Calling All Partners!

It’s been over a year and a half since the release of Greater Lansing Next.  Our region engaged over 500 concerned citizens, experts, policymakers, business owners, and everyone in between around 7 key strategies for regional prosperity.

With all of these great efforts and initiatives under way, it’s time to start tracking our progress.  To get there, our teams are looking for help from regional experts to find the quantitative benchmarks our coalition has been able to affect – and perhaps more importantly, the benchmarks we need to try harder to affect.

The folks at Leap put together a list of possible measures to start from.  We’re looking for help from the rest of the Greater Lansing Next partners t identify other measures and fill in the data.

E-mail Joe Manzella with your ideas or if you have access to any of the following data:

Strategy 1: Business Assistance, Acceleration, and Attraction

• New Payroll
• Companies receiving Assistance from Leap and other Business Development partners in the Greater Lansing Regional Entrepreneurial Collaborative
• New Investment
• New or Retained Jobs

Strategy 2: Talent Infusion

• New Programs Deployed by Partner Organizations
• Interns placed in local companies
• Increase in STEM-related employment
• Increase in K-12 class-hours of STEM Education
• % of Population with Higher Education Degrees

Strategy 3: Support Placemaking Improvements

• Surface Transportation Enhancement (STE) Funds Obligated for Non-Motorized Projects
• Grant Dollars Received for Place-Based Projects
• Number of ‘Places’ visited by Placemaking Team
• Funds raised and leveraged for ‘Step Up Greater Lansing’

Strategy 4: Enhance Culture and Creative Assets

• New Creative Enterprises
• Number of Partner Programs Targeting Creative Entrepreneurs
• Grant Funds Available for the Arts from Partner Organizations
• New Investment in the Arts from Partner Organizations
• Total Economic Output of Arts & Culture Sector

Strategy 5: Improve First Impressions

• Web Traffic on www.lansing.org
• Positive Media Mentions of Greater Lansing
• Number of Certified Tourism Ambassador (CTA) Graduates

Strategy 6: Expand Entrepreneurship & Innovation Services

• New companies and startups assisted by Leap and partners
• New Investment in Early Stage Companies
• Media Mentions for Greater Lansing Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Strategy 7: Regional Mission

• Number of Municipalities Participating in the Shared Public Services Initiative
• Number of New Shared Services