Helping Communities Shine

Whether researching and implementing ways to shape a community's economic development plan or partnering to create ways to put people to work, CREC connects researchers and policymakers with:

     • Data training
     • Custom portfolios that aid regional competitiveness

Project Profile

Data and Methods in Regional Economic Research

Council for Community and Economic Research
Start Date: Oct 2000 — End Date: Oct 2015

Since 2000, the the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) has organized more than 50 one- and two-day professional development training seminars on a variety of topics for the Council for Community & Economic Research (C2ER). The curriculum includes more than 20 different topics such as:

Data Collection

  • Introduction to Data for Economic Development Practitioners
  • Community Profiling: The Basics of Demographic Analysis
  • Basics of Understanding your Region
  • Designing an Index of Your Innovation Economy
  • Using Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Data to Measure Job Churning
  • Conducting Competitive Market Intelligence
  • Regional Economic Analysis Techniques
  • Targeting Economic Development Investments
  • Industry Clusters in Economic Development: Concepts, Applications & Analysis Tools
  • Assessing Your Workforce Advantage

Impact Assessments

  • The Basics of Economic Impact Analysis
  • Fiscal Impact Analysis:
  • Economic and Fiscal Analysis for Non-economists
  • Evaluating Economic Development Investments

Data And Program Management

  • Managing and Designing Your Research Program
  • Getting Media Attention for Your Research
  • Advanced Workforce Development for Economic Developers
  • Know Your Region: Conducting a Strategic Plan for the Knowledge Economy

Train Your Leaders

About the Client

Council for Community and Economic Research

The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) promotes excellence in community and economic research by improving data quality and availability by fostering learning about regional economic analytic methods.