For years, the Golden Triangle Development LINK held an annual luncheon to inform stakeholders about the current state of economic development.
Next week, the LINK will again hold a public meeting for that purpose after a few years’ hiatus.
“It has been a while since we’ve done this,” LINK Chief Operations Officer Macaulay Whitaker said. “When we had the chamber of commerce under our umbrella, we decided to let them handle the meetings and make ourselves available at their events.”
Now, the LINK will again make its pitch directly to the public and stakeholders and will have plenty of information to share.
The event will be held at 9 a.m. Nov. 15 at the Communiversity, EMCC’s new workforce training center on the frontage road off Highway 82 just west of PACCAR.
During the event, LINK officials, including Chief Executive Officer Joe Max Higgins, will discuss plans for development goals, legislative updates and unveil the Golden Triangle Regional Workforce Analysis that was commissioned by Younger Associates.
The LINK will also use the occasion to introduce Courtney Taylor, who will be wrapping up her first week on the job as the Communiversity director.
“We’ve got a lot to share with the region about our plans in the upcoming year,” Higgins said. “We’re hopeful for a more productive support system, but in the meantime, we’re getting a lot more aggressive about our recruitment.”
Whitaker said the LINK will touch on the main points of the workforce analysis report, which will be released in full to the public.
“We won’t bore everybody to death by going through all of it, because there is a lot in the report,” she said. “But we’ll give an overview of key findings.”
Whitaker said the report, when taken as a whole, affirms the existing workforce strategy.
“Sometimes, these kinds of reports can steer you in a new direction, but other times they are an affirmation of what you’ve been doing,” Whitaker said. “I think that’s what we’re seeing in this report. It affirms what we’ve been hearing from employers about their workforce needs.”
The event is free and open to the public, but the LINK requests those planning to attend to contact Kylee Rossiter at [email protected] or call 662.328.8369.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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