, IEDC, whatever, economic development is a hard job. There's a lot of expectation, there's a lot of personal drive, there's a lot of competition. A lot of what economic developers hear a lot is “hey, thanks but no,” you know, so that it's, it's difficult to be successful. So that's, that's why for, for me, you know, I think it is so important that economic developers especially and you know, in any, any field get involved in your, in your association and find, find a friend, find a champion, find, find a mentor and just lean on each other and take advantage of these conferences too and use it as kind of a, kind of a respite just to, just to be together because you certainly deserve it for one. And then you certainly can pick up, just have a great network and great community of cheerleaders and mentors and people to learn from and people for you to inspire as well. So is it sustainable? Absolutely. We've been sustaining it, but it is, it is difficult and is why building a good community and network of like minded driven professionals that are doing the same thing or want to do the same thing that you are, is so important. (00:18):
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Amanda [00:14:10]: So true. You Matt, have led another association before this, right? That was your state group? Am I remembering that right? The Kentucky one? (00:19):
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Matt [00:14:19]: Yeah, yeah. So yeah, shout out KAED, the friends there, the Kentucky Association for Economic Development. I was there five years, really loved it. So hopefully some of them are listening. So hello to them. (00:20):
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Amanda [00:14:32]: So you've been in this association space in our little sweet spot for a while. I'd love to hear your perspective on these professional association groups in general. What's changing with what's expected of them? You know, keeping up with technology, competing with it a little bit because, you know, and more information is available to people for free? What shifts have you seen there? (00:21):
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Matt [00:14:54]: For one, I guess for me there are a ton of good partner organizations and also competitor organizations for profit and nonprofit that are doing the work of convening, educating, advocating, whatever, doing that work that is kind of in the similar wheelhouse of associations. So, you know, and that's good. But the reality is (00:22):
that is competition. That is another venue to where people in this field can be served by in a way that their association could or should as well. So people have choices when it comes to where they spend their dollars. And there is an incredibly fast-moving, fast-growing series of group of organizations and services and just opportunities where people can go to a conference and learn something or I picked up this webinar for free or this group's advocating for us in our profession in a way. So I think associations, because there's ever growing competition, because there are groups like SEDC who is growing or IEDC who is growing, or some of these states are doing things and people have multi state associations in multiple states. Associations need to be mindful of being incredibly aggressive, be mindful of just looking for how can I continue to add value, strengthen what I do and maybe think innovatively about, okay, what are some other appropriate services or actions that I can do that will continue to add value? Because as there are more and more options out there, it just is what it is. You have to be continually thinking about… I need to continue to make sure that we are adding value and serving our members primarily in a way that is appropriate and also in a way that is here within my halls rather than somewhere else. But the thing that I like the least, associations are event companies, event management companies in lots of capacities. The cost of doing business specific to events has exponentially, exponentially increased. So when you see associations that have a certain registration fee or it's increased, it's not because they exactly wanted to. It's because the cost of food or the cost of coffee or you wouldn't believe it, you go to some event somewhere and you need an extension cord. Okay, that's $400. You know the cost. Yeah. Or hey, or “hey organization, thanks for being in our ballroom. Hey, did you need power? Do you need this outlet? Okay, $5,000.” It's incredible. It's, it's incredibly expensive. Okay? It's, it's incredibly expensive and the cost of doing business has increased. Okay. So for, for me a challenge is most of SEDC's members are, are serving in rural communities with smaller populations with budgets under a million, with two staff, and they have a lot of choices. We just talked about competition. So for me it's about, look, the last thing I want for anybody, regardless of size, is for our cost to be a burden of participation and engagement. So the challenge there is, okay with all of these costs. How do we deal with that in a way that isn't then passed on to the members? So we are proud that we are incredibly price competitive. If you look at us and other national partners, we are two, three, four times less expensive. Expensive in lots of cases and I don't want to change that. We've raised prices $25 I think on, on our conferences since, since I've been here and I didn't want to do that.
Amanda [00:18:30]: Yeah, and I think to your point too, of just limited budgets and trying to decide where you're going to engage, you know, those groups in your state groups in your region, like, even if you think about travel costs for those things, which can also add up, you know, it's a lot more likely that you're going to end up with something maybe drivable for you or just a little bit easier to get to than some of those national conferences that like, while great, you know, maybe you're in Tennessee and it's in Seattle this year and that's, you know, a little bit bigger lift. (00:23):
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Matt [00:18:59]: Yeah, no doubt. So we, we ran into that. I mean we're 17 states, fairly large geographically, but yeah, we, we run into that. So that's why for us it's about one, not, not messing with these prices in a way that's burdensome too, and also making sure that our hotels are affordable and stuff like that. But at the end of the day it's about, okay, how can we absolutely jam pack load these agendas with an unbelievable amount of things and an unbelievable amount of really great people that would be impactful to be connected with. Deals have been made and won at SEDC conferences. I'm incredibly aware of that and that's always going to be important for me as I go forward. (00:24):
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Amanda [00:19:39]: What are your thoughts on the evolution of our industry in the next five, five to ten years? What skills and knowledge do you think people are going to really need more of? What areas are we going to have to be more knowledgeable in? What do you think? (00:25):
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Matt [00:19:54]: At the end of the day, economic development's a relationship thing, right? So think about all of the kind of academic challenges and the challenges of the day and all the things holistically that we need to do now. We are doing those. And we are doing that above and beyond. And these associations out there and SEDC and national associations are being very incredibly mindful to empower members with the best cutting edge content and just services and resources to enhance capacities to address everything that you need to do to be successful. The United States is the world's best, safest investment location. As geopolitical stuff is going on throughout the world, the American south will continue to or the United States and the American south above any other region will continue to bring on new FDI. The companies in America will grow. We will continue to do what we do. The challenges will continue to be there and we'll continue to address those. But go back to relationships. As things become harder and people, there are more expectations and people are pulled in different ways. And as technology continues to impact what we're doing, AI is now and will continue to play an incredibly important part of economic development. Enhancing efficiencies and evaluations and just being a really, really important part of what we do. That will make us all better in a positive way. But guess what? Because we will continue to leverage AI and technology and because that will play a really, really important part of helping us with metrics and just helping us every day. The power of human connection, which will never die, will only continue to be more and more important as we leverage more and more technology. Both are good, but the power of human connection will continue to play that as we evolve. That which has always been important will only continue to be more and more important. (00:26):
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Amanda [00:21:43]: Yeah, we're going to move into a fun wrap up question in just a second. But before we do that, anything else you'd like to add about SEDC? Why our region is so great, future of the industry. Anything else? (00:27):
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Matt [00:21:57]: You know, at SEDC we've grown a lot. We're a stronger foundation. We do everything, you know, all those, everything that should be done within sort of those educate, advocate, collaborate verticals where we're doing, we will always be looking to get better. When you think about, you know, within our 1700 members, whatever that network did, $220 billion worth of deals in 2023, like I said, I'm aggregating 2024 numbers right now. We'll see what it is. It'll be close to a record. If not, it'll be slightly, slightly under. This is an incredibly sophisticated group of people who like I said, built the third largest economy, were the world's best. You know, we'll expect just the party to continue. But you bring those people into a hall or into a membership, you know, it's not, hey, go sit in the, go sit in the conference and then go to the reception. That's not what we should be doing. It should be, hey, how can we all come together? How can we leverage this opportunity and this convergence to really be innovated in really, what doors can we kick down? What competitive advantages can we figure out and then implement? What can we do as, as a people to assure that we are, that our status is protected and our advantages are accelerated? So for us at SEDC, you know, all the good stuff that's going on just kind of internally, from a management perspective, that's all good, you know, and that's all worth celebrating. But for me, it's about, okay, how do we truly leverage our opportunity, truly leverage who we are to create or help create impact, and how do we put our. And what can happen when we put ourselves in position of absolute global and national influence? So I think as SEDC continues to grow and evolve, you will see us be involved in incredibly helpful ways and maybe even new ways. In the last 12 to 18 months, what we've been to Europe twice, we have been to Asia. I'm packing up and leaving for Korea tomorrow to go out and recruit and just to make sure that we're building relationships with industry, industry leaders and inviting them to come and thrive where in the American south where we are, you know, despite all the advantage or all of the advantages that we have with people and product, guess what? We're incredibly experienced and incredibly we're people ready is what I like to tell people. And we have all the resources instantly, not only for your business come and thrive, but all the new neighbors that will come. Look at we're people ready is what I term that. But we've launched a research and grant program, for example, to do a lot of things and build a lot of really important, meaningful relationships in Washington. So I think that's just probably what I would leave with is just, hey, thank our members for being part of SEDC. Thank you for giving us this opportunity and come in here, get involved, kick us in the butt where we need to and tell us how we can innovate to do meet meaningful new things that will absolutely pay positive consequence and help your ability to be successful for your communities and your states in a very real way, beyond the education and the networking that's intrinsic and at the heart of everything that we do well. (00:28):
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Amanda [00:25:03]: And one more question I'd like to have you speak to that I was thinking about while you were just talking so when you think about it really, you know, economic development is all these different states, all these different communities kind of competing with each other for the talent to get those big project announcements, all of that good stuff. So when you think about it that way, why are people so willing to share their strategies with each other versus being more like, I want to keep all this close to my chest because it's a competition. (00:29):
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Matt [00:25:32]: You know, I think at the heart of this, economic developers, when you have been, when you've been put in a situation with a community or region or state, you are in a situation of massive responsibility. And like we've said, it is incredibly difficult to be successful. So some of the best, probably, you know, maybe not all, but most, most all of economic developers and professionals, they have relied on mentors or people they've looked up to or they've met friends across across borders or across county borders or state borders, whatever. They have met people that have been incredibly influential and impactful on their careers and ability to be successful. So when you, when you think about, when you think about SEDC, what I always tell people or if anyone's interested in looking at SEDC, I'll say, hey, join your state association first. Get involved in your state. You know, figure out what all is going on. Find, find a person, a mentor, a champion to be connected with and get involved and then give that some time. Then come to SEDC and do the exact same thing except connect with someone in some other state so that you can figure out how they do what they do and take things back home. So I think at the heart of it, economic developers are connected, networking, relationship people. They are also, and I think even, and I've been in other associations too. From what I feel from economic developers, they are more, they value mentorship more than other industries that have been involved in. So because of that there is a, and they're service minded people. There's a very giving, giving attitude or giving heart professionally within, within our, our industry. I think so I think one, I think that's at the heart of it now. I think something that SEDC has been very good at. I've been here two and a half years or you know, around there immediately when I got here I didn't, I wanted us to feel a sense of, look, we're not 17, we're not a 17 state membership association. Exactly. We are the clearinghouse forum platform for the American south, which is the world's premier investment location, business location, you know, staffed by the world's best professionals. So we have been very, very intentional to brand ourselves as American South. And we are doing that in a way that other regions of the country do not do. And that is absolutely an advantage for us. So I think, and our members have seen value from that. State governments have seen value from that. So I think we have done a really nice job of saying, hey, look, we're the American South. You are going to come here. I hope it's, you know, you're going to come to the south, come here, but you're going to come to the south, you know. So I think we've done a good job understanding of we're all in this together, kind of raising this region and we are all going to collect the majority of economic development wins in the country. We're all going to get our share there. So I think that's helped it too. But at the end of the day, look, we're all competitors. We're not, you know, we're probably not all sharing everything, but I think we're doing it better than we have in the past. (00:30):
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Amanda [00:28:41]: I love that. Was a great answer. Well, that's a great segue. As we're wrapping up, remind our listeners where you are based, Matt? (00:31):
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Matt [00:28:50]: Okay. If you know, they've probably heard my accent. Okay. I am in eastern, I'm in eastern Kentucky. It's where I'm born and raised. (00:32):
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Amanda [00:28:57]: All right. If someone were to visit your city, your town for the first time, what would be a bucket list item they should make sure to do? Someone were visiting your neck of the woods? (00:33):
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Matt [00:29:08]: Okay. I was actually just texting someone who I've been in Lexington, Kentucky for 20 years. Let me say that I just got this text. “Hey, we're coming in summer. What are we supposed to do?” Bourbon Trail. It's the only answer. Bourbon Trail. Do that. Have fun in Lexington, Kentucky. So shout out to former home. Also do some horse related things. All of the horses you've ever heard about, ever, aside from all the bourbon you've ever heard about, all that comes from right around that region. So that's the bucket list stuff. Just top of mind too. Good question. Eastern Kentucky, Prestonsburg, Kentucky. If you are going to come here, you are going to walk through our little Hallmark postcard downtown and then I will take you to Billy Ray's and you will get the most world-famous hamburger that you have ever had in your, in your life. So first and foremost you're going to come downtown and just enjoy the quaint Hallmark-esque environment experience that all of our great downtowns in the American South have. (00:34):
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Amanda [00:30:10]: Love it. Well thank you so much Matt for spending some time with us. I really appreciate it. (00:35):
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Matt [00:30:14]: Well you too. Thanks for all that you do. Hey, shout out great webinars that Livability has on the SEDC website. You're so kind to donate your time and your expertise and we'll look forward to seeing you at our upcoming conferences as well. (00:36):
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Amanda [00:30:29]: We love doing that. Good deal. Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast, where we take you Inside America's Best Cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review this show. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can also learn more about us at livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at aellis@livability.com. Until next time, from Livability, I'm Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America's most promising places. (00:37):
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