Greater Peoria Economic Development Council CEO Chris Setti is eager to see results from a comprehensive labor analysis of the region.
The council has requested proposals from firms willing to examine the market's “labor shed” that extends beyond the Greater Peoria area to include several neighboring counties.
Setti said the intent of the study is to generate basic data and develop recommendations for addressing gaps in the workforce.
WCBU reporter Joe Deacon talked with Setti about the need for this analysis and how it can enhance business attraction efforts.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
We've talked a lot over the past couple of years about talent attraction, and the GPEDC is seeking proposals for a comprehensive labor analysis on the region. How will this analysis help develop new workforce development strategies or enhance existing ones?
Chris Setti: It should really be a great opportunity. What we're really looking for [is] some base data. When we talk about what our workforce – what’s often called the “labor shed” – we're very familiar with what's happening in our more immediate area. But we also know that there are people that come to the Peoria area for work from Fulton County, from Marshall and Stark, maybe from Knox County, certainly from McLean County. So we received a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity called a RISE (Research in Illinois to Spur Economic Recovery) grant.
It's really a planning grant, and we proposed doing this labor shed analysis. Really, it's to really understand where the trends are. They'll be able to engage with some of our business leaders, some of our community leaders, to more fully understand what their current needs are, as well as what their future needs are. A lot of these consulting firms, they just have access to these enormous sets of data where they can pull both forecast information and current and historic information. So really having that basic information and then and then (providing) a set of recommendations that we can work towards. So the Regional Workforce Alliance, the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council.
I personally think one of the reasons that we did it also is for our current businesses, so that they can understand where the labor pool is, where they're tapping into and where they aren't. Then from a business attraction standpoint, being able to describe to future employers what's available here: What are the pathways? Where are we strong, in training? It will, I think, help our organization and our partner organizations fine tune their approach to business attraction, and say, “We have a lot of ‘X’ in this region, or ‘X’ capacity in this region to develop more folks.” Those are the sorts of businesses that we might want to go after.
What role, if any, is the EDC playing in the “Choose Greater Peoria” talent attraction initiative?
Setti: It's a really great endeavor, and we're really excited to be partners. I know you had my friend and partner (Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce President) Joshua Gunn on a couple of weeks ago with this similar question, and I hope my answer is pretty similar because we're partners in this, along with the Gilmore Foundation and the business community and the Convention and Visitor's Bureau (Discover Peoria) and other chambers – we kind of refer to ourselves as the business partners. This is really being driven by Gilmore Foundation and their really incredible financial support of this concept, rallying the business community to also put their money down and say this is important.
But our organization, these business partner organizations like the Convention and Visitor's Bureau and the chambers and the EDC, we’re really kind of like the “boots on the ground” to help operationalize some of the initiative and really, I think, stretch the dollars of the investors so that their dollars can be invested in the digital marketing, in the content, in the content creation, and the delivery of the of the initiative. But we're back here working alongside those groups to really make sure those things are happening. So we've really been proud of the work we've done.
We started talking about talent attraction in a more formal way almost 2½ years ago now. But one of our goals when we set out with the GP2030 campaign was to make this a community priority, and we're really excited that Gilmore Foundation recognized the importance by pulling the business community together and really talking to them about what's important to them. So we certainly didn't want to have two competing talent attraction initiatives, and we’re very, very excited to work with Laura Cullinan and the rest of the Gilmore Foundation, all of the – Simantel, which is their marketing partner that they've hired to kind of do this work – to find our role in that, and that really is being boots on the ground in helping to staff events, if that's what's (needed) as this as this initiative emerges and the different programmatic elements, that's really where we'll start to plug in more.
What do you hope to learn from a Peoria County broadband feasibility study in partnership with the Design Nine consulting firm?
Setti: That's been another really great project that's been really spearheaded in great part – not exclusively, but in large part – by (Director of Rural Outreach and Development Kathie Brown), because broadband expansion is really important. The federal government just released a bunch of dollars, and we know that the state government has been important. But all of this money floating around, as everybody has recognized that this is a real priority in our community, and really a two-fold (purpose), which is why this is a county wide survey. It's both an accessibility issue and an affordability issue, right? Do you even have access to high speed internet? And then, can you afford it? Because, there are lots of people in the Peoria area who have plenty of access because they live in the city, in the more urban area, but they might not be able to afford it.
Really, what this gives us is a plan, and this feasibility study is really about planning for future opportunities, that we can give the feasibility study itself to potential corporate partners who would do the investment and the work is kind of already done for them: understanding the market, understanding where the low spots are, where the high spots are, where the opportunities are, and where the struggles might be. And I would hope that then, as the government is involved, both at the state, federal and local level, that they'll have a basis of information for their own decision-making about if there's subsidies that are going to be required to reach certain areas, they'll have all the information they need.
Distillery Labs recently hosted the gBETA Startup Showcase at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. What impresses you most about the 10 startups that were chosen for the showcase, and what does it say about business growth in the Peoria region?
Setti: It was a phenomenal event, and really my hat's off to the team that put that together: Danielle Scarzello, Nate Domenighini, Aaron Gigous, Andrew Ngui, Meg Genzel, all of the partners, the sponsors. It really was an amazing event. I think what maybe impressed me the most – apart from just maybe my own awe at people who are willing to put basically their entire lives on the line for startup ideas. I've always been somebody who's worked for somebody else, and I likely always will be somebody that works for somebody else. I like that consistency and that security; I am fairly risk-averse. So I'm just in awe of people who are creative and have some ingenuity, but also passion and drive to make it happen.
But beyond that, just as I was kind of sitting back and looking at the 10 of them, was the breath of the startups. When people think of the Peoria area, they think of manufacturing, to be sure, and they think of agriculture, and they think of healthcare, because those are kind of the underpinnings of our regional economy – super important. But these 10 companies ranged from: there were some healthcare companies, healthcare-related companies, and there were some agriculture-related companies, and there was probably even some machinery. But we also had a tool maker; we had somebody who is working on irrigation; we had a company working in AI. We had just such an amazing breadth of opportunity. I think it's so important that we not only have startups, but are able to support them; that's really the goal behind Distillery labs.
The showcase event was exactly that, it’s to showcase and it really is both for the founders – the entrepreneurs themselves; it gives them a chance of giving their pitch, and getting people interested in them. Whether or not they come away from that event with an investor or a mentor or a customer, time will tell; this is the first time they've ever pitched. But for the audience, and for anybody listening to this, it should be somewhat exciting to understand that these companies are here.
I had about five minutes during the event to speak, and what I said was (that) 10 years ago, Natural Fiber Welding was giving their first pitch to some group of either community members or investors, and 8-10 years from now, all of you in the audience, one of you might be able to say, “I was there the first time that company pitched.” That's what's really important: We're not just accelerating these companies; we're accelerating our the growth of our economy by broadening it, by diversifying it. But by also giving individuals opportunities to not only grow their passion, but to grow their company.
So I was really excited; you could probably tell I was pretty jazzed up after the event. It was a flawless execution on the part of the team, and really flawless execution on the part of the of the 10 companies that pitched. I was really excited for them. I know how hard they worked on their pitches and how hard they've worked on refining their companies. That's really what the gBETA accelerator program is all about, and to have them stand up there and just knock it out of the park – speaking of, we have a company that is a toy designer, WooshBall. They've invented a new sport that is a baseball-like sport. That's not what we think of when we think of the Peoria economy, and I think it's just a really great example of the sort of diversity we saw in those presentations.
The City of Peoria is partnering with GridMatrix for real-time transportation analytics, and Distillery Labs is assisting in getting the platform launched. How can analyzing traffic flow and developing optimal traffic patterns enhance Peoria’s economy?
Setti: Obviously everybody loves more optimal traffic flow. But for us, the opportunity for our economy is in providing an opportunity for a startup like GridMatrix to be here. So this is all part of what's an initiative at Distillery Labs, Peoria County and the City of Peoria initiative called the “Central Illinois Living Laboratories,” where we make ourselves as a community accessible to the startups who are dealing in the smart and connected community, smart and connected mobility, by allowing them access to city-owned or publicly-owned assets that are in the right of way, or even the right of way itself.
So this is something that hasn't really ever been done at our scale; there's some bigger cities that will have these sorts of elements. But really, we're creating a real world laboratory for small startup businesses to test out their product, and the hope is that if we are an open culture and we provide them with this ability to test their product, that when it comes time for them to actually have a physical location, that they'll select Peoria.
So we talk about Distillery Labs and these initiatives, oftentimes about “growing our own,” which is super important – all 10 of the companies that went through the gBETA program are all relatively local companies. I think one might be from the Fulton County/Canton area, but they're largely from what I would think of as Greater Peoria. But the truth is, it also can be a business attraction opportunity, where we have an ecosystem, a supportive ecosystem, we have resources and tools that are of value to startups. If you're in the smart and connected startup space, smart and connected communities, you often are having to negotiate hours on end with the city about how might you install something (like) sensors on traffic signal mast arms.
Instead, we've kind of pre-baked all that, giving you a fast track that's attractive to GridMatrix. I forget where they're from, but they're not a Peoria company; they're here from another part of the country to do this. The hope is, maybe they'll actually then open an office here and start employing people here. So we have to think about entrepreneurship and innovation as more than just growing our own – which is obviously where we're really focusing – but also, how do we attract companies because of what we have here?
We've often heard about the Peoria market’s housing affordability and relatively low cost of living. How can the EDC capitalize on these aspects to foster business growth?
Setti: Well, a low cost of living is a low cost of doing business, right? So when we are able to compare ourselves with other markets in the community, and we're telling the story of Peoria: Why would you want to locate your business here? Why would you want to grow your business here (for) people are here. I know one company, I won't name them, but they were considering a move to Texas, to the Austin, Texas area. But when they started running, they were going to relocate – this smallish company, maybe they had 15 employees here – but when they started to look at the relocation costs of moving to Texas and what they almost have to pay their employees, both to help them find a house and to maintain that house, they realized that it was better to grow here in central Illinois. And they decided instead to open a bigger facility in the Peoria area.
So I think our housing affordability certainly plays a part in that and it’s a part of the story that we're telling about the affordability. My brother lives in San Jose, California, and he runs a business in San Jose, California. He happens to be a mortgage broker, so he's benefiting to some degree by super high housing prices because his business is based on loan volume and size of loans. But he also has to pay a really exorbitant amount to his staff in order for them just to be his staff. So it kind of cuts both ways.
Here, our affordability translates directly into the bottom line of what a business has to pay. And I would also point out our low commute times, and people don't think of the economic value of a commute. But the fact that you're never stuck in traffic here is actually a real business value, because you can actually start your day at 8 a.m. No one's going to call in and say, “I'm running late to my 8 a.m. meeting because I'm stuck in a traffic jam,” like you would in the Chicago area. People having greater flexibility, more time on their hands is a real business value as well as a quality of life value.
We're a little less than three months away from the EDC and Junior Achievement of Central Illinois hosting an event called “Career Spark.” What can you tell us about Career Spark and how it aims to help students develop readiness for the workforce?
Setti: The one that's coming up at the very end of September will be our sixth annual Career Spark. It is really a fun event; I would hope that people would take advantage of it, and if they're interested in in getting a tour of it that day, just give me a call and I'd be happy to do so.
We'll have almost 5,000 eighth grade students come through the Peoria Civic Center over the course of two days; they kind of come in two waves each day, over two days. And what they will experience is dozens and dozens and dozens of career opportunities. This is like the most interesting Career Day you will ever [see] – so, when (we) were kids and there was Career Day, it was some kid’s mom or dad coming to talk to them at the classroom about what they did, right? This is hands on. So if you're interested – or maybe you're not even interested in being a police officer, but you get to sit in a police cruiser. You will get to see what it's like to be a bricklayer. You will see what it's like to be a respiratory therapist. You will see what animal husbandry might look like.
It's a really incredible [event] – 400 volunteers that help us do this over the course of two days, in dozens of career areas. What's important about it is really about career exploration, and for eighth graders, they are on the precipice of high school. And it's in high school nowadays, more than when I was a kid, where you could start making career decisions early. You don't have to wait until you get out of high school to decide what you're going to be when you grow up.
There are many more opportunities, whether it's because your high school is Woodruff, or Pekin, or Morton High School, that has a really great career technical education program and you can take some of those classes. Or you have something like District 150 has, Peoria Public Schools, where they have an agreement with ICC (Illinois Central College) and you can actually be dually enrolled. My daughter at age 16 got her CNA from Methodist College and is now enrolled in nursing school at Loyola. I think that's what's really important is that early on we're exposing students to the opportunities that they might have – not to tell them this is the path you have to pick; sometimes there's victory in saying “I'm not interested in that,” and maybe investigating some areas that you are interested in. So that's really the goal behind Career Spark.
