The North Eastern Strategic Alliance (NESA), an economic development organization encompassing South Carolina’s northeast region, last week held the third in its series of consultant events focused on keeping local economic developers abreast of the latest relevant industry trends and best practices.
The two-day event was lead by leading sales and marketing expert Carol Johnson, founder and principal of Continuous Dialogue, a professional consulting company specializing in sales training.
The first meeting, held at the Southeastern Institute of Manufacturing and Technology, was entitled “Asking the Right Questions & Knowing the Right Answers.” During this session Johnson spoke with participants about strategies for ensuring that all conversations that economic developers have with perspective employers keep the site selection consultant or business executive engaged, and presents the region in a favorable and accurate light.
At the session the following day, the NESA executive board hosted a luncheon for investors, the local legislative delegation, county developers, county council members, and county economic development board members. During the event, held at Coastal Carolina University, Johnson gave a presentation discussing general sales and marketing strategies, applied to the economic development setting.
“Presentations delivered by top consultants like Ms. Johnson, are exactly what we need in order to maintain a competitive edge in our economic development efforts,” said NESA’s Chairman, Sen. J. Yancey McGill (D-Florence, Georgetown, Horry and Williamsburg).
“Bringing all those involved in our region’s economic development efforts together into one room in order to ensure that we are coordinating outreach and doing so in a strategic and focused manner is one of NESA’s many important successes,” McGill added.
“I was very impressed with NESA’s commitment to regionalism,” Johnson said. “In the modern economic development environment, the NESA model is exactly what will ensure that the region will continue to register successes and bring jobs to Northeast South Carolina.”
The North Eastern Strategic Alliance (NESA) is a regional economic development organization that serves a nine-county region in the northeast corner of South Carolina. NESA’s primary objective is to enhance the quality of life for residents of the region significantly by creating additional jobs and capital investment within the existing industry base as well as through recruitment of new companies and expansion of tourism related development. NESA’s nine member counties are Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Georgetown, Horry, Marion, Marlboro and Williamsburg.
