Utah hosting 2019 Site Selectors Guild Conference a ‘huge opportunity’

By |2017-04-04T07:45:47-06:00April 4th, 2017|

Utah hosting 2019 Site Selectors Guild Conference a ‘huge opportunity’

Every year EDCUtah brings five or six site selectors to Utah to introduce them to the state and educate them about doing business here.

Leveraging the Sundance Film Festival, EDCUtah’s “Site Selection & Cinema” event is one of the premier economic development familiarization tours in the country and regularly draws leading consultants from around the world. In 2019, EDCUtah will have the opportunity to bring 50-60 of the world’s top site selectors to Utah when Salt Lake City plays host to the Site Selectors Guild’s annual conference.

“Hosting the Site Selectors Guild (SSG) 2019 annual conference is a huge win for EDCUtah,” says President and CEO Theresa Foxley. “SSG is the world’s largest group of senior site selectors. Having them spend three days in Salt Lake City for the conference, with exclusive opportunities for networking, face-to-face time and marketing, will be phenomenal for our economic development efforts.”

EDCUtah’s extensive research has found that site selectors are more likely to recommend Utah for a project if they have visited the state. Bringing the annual conference to Utah will provide the EDCUtah team with opportunities to build relationships with the site selectors and will lead to more projects added to the pipeline. “Hosting SSG 2019 will be equivalent to us conducting 10 Site Selection & Cinema events at once. The exposure for Utah will be tremendous,” says Foxley.

Chief Operating Officer Michael Flynn notes that members of the Site Selectors Guild typically represent some of the largest companies in the world in their expansion and relocation efforts. “Guild members are extremely well-connected, have stellar resumes and vast experience with the site selection process. Having 50-60 guild members in Utah all at the same time will be an incredible opportunity for us,” he adds.

As part of its annual conference, the Site Selectors Guild also invites a select number of economic developers from across the country to participate in discussions focused on improving their economic development efforts. Topics often include best practices, tools site selectors use in conducting due-diligence, incentives, workforce/talent, sites and facilities, changes in supply chains and their impact on site selection, and organizing and deploying tech and innovation centers.

“SSG is really an economic developer’s best opportunity for education, high-level networking, and best practice analysis,” says Flynn.

“The activities of the site selectors truly are a great barometer for our industry,” says Foxley. “Hosting the Site Selectors Guild in Salt Lake City is relevant to our mission to bring companies and jobs to the state, and we expect to cover a lot of ground in the two to three days they are here. As we prepare over the next year and a half, we’ll plan a variety of marketing and partner events to best leverage the time of the site selectors, to introduce them to Utah, its government, business, education and civic leaders, and our fantastic business climate. We want to host a conference that will be better than anything they have ever experienced.”

Written by EDCUtah: 03 April 2017

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