Case Study 4
Susan Davenport
Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, TX
The Chamber’s BR|E program is an integral part of the overall Opportunity Austin initiative, a five-year strategy to add 72,000 new jobs and $2.9 billion to the regional payroll.
In 2005 the Business Retention and Expansion team expanded its responsibilities with the inclusion of the Central Texas Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization (CenTex RCIC), a virtual entity to promote entrepreneurism and growing technology start-up companies.
The integration of CenTex RCIC activities has afforded the BR|E team the opportunity to enhance all its goals in relation to regional retention and expansion efforts. Every start-up company in Central Texas requesting funding from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund is required to sit for a business retention and expansion interview (Synchronist survey). This gives the BR|E Team insight into the dynamics and overarching issues affecting the growth of regional start-ups and incorporate these issues into larger Chamber initiatives and programs. In addition, individual company needs can addressed as typical company assistance requests in order to provide further opportunity for company development in the region.
In 2007, when State funding for expanded outreach of Regional Centers was approved a condition required local match. Given their tradition of proactive BR|E integrated with the Cen Tex RCIC, the Austin Chamber’s was allowed to use their BR|E budget as their local match.
By thoroughly integrating the goals of the CenTex RCIC into regional BR|E efforts, the Chamber has expanded their influence, prestige, information pool, internal staff resources, volunteer base, and attracted new funding to supplement their budget.
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