i hope you've all had a great summer so excited to kick off this breakfast series for a new program year i'm jane clark president of our michigan west coast chamber and glad to be back we have a lot of energy planned for you this coming program year a lot of changes coming for our early bird breakfast changes coming with our annual meeting we hope you'll see you there first change up for early bird is how we handle our hosts our mcs every morning this season we're partnering with holland young professionals to be the mcs every single breakfast it's a great opportunity for the chamber to learn from our young leaders in our community they bring a great sense of energy a great new perspective for us and so to kick off this morning's breakfast i'm gonna ask heather gill fox to come up heather is board chair of hyp holland young professionals and she's also a great member of our west coast chamber board of directors so welcome heather thank you jane on behalf of the hollandzeeland young professionals we're truly grateful for the support from you and from this community for our emerging business leaders our hyp members are excited to make their mark and aligning ourselves with the west coast chamber gives us opportunity to better connect with successful members like everyone in this room so thank you for that jane promised innovative ideas for the upcoming year and i'm excited and privileged to be able to tell you about the first one start now get your cell phones out i know you've hidden them away as you may have heard or read the early bird breakfast is getting a fresh name and this is the moment we all get to vote on what that new name is going to be you may have sent in your ideas the chambers asked for input over the past couple of weeks people sent in their ideas for what this name could be and we've narrowed it down to the top three choices so to be innovative use our technology we're gonna pull out our cell phones and follow the instructions on your screens over here if you can't quite read it that's okay they're gonna send out the instructions afterward in the postevent survey email so you don't need to worry about that but open your internet browser and go to livevoxvotecom and when your internet has got you to that page you can type in the pin number which is twenty nine thousand three hundred and fifty two and that is going to give you your three top choices for the early bird breakfast new name they are wake up west coast which is maybe more of an instruction than a title but um business for breakfast and the west coast breakfast club so those are your three options vote on your favorite we'll give you a minute or two right now to work on that if you're not quite sure find a young person next to you and i'm sure they can help you out got my dig in for the morning hi dale yes all right it looks like most people have figured it out and are thinking about it wonderful the winning name is gonna be announced at the chamber's upcoming annual meeting which is on september 29th so be sure to attend that event so you can be in the group of people who's the first to know and before i introduce today's guest speaker the chamber wants to thank the greater ottawa county united way for sponsoring our preevent coffee time so thank you united way our guest speaker this morning is jennifer owens president of lakeshore advantage jennifer delivers business attraction expansion and retention services while providing overall leadership to the organization she has more than fifteen years of leadership experience working at various state and local economic development positions throughout michigan her accomplishments led her to receive awards and recognition such as being named one of the nation's top economic developers under forty in two thousand and thirteen and was the grand rapids journal newsmaker of the year finalist in two thousand and fifteen please join me in giving a warm welcome to jennifer owens thank you hello it's great to be back i missed my early bird friends and i'm excited to learn what to call them next so jane way to continue to innovate to look at new ideas and i love the fact that the hyp group is coming up we don't need tv anchors to be our mcs we got some pretty incredible young talent here so well done heather and i can't wait to see who's next in terms of leadership there so business intelligence report let me pull this out in my notes so lakeshore advantage for the last eight years or so has implemented a system of data collection so we've taken a little bit of a different approach to analyzing our data and our business retention in that one of our key goals one of our key goals is to maintain a robust business space at all stages of development we only support companies that export goods and services out of the region and thus bringing wealth back in and also focus on talent attraction and development and really looking forward to see where there are longterm opportunities for our community's continuing health and so what drives our organization and really hopefully drives our region is the insight and the feedback from our business leaders so many of those of us in economic development proactively go out and listen and learn from our business leaders and then use that data to kind of create our plan we take somewhat of a different structured approach woo there we go and we ask thirty eight questions of over one hundred and seventeen senior level business leaders to really get a pulse on where the economy is at where are the challenges for their businesses and where can we work to continue to address those issues and so we've been doing this for quite some time and we've got a great data expert in bruce adair for those of you who know bruce feed him a more data he loves data and so it's a really novel tool well last year when we unveiled our report we had one of our economic development partners in ed garner who was at the time with muskegon area first and ed is now the west michigan small business development director so congratulations ed but i kind of put his hand up and he said this is a really cool tool and i would love to see what this data looks like for muskegon is there an option to potentially extend this to a greater audience take a look at the data not only for ottawa county but from muskegon and ottawa county is this something that you might potentially work with us to put in place and i thought to myself i'm like yeah why not ed had had his hand up and he said hey this makes great sense and so i then called nora from the allegan economic development commission i said hey nora ed wants to maybe extend this to muskegon would you want to do it in allegan as well nora was like sure let's try it let's see where it went and then thus our partners at the grand haven chamber as well we said tricities area wanna make sure we're collecting all that data and joy gash and dana from her team said yeah let's give it a shot so for the first time this year we're gonna present you data from three counties collected by our partners in allegan ottawa and muskegon county and so the data will really truly represent a west coast region so thank you so much to those partners for taking a risk to taking additional time to take the structured process and bring it directly to their business and as a result i think we'll be stronger together as a lakeshore region and i'm gonna tell you we really are kicking the midwest's butt so as we go in deeper i'm gonna share that a little bit further so lake shore this data not only is about west michigan's lake shore but every three years we get the data for all of the midwest as well so it was a great time to expand the data that we collected because we also had a chance to analyze it head to head with eleven states throughout the midwest and say how are we doing how do we stack up how do we stack up head to head with those eleven states so today i'm gonna look at four key areas how that head to head competition compares are we doing better are we doing worse are there opportunities are there challenges as we look at those competitors in other states that oftentimes we compete every day for jobs and investment oops a little bit of a lagger there we go so first up business growth so as you know the economy is extremely strong right now and as is the midwest economy as well so we kinda thought well we're both growing maybe at similar rates so what does it look overall as it relates to business growth in our region and what we found is ninety four of those west michigan lakeshore companies have sales that are increasing or stable versus sixty six of the midwest companies so clearly we're seeing a much stronger growth of sales than our midwest competitors i might need your help here caroline okay and so to bring that to life i would like to present you one example right here in the city of holland lg chem so the community took a risk and also put their hand up in the alternative energy storage market and said we want to be the center of advanced energy storage and wow has lg chem and johnson controls really proved good on their promise to this community lg chem in particular has just opened seven years ago they currently are at about five hundred employees right now adding two hundred in the past two years twenty five million invested in the last year in the city of holland and growing so lg chem is a sign of not only the industries that are driving your future but also the industries that will continue to power us for many years to come so a great example of how that business growth is boring forward in our state so it's not only about the markets that we're serving in the us but it is also about who we're supporting throughout the world so as you know many of our companies are exporting goods and services throughout the world throughout the country in particular in the food processing sector we're seeing more and more of our food processors working to export those goods and services out of the region in fact our international sales as a whole about sixty eight of our region's companies have growing international sales as compared to twenty six of the us so that's great news for us we're supplying goods and products and services and we're bringing wealth back into our region to make us stronger a fabulous example of that and i don't know how many people realize what actually goes on off the highway in zeeland at zeeland farm services you look at it and you're like huh what's happening there and let me tell you i have been amazed every time i go to meet with cliff and his team so zeeland farm services is the supplier to what to the rest of the world is their ketchup soy sauce they are the number one world leading producer of non gmo soy protein that's exported to the entire world kikkoman is actually one of their largest customers the japanese based soy sauce manufacturer and kikkoman takes zeeland farm services soy proteins and puts it in the majority of their soy products which are then exported to businesses throughout the country so when you go by zeeland farm services now it's not a grain elevator it is amazing world leader in soy protein that will continue to grow and expand in this community and also a specific example of how export sales have continued to move us forward so what's next things are great here in the economy what's gonna happen in five years from now can we continue this expansion trend i have a lot of people say when are things going to turn the other way and i feel that too i think we say okay is it gonna continue to be this good things are great but what will happen in the future so are we is continue to have positive outlook as the us midwest well what we found is seventy five of the companies here in the lakeshore have said that yes they will expand in the next three years versus fifty of the companies in the midwest so of those who said they would expand forty actually provided us specifics on those expansion plans and combined they expect to invest about two hundred and fifty eight million in the next three years into the community and add one thousand nine hundred jobs so i'm thinking the future looks pretty good hopefully fingers crossed but i'm still very very optimistic outlook and our midwest competitors share that outlook as well but again dominating that midwest competition and i think to kind of bring that to life to give you an example of a recent expansion is plascore in zeeland for those of you who don't know plascore is one of the world's leading producers of honeycomb panels for the aerospace industry just last week plascore announced an expansion of their fairview facility that'll be doubling that production capability and it was directly tied to the growth that they're seeing in the aerospace market so these honeycomb panels are not only used in aerospace they're used in automobiles boats and clean rooms so plascore is one of those future leading expansions that we'll see not only three years from now but probably next year so make sure you keep an eye out there but plascore is a really a specific example of the diverse range of companies and industries that will continue to drive us forward so strengths i talked a lot about strengths but what are specifically our strengths in the community outside of the business growth and outside of the expansion plans we're seeing and one of the things that it's been about three years for me since i've moved to this area that i continue to see as a phenomenal strength of this community is the continued investment in research and development i have my friends from gentex here in the front so i'll pick on them a little bit in a good way so for those of you who know gentex is our largest employer here in ottawa county but the technology that is taking place in gen tex is unlike any company i've ever seen in the state if not in the us in two thousand and seventeen alone gentex has issued over seventy patents and they have thousands of patents already in stock so the patents are really the first step of the introduction of new products and technologies that will take shape in the next five years two years three years to come so seventy patents issued in two thousand and seventeen i'm gonna challenge you curt another seventy more before the end of the year but really that's the sign of what's to come for our community and so eighty two of our companies invest in r d at a higher level compared to forty nine of the us midwest so that continuing investment in research and development new products and technology that is what will continue to drive our community not only now but in five years to come and so that investment doesn't only happen outside of a company oftentimes it happens inside a company and for those of you who are not familiar with the word intrapreneurship you'll be hearing it much more to come and so intrapreneurship is really when a business takes place inside of an existing large employer and as a result of that innovation and that technology in that large employer a spinoff company is created so it's a great case of a volta power systems so volta's current ceo was employed by johnson controls and saw some great potential of technology developed there that could be applied to other markets specifically the rv market boating a vast range of other industries and so johnson controls was focused on the automotive market and he wanted to give it a shot and see what these other industries would make sense so he went off on his own he created volta power systems and volta basically takes lithium ion batteries and adapts those batteries to power large rvs and boats and so he opened up the doors not knowing what would happen and in the last three years they've doubled sales year on year every single year as a result of that intrapreneurship that innovation within our existing companies we have a brand new employer that will continue to be strong and has much more success to come so again when you drive by james and you see volta power systems i'm expecting they'll grow out of that facility to come but it's a result of innovation that not only happens outside of our large employers but internally as well and we all win when that continues to happen so overall community strengths when you take a look at strengths headtohead with the us midwest we continue to be somewhat even as it relates to work ethic business climate quality of life barriers to growth and talent however we are continuing to see talent be the number one barrier from employers going forward and it's no surprise with our economy being so strong and having the lowest unemployment rate in the state of michigan that our existing employers would continue to have some struggles finding talented workers however they aren't putting their hats in their heads and saying woe is me instead they're coming up with solutions to overcome the talent barriers that currently face our industry so seventy nine that cited a talented workforce was their number one barrier as compared to thirty seven of the us who said they had barriers for growth but as i mentioned there is definitely hope for the future and let me tell you fear not the robot apocalypse it is not coming and i don't know if you saw this wall street journal article but basically what it shared is automation actually is the solution for our manufacturers continuing to be productive and strong and in fact two of the world's leading automation providers in jr automation and koops are headquartered right here in holland in holland township and combined those two companies have added nearly three hundred people in the last year they are the solution they are working sidebyside with manufacturers throughout the us and adapting automation and technology solutions that can allow products to be automated where we don't have the workforce to supply the needs and at the end of the day those automation solutions are making those companies more productive more efficient goods and services will be exported out at a higher rate and the economy will be strong as we continue to kinda welcome the rise of the robots in a good way and it is i mean if you have not been inside some of our amazing employers and seen that automation at work it is fascinating and so it's not only about automation it is also about investing in their existing workforce now obviously as technology has changed dramatically as is today's manufacturing positions so the person working on the line today the vast majority of them have to have some pretty advanced technology skills to be able to program those robotic devices to be able to change that highend machinery and thus our employers have also chosen to continue to invest in their workforce to make sure they are adopting technology of today so last year alone the state skilled trades training fund trained over eight hundred workers in ottawa county one hundred and thirty four million was put from the skill trade training fund into our workforce today and the vast majority of that was used to train the workforce on automation solutions technology ways for them to be more efficient which will continue to drive our future and so a great example of that is baumann tool die in zeeland so baumann currently has eight employees and they actually used the skilled trades training fund to invest in mastercam software and so this software improves the setup of their machines for cnc to allow them to more efficiently set the machines to turn them over and allow those machines to be put to work even faster and as a result of the investment in this software and the skilled trades training fund that allowed their employees to actually learn how to utilize it to the fullest the company now has seen a significant growth of sales and investment so a six person company makes that investment takes that leap to train their workforce and as a result their sales are now increasing dramatically that's an example of software that'll make a huge difference for our community now in the years to come so we're the clear winner that's it hands down and i don't know if you recognize this guy you liked that right so overall kirk cousins i love kirk cousins i'd look any way i can get kirk in my presentations but overall from the us to the midwest we are very strong as it relates to business growth expansions strength and talent the absolute best and in fact i believe the holland sentinel is here today i've already wrote their headline for them so sentinel write that down you don't even have to have your headline workers do anything there you go right there that's your headline however in order for this message to not stop here in the room we need all of you to amplify this message of our community strengths of the lakeshore's dominance as it relates to the midwest and also to help us attract talent into the region retain young professionals like heather and the hyp group we need all of you to amplify the message and i also have a great group of cocaptains who are gonna help me lead you in one big cheer so curt you're the chamber chair now so this is your hazing curt come on up hold your sign and i'm gonna ask for dana to come up too from the grand haven chamber nora from the allegan economic development commission kevin stotts where are you hiding at you're supposed to be over here kevin stotts from talent two thousand and twenty five who there is an array of their data inside the report as well and a really helped guide us in this process and then darryl todd from muskegon area first and all of you i need you to grab your megaphones they are megaphones stand up stand up alright alright alright okay give me a b b give me an e e give me an s s give me a t t what does that spell best in the midwest best in the midwest all right good job thanks guys thank you kevin i know i owe you one thank you so much i didn't even flip the slide so if you log that data on the megaphones we encourage you to take them with you you can actually download the report there is the direct address use them to cheer on your local school or college team as well i know i took them home to my kids and they will never come back to my house again because they were really enjoying using them but they are fun on the football field and we will be here also for after coffee to drill into that data further there are a few hard copies of the reports as well and great thanks to our partners who helped make this happen and jane to allow us to share this research with you today thank you all right super so i think jennifer is the best she is the best chamber partner one of my very best friends and we're so happy and fortunate to have her in the community i learned this morning she is also a state champion cheerleader so let's another round for jennifer yeah right and we do have a small gift from cherry republic we'll be sharing with jennifer another gift to take home share with your family and your boys we have time for questions though who might have the first question yes steve oh thank you you talked a lot about talent as being one of the barriers to growth in here what are some of the other ones i mean how are we standing in terms of like financial support for companies that are growing and some of the other resources that are necessary are we in good place for that or do we need to do more work in that area that's a great question the number two barrier we actually found as we dug in deeper to the data was housing access to workforce housing and so i'm pleased to be part of the housing next initiative along with the grand haven community foundation hollandzeeland community foundation and the two chambers to address that barrier but that's a huge one right now workforce housing and if we can attract talent in where are they gonna live anyone who's sold a house recently knows they go really really quick and to build an affordable unit it's a loss leader at this point so how do we figure out a way to address that challenge to move us forward next question got a microphone coming over that's right could you talk over what kind of things we're doing to interface with education like college and university absolutely it's great so i actually dale pink i think is here from grcc do you see where's dale bill oh bill sorry bill hey bill so grcc muskegon community college and grand valley hope we have a really solid partnerships there the thing that kind of really makes me fired up is the early college program that actually provides high school students a chance to graduate with the two year associate's degree with zero debt and so both grand rapids community college and muskegon community college are offering that early college program which is huge we are really working hard to grow internship programs in the community so last year we provided support to over two hundred interns in the community to educate them on why they start their careers here and so hope grand valley all of the area universities have really encouraged that experiential kind of learning environment and so i think internships are also going to be a huge future for us i would be remiss if i didn't give a shout out to ottawa isd and the future prep connections program because i don't think that the talent issues are gonna be solved in college they're probably going to be solved starting in middle school that's the time where we can really open up our kids eyes to careers of the future i'm a huge proponent of isd's programs and all of the work that's going on in our local school district to expose our kids to careers of today my son went through career camp and he now wants to be a welder cause he had a chance to weld and he really loved that skill i would have no way to expose him to what it looks like to weld or what it's like but because of the isd and that career enhancement it's making a huge difference and it'll make a difference in our family's life too john can i offer you guys the microphone yes good morning thanks for bringing that report sure amazon has launched a wellpublicized effort to find a new headquarters and grand rapids and detroit are both putting teams together to vie for that do you because of our talent and housing issues have an opinion as to which of those we ought to get wow that's a hard one i would say we definitely support the right place who's putting together a proposal along with the city of grand rapids for amazon's headquarters and i think it would be awesome to have them in the city of detroit as well it's one of those projects that are once in a lifetime kind of projects that i think will be huge gamechangers for whatever community they select the one thing that was a bit of an aha moment for me is that they had one of their number one criteria as access to public transportation throughout the region and although we've got strong local public transportation within our cities and our counties we're not as interconnected as we should be throughout all of west michigan so that may be something that will work against us we certainly have the growth we have more than a million people i think it would be phenomenal having access to the people as well will be a challenge because our unemployment rate's so low but we'll see okay hi jennifer hey dante congrats on the report very well were you able to look at the activity or growth of businesses with five to ten employees maybe twenty employees the smaller shops or even retailers just kinda get a pulse of how they're doing here in our region so our data is just primary employers so it wouldn't have the retail or the commercial however if you look at the us as a whole and the data and i think we probably could drill down for the county eighty of the growth will come with and from employers who have less than ten people and that's really where the overall growth will be is in those small kind of newer businesses we've really spent a lot of time investing in early stage startups through our surge initiative as well and the key goal with that is really we're growing the future and we know if we are laserfocused on small business growth that's gonna continue to help our community boost up but we could probably drill down on that data for you too if you'd like it additional questions what we're gonna do now is adjourn to our morning mingle and jennifer i'm gonna let you be the first one out of the building to head out to the center doors what we heard from you every single month we send out a survey after this breakfast and we've heard you like to network before breakfast and you really wanna continue the networking after breakfast so starting today out in the foyer we're gonna have morning mingle so we're encouraging you to stay to greet each other each month we'll have our speaker adjourn out there so if you want to connect individually with the speaker the speaker will be available for you heather thank you so much for kicking off our first partnership program today with hollandzeeland young professionals we appreciate that remember to vote we'll send you a reminder for that when we send out your survey and of course we want you to come back next month tuesday october 10th we've invited roger curtis roger curtis is the new director of michigan's talent and education initiatives a fantastic speaker and as you heard from jennifer talent is top priority we know for all of you so we want you to come back august ten to hear roger curtis so with that thanks and we'll see you next month