I’m not one to brag (my daughter would be quick to proclaim otherwise) but when you get featured in the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance’s Economic Sourcebook and Market Profile, it’s not the type of thing you keep on the down-low.
The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance is the primary economic development organization for Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County. The Alliance focuses on creating, attracting, expanding and retaining high-wage jobs and capital investment in high value targeted industries, improving the quality of life for the area’s citizens (like me!).
They’ve also been a client of mine for the past seven years and over that time, I’ve gotten to meet some truly remarkable people – leaders from the business, community, and education fields, the movers and shakers of this county. And it’s been a lot of fun, too. Working with this great organization has produced one of the largest feathers in my tiny, little cap.
The Sourcebook is sent to national and international business executives when they contact the Alliance regarding a potential company relocation or expansion in our area. It is also mailed to all Alliance members, distributed to all South Florida Business Journal Broward subscribers, placed in select hotels, and distributed to Chambers and business resource organizations. In total, 11,000 copies are distributed – and they’ll see this guy on pages 88-89:
Oh, and did you know that Greater Fort Lauderdale (metropolitan Broward County) is home to more than 200 corporate and international regional headquarters, including AutoNation, Chewy, Citrix, Hotwire Communications, JetBlue Travel Products, Kaplan Inc., Magic Leap, Microsoft, Spirit Airlines and UKG? Yeah, it is.
Greater Fort Lauderdale has been ranked #2 Best Business Climate (mid-sized metro) in Business Facilities magazine’s 17th Annual Rankings Report. This is second only to Arlington, Virginia the site of Amazon’s second headquarters. Additionally, Broward County’s Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) ranked #7 in the nation for exports. Greater Fort Lauderdale was the only location in Florida to rank on any of the top 10 Business Climate rankings for any size community.
Over the past fifteen years, the Alliance, working with Broward County, CareerSource Broward and local municipalities, helped businesses create or retain more than 40,000 direct jobs; a partnership estimated to have generated more than 79,000 Broward County jobs through direct, indirect and induced effects, resulting in $3 billion in annual personal income and $15.3 billion in annual economic impact, according to an independent study by the South Florida Regional Planning Council.
Then there are the people who work there that I’ve been very fortunate to work with: President & CEO Bob Swindell, Executive Vice President Ron Drew, and quite possibly my two biggest fans – VP of Marketing/Communications Maggie Gunther and Gail Bulfin, Sr. VP of Membership Development (and ad-hoc video producer). Thank you all for this recognition – means a lot to me.
Lastly, special thanks to photographer Jock Fistick who met me in Downtown Fort Lauderdale and really put the work in to make these photographs pop (it ain’t easy making me look good!). You can view his work at https://archive.fistick.com
