Your chamber’s Economic Development Council met on Friday, August 19 to hear from Brenda Hicks-Sorensen, Director of the Economic Development Department for the City of San Antonio, regarding the drafted strategic plan curated for the city’s economic development department. Introduced by Council Chair Charlie Weil, Vice President with Transwestern, Brenda’s presentation of the strategic plan covered ongoing Covid-19 impacts and its acceleration of existing trends, strategic industry clusters ripe for growth based on quantitative and qualitative feedback, and goals based on guiding principles aligning with the strategic plan objective.
The Economic Development Strategic Plan sets a roadmap and defines the Economic Development Department’s (EDD) role in the pathway to a more resilient economy and provides direction on competing with national and global peers. With five guiding principles developed at the onset of the plan of economic healing, resilience, investment and growth, tax base, and equity, the strategic plan outlines four main goals and numerous implementation strategies to leverage existing strengths, mitigate challenges, and build on the momentum of existing initiatives. The four main goals are Innovation and Industry, Placemaking and Real Estate, Talent and Workforce, and Capacity and Resources.
On broad terms, the implementation of the strategic plan presented by Brenda will lean heavily on San Antonio’s collaborative nature to embed an economic development mindset into everything the city partakes in. With the conclusion of their stakeholder engagement process, the Economic Development Department will share its draft strategic plan with the City’s Economic and Workforce Development Committee on August 31 to gain additional feedback before presenting the Plan in late September to City Council at a B Session and October for City Council action.