Directors develop plans to attract new business to cities

Directors develop plans to attract new business to cities

Sunday, 07 January 2007

Charles Simon, Community Development Corporation, Director, Pflugerville

Charles Simon (pronounced se’–maw) moved from Louisiana to Georgetown in 1994 to work in the city’s planning department. After spending his summers in Austin as a child, he knew he wanted to live in Texas.

In 1996, he began working as Pflugerville’s Planning Director. He became the assistant city manager in 2000 and this year was named economic development director.

“The city had been talking about changes that needed to happen, and I knew it was the time to jump on top of things,” Simon said. “I believed in the process, and I knew if I wanted this done, I better not say no.”

Q. What is your vision of economic development in Pflugerville?

A. I see a Pflugerville very different than the one today. I see many retail opportunities like regional shopping. Even though we are just starting to add a shopping center, I think it won’t be long until we make that jump to even more retail. The biggest difference will be employment in the city. People living in Pflugerville will also work here.

Q. How are you working with the city council and staff to ensure economic growth?

A. The council and the PCDC board set the policy on economic growth; it is very important for them to work together. The council gives our staff direction to go ahead and do something. Economic development is not a one-person job. It takes a lot of people to help a prospect. Potential businesses will call and want to ask planning and engineering questions that all of us have to work together to answer.

Q. How do you and the Chamber balance business growth and retention?

A. I have actually been talking to the Chamber about retention. PCDC has been very interested in developing a retention program. Eighty-five percent of job growth comes from existing businesses. The worst thing is for a business to leave that has been ignored. The retention in Pflugerville is usually done through the Chamber because they already know and have relationships with business owners.

Q. What initiatives are in place to promote Pflugerville in the future?

A. We are developing an incentives program for future businesses. We are identifying and developing a formula. We just started a program buying small print ads in the Austin, Dallas and Houston business journals that will run for a year. We are working on branding. We want to put the image and word “Pflugerville” in people’s minds.

Q. What are your favorite local restaurants?

A. They are all great, but I really enjoy going to Casa Garcia’s in the Windermere Center and the Pizza and Wing Factory in the POP Plaza.

• Education: University of Louisiana, Bachelor’s in Urban and Regional Planning
• Family: Wife, Chris and two children, Emily, 12, and Andre, 8
• Contact Information: 990-3725, charless@pfdevelopment.com

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Nancy Yawn, Convention and Visitors Bureau Director, Round Rock

Three years ago, the Round Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau did not exist. Led by Nancy Yawn, who worked previously as the city’s economic development director, the office took form in the spring of 2004.

Since then, the CVB has generated almost $30 million in economic impact for the city. After living in Round Rock for 26 years, Yawn said she feels a great amount of responsibility and love for the place she calls home.

“It’s a progressive city with a small town atmosphere,” she said. “I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true.”

Q. Describe your duties.

A. My job is to promote Round Rock as the ultimate host city. My duties are to be the sales and marketing arm for the city. That entails going to trade shows, making sales calls, developing relationships with people. We’re not selling a product, we’re selling a city. On the marketing side, we’re handling the advertising and the promotion. For media relations, we’re going to media shows and telling our story.

Q. What has been the CVB’s greatest success?

A. I am result-oriented, so seeing the effect on the economic development is important to me. I was never worried about how the CVB would turn out because I was fortunate enough to be there even at the hiring of the consultants before we began. I saw this as a great opportunity. I said, “Just give me a chance to tell this story.”

Q. What do you envision for the CVB in the future?

A. It’s an ongoing project. We want to continue to bring economic diversity and make certain that as Round Rock grows, it has a healthy economy.

Q. How do you market Round Rock to someone who has never heard of the city?

A. My first canned answer is this is the home of Dell Computers. I talk to them about Round Rock being the entrance into north Austin, the gateway of the Hill Country. I say we’re very progressive, we’re growing and have a lot of exciting things going on. It depends partly on whom I am talking to. If it is a visitor, I talk about baseball, Dell Diamond and, of course, our new attraction, shopping. If it is a business, I will say we’re within two and a half hours from 90 percent of the population of Texas. We’re in a great Central Texas location.

Q. Can you share a unique experience you have had as CVB director?

A. We were hiring a new marketing firm in November 2004. Three firms who were finalists came to do presentations. We were in this house in a kitchen and one of the firms said they liked to stay on edge and keep us surprised—and in walked this drumline. It was awesome. They won the contract.

• Education: University of Texas, Bachelor’s in Marketing
• Family: Frank Gibson, long-term boyfriend
• Contact Information: 218-7023, nyawn@round-rock.tx.us