News
ECG Works with Oregon to Leverage its "Green"
Reputation
Oregon Governor Kulongoski, Eileen Drake,
PCC Structurals Sam Brooks, S. Brooks and Associates
Working with the Oregon Business Council in Portland, Oregon, ECG is helping the state to develop a sustainable economic development strategy that leverages Oregon's "green" reputation and focuses on strengthening connections between Oregon's traded sector clusters and community, academic, and government leaders. With help from Oregon's trade associations, Governor Kulongowski's office, the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department, and the Oregon Innovation Council, ECG helped shape the 2008 economic development agenda for the joint public-private Oregon Business Plan.
In order to identify statewide industry priorities and challenges, ECG staff conducted focus groups Oregon's key industries and interviews with local sustainability experts. The feedback from the focus groups is summarized in the 2008 Cluster Resource Guide and the interviews resulted in the Oregon Business Plan's adoption of 4 new sustainability initiative proposals.
ECG also helped organize the cluster roundtable discussions that were a major focus of the annual Oregon Leadership Summit, which took place on December 3, 2007. The Summit drew over 1000 business, elected and community leaders to discuss the Oregon Business Plan's strategy for supporting Oregon's traded sector clusters and presented 17 industry cluster roundtable sessions where key leaders from the public and private sectors came together to build new relationships and advance cluster-specific action initiatives.
Moving into 2008, ECG will continue to encourage the cross- cluster and cross- sector connections that are facilitated by the Oregon Cluster Network, a network of cluster practitioners and others with relevant technical expertise, supporting services for clusters, or unique cluster development knowledge.
Click here to learn more about the Oregon Business Plan and Oregon Cluster Network.