Project Updates

This workshop provides state agency staff with the skills and insights to implement best practices in incentives monitoring and management. The workshop reviews common operating procedures, identifies critical issues, and explores options and tradeoffs to help staff make intentional choices to protect taxpayer investments in business incentives. Agency staff will be able to review and redesign operating procedures, confident their approach will be effective, but not overly burdensome, in leveraging reliable data for monitoring business compliance and program performance.

The scale of the current pandemic‐driven economic crisis is unprecedented. What does the future hold for businesses, workers, and jobseekers as states move forward with reopening the economy? Can we expect a speedy recovery? During this digital town hall, President Barkin will share his perspectives on the economy and prospects for recovery, followed by an opportunity for participants to ask questions and share assessments about their own regional challenges.

CREC hosted the second webinar in its cybersecurity series to discuss the DoD’s effort to leverage the network of Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Centers to build awareness among defense suppliers about cybersecurity requirements and compliance. Through an inter-agency agreement (between NIST and DoD), the DoD’s Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSDR&E) […]

OEA engaged the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) and Entreworks Consulting to review various efforts funded by the OEA Industry Resilience program to strengthen the manufacturing supply chains and strengthen the defense industrial base in your regions and states. This webinar included a briefing on the paper developed outlining these activities, OEA Support for Defense Supply Chains: Many Successes and Lessons Learned, followed by an opportunity for discussion and comments. 

CREC hosted a webinar to discuss the National Defense Industry Association’s recent paper “Beyond Obfuscation: The Defense Industry’s Position within Federal Cybersecurity Policy” (https://www.ndia.org/policy/cyber/2019-cybersecurity-report). This report examines recent cyberbreaches, the evolving regulatory environment governing cybersecurity, and analyzes a survey of 300 defense suppliers and their experiences with cybersecurity. Furthermore, the report provides recommendations for government and industry based on their findings.

This report describes veterans’ attainment of certifications and licenses, with an emphasis on post-9/11 veterans. Utilizing a new data set derived from the 2016-2018 Current Population Survey (CPS), the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) examined veterans’ attainment of certifications and licenses and associated earnings. CREC SOLID Veterans Certifications and License Report 09042019

As part of the OEA Industry Resilience Grants project (Formerly OEA – Defense Industry Adjustment), Cathy Katona and Mereb Hagos conducted a site visit to Fond de Lac and Oshkosh Wisconsin to meet with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) and East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (ECWRPC) to close out their OEA grant. They […]

As part of the OEA Industry Resilience Grants project (Formerly OEA – Defense Industry Adjustment), Mark Troppe and Lee Winkler traveled to Albany New York, to meet with the Empire State Development’s Division of Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR), who manages the state’s MEP centers. The group discussed NYSTAR’s efforts to work with the regional […]

CREC’s Ken Poole and Jaleel Reed worked with the University of Northern Iowa’s Institute for Decision Making (IDM) to facilitate a meeting of the Talent Forecast working group as part of a talent development strategy process for the 10 counties around Duluth MN-Superior WI on February 4th.  More than 60 regional leaders participated, including Brian […]

Last week Cathy Katona, Erik Pages, and Lee Winkler traveled to Bloomsburg Pennsylvania, where they met with staff and board members of three PA Local Development Districts: Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance (NEPA), SEDA-Council of Governments (SEDA-COG), and the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission (Northern Tier). They also met with businesses whom were recipients of […]