James Chung didn’t find Greater Des Moines – Greater Des Moines found him.
Chung, the president of Reach Advisors, a strategy, research and predictive analytics firm, will speak in Des Moines on Thursday, October 4 at 11:30 am as part of the Tomorrow Plan Speaker Series. Among Chung's clients are U.S. cities wanting to peer deep into his datasets – he says he extracts data even the U.S. government doesn’t have – to flush out weaknesses, identify opportunities and gain competitive advantages over other cities.
And among those “other cities”? Greater Des Moines, the statistical overachiever.
Invariably, when Chung compares client cities to others around the country, Greater Des Moines jumps out of the data as outperforming its peers. So much so, Chung said, that Greater Des Moines could break out as a city known nationally for talent and opportunity, following the pattern of Nashville, Tenn.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; or Boulder, Colo.
But that’s far from a foregone conclusion. For all the growth in recent years, Chung says, it is showing early signs of leveling off – still growing, just not at the same breakneck pace. Chung’s research raises several challenging questions.
Can Greater Des Moines protect its recent growth from another recession? Should future growth be slow and steady? Or does Greater Des Moines want to turbocharge its growth and seek out new frontiers to pioneer, even if new challenges emerge?
Chung's visit is made possible by Capital Crossroads, the Des Moines Area MPO, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Polk County and the Science Center of Iowa. The event is free, but registration is encouraged here.