The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce has one major goal: creating jobs.
That’s the message that Tim Giuliani, the chamber’s president and CEO, delivered to the University of Florida’s Eye Opener Discovery Breakfast Wednesday (Dec. 11).
The good news is that job growth is progressing, with the community gaining 1,200 jobs and $137 million in capital investment over the last two and a half years.
These numbers were five-year goals for the chamber, meaning economic development is ahead of schedule, said Giuliani at the event, held at the UF Hilton Hotel and Conference Center.
The sobering news is that job growth for people without higher education remains a big challenge. The history written about the chamber includes the chairman’s letter from 1969, which asked some of the same questions about providing jobs for everyone – from people with GED’s to those with PhD’s – that are being asked today.
Giuliani worries about whether things will improve significantly during his tenure here, which he projected to be 10 to 15 years. “My biggest fear is that Innovation Square becomes a world-known model but the Porters neighborhood doesn’t move forward,” he said.
In 2014, the chamber is poised with a six-part plan to move Alachua County toward becoming a global hub for talent, innovation and opportunity, Giuliani said.
The plan’s goals are as follows:
· Improve talent alignment and work force development by helping to match the training of students with the community’s employment opportunities.
· Continue small business development with activities including workshops, training, networking events and Leadership Gainesville.
· Focus economic efforts on IT and advanced manufacturing, with the goal of creating jobs like those at RTI Surgical and Exactech.
· Launch an “Export Gainesville Initiative” that focuses on expanding international trade for local businesses.
· Expand the chamber’s public affairs efforts, which have seen the organization complete major studies on transportation and energy and establish a small business growth task force in the past year.
· Promote a regional economic development effort, which includes Innovation Gainesville and a new program aimed at helping trailing spouses find work.
Achieving these goals is becoming more and more challenging, Giuliani said. He displayed a photo of smiling kids — ones who looked like they might be from Gainesville — in a promotional campaign for an innovation-based economy.
The photo was promoting the economic opportunities available in a Polish city, he said. “When we think innovation, we’re not all thinking Poland,” Giuliani said. “I can’t say enough about the global competitiveness we face.”
Gainesville’s biggest advantage in being competitive is the community’s united efforts to make new companies feel welcome, he said, adding, “People get a gut feeling that our community wants to help them be successful.”