Young Professionals Network Launch Event

Millier Dickinson Blais is partnering with the Economic Developer’s Council of Ontario (EDCO) in the creation of a Young Professionals Network, an exciting new venture targeted at economic development practitioners in Ontario under the age of 30 or with less than five years of professional experience. Recognizing that young professionals are often faced with difficulty entering the field and engaging with other practitioners, this network aims to provide a forum for interaction and collaboration, information sharing, and the pursuit of professional development opportunities. Read the full blog post

No Jobs, No Problem for Youth Entrepreneurs

My colleague Darren Shock recently used this space to write about how the values and priorities of Gen Y-ers like him and I may have significant impacts on housing and land use patterns. It’s certainly true that uncertainty regarding the economy and labour market are changing the traditional outlook on home ownership. A recent article by Hannah Seligson in the New York Times suggests that these trends are also forcing young people to change the way they look at employment, too.

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Housing Gen Y: Experience, Not Expanse

Recently Neil Takamoto of Cooltown Beta Communities wrote a blog post about housing trends and the preferences of “Gen Y”. Articles like this normally appeal to me based on my experience in both economic development and planning and an interest in how our behaviours are changing with the economy. As a Gen Yer having gone through several moves myself, I have struggled a few times with many of the issues my peers face about choosing locations, housing type, and tackling the own vs. rent decision. Read the full blog post

Revitalizing the Rust Belt

The declining fortunes of rural one-industry towns is a common story throughout much of Canada and the United States, but perhaps nowhere has been hit harder than the “Rust Belt” in the American Northeast and Midwest. The decline of the steel industry that began in the 1970s and 1980s drastically changed the economic fortunes of once prosperous towns and cities throughout those regions, and the recent recession was a final nail in the coffin for many of those places.

One town fighting against those forces is Braddock, Pennsylvania, located just outside of Pittsburgh. Read the full blog post

Rethinking the Value of Service Work

Economic development practice in many communities across Ontario and Canada has shifted from a focus on investment attraction and deal-making to business retention & expansion and entrepreneurship development. Employment figures reflect this shift; as of September 2010, 79.9% of Ontario’s labour force is employed in service-producing industries – up from 69% in 1988. As these trends continue, local economies will be driven less by the production and export of commodities, and more by the local production and delivery of services – from international call centres to retail cashiers and bank tellers. Indeed, despite much talk about the importance of the creative economy for economic growth, the service economy is where the workers are.

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Nodding Off

One of the opportunities that comes with being named to PROFIT Magazine’s HOT 50: Canada’s Emerging Growth Companies is an invitation to GrowthCamp, a full day of inspirational and educational sessions for Hot 50 companies. Less than four hours after closing down Millier Dickinson Blais’ hospitality suite at the Economic Developers Association of Canada Annual Conference in Quebec City, Brock and I were on a flight to Toronto and the GrowthCamp. I walked into the Westin blurry eyed and looking for a cup of something heavily caffeinated. But better than an over-steeped Earl Grey, GrowthCamp was what I needed – a non-stop 12 hour blast of energy. Listening to great speakers like Robert Herjavec (of TV’s Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank) and Brian Beaulieu of the Institute for Trend Research all day really does make you forget you’re running on little sleep.

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What’s so Hot about the Profit Hot 50?

A little over three years ago, my partners and I launched Millier Dickinson Blais to bring something new to the Canadian economic development space.  All around us were the first signs of a seismic shift in the economy – the rise of the creative class, the impact of globalization, a wave of new technologies, a focus on social media, and a stark decline in traditional industries.  We believed – and still believe – that yesterday’s solutions, the old tools and tactics of the economic development profession, were of little use in this strange new economy.  In their place, we offered sophisticated, collaborative, team-based approaches rooted in the new economy of the 21st Century.

Today marks a major milestone on the road that stretches from that initial starting point… Today, Profit magazine has named us to the Hot 50 list of Canada’s emerging growth companies, the 50 fastest growing new firms in the country.  For us, that’s a huge reward for our hard work, and it’s nice to have a pat on the back.  But what we’re really excited about is the bigger signal that this sends.  While it’s nice that our firm is growing and succeeding, the real message of the Hot 50 listing is that we have a strong and growing base of clients who’ve made the move to the new economy with us.

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