regional community development

We remain committed to creating value for Partnership member businesses and investors, and to communicating that value throughout the year. In 2005, through the Small Business Advisory Council, we provided a full slate of tools for members that included more than 50 networking and business-to-business connectivity and over a dozen professional and business development learning opportunities. Development and testing of a new on-line business assessment tool began for small to mid-sized companies and is slated to launch in 2006. To accommodate our members, we added on-line registration capabilities for Partnership events. Through the Diversity Committee we continued to showcase Greater Des Moines as an inclusive community evidenced with:
  • four multicultural receptions with record-setting attendance
  • the second-annual CEO Diversity Conference complemented by “Lunch and Learns”
  • the growth of membership and programmatic offerings of ALIANZA (Latino Business Association) and the African-American Business Association
The Young Professionals Connection expanded the community engagement of 500+ up-and-coming leaders. In March, YPC leadership a call-to-action to its members with a Brain Gain Rally, asking young professionals to invest their futures in the metro. YPC also helped unveil dmjuice.com to showcase the Greater Des Moines region as a place for young professionals as a place to spend their weekdays, week- nights and weekends.

To meet the growing workforce needs of our community, we enhanced our on- line tools to include a free job-posting service to complement our website resume service. And with “Bridging the Gap,” a program developed to assist in respite relocation and job placement for victims of the Gulf Coast devastation, we created a template to respond to future “immediate needs” situations.


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