Welcome to the third issue of EconomicDevelopment.org newsletter.  We would love to hear your feedback, so feel free to send your thoughts to connect@economicdevelopment.org.

From the EconomicDevelopment.org team, have a great weekend!

By Steven Thorne

Several years ago, I was on the phone with Louise Stevens. Louise is an arts consultant in the United States, who, along with her husband John, runs the Montana-based firm ArtsMarket, Inc.

As it happens, Louise and John travel frequently in Canada.  As Louise and I chatted about their Canadian travels, the subject of cultural tourism arose.  Louise seemed perplexed.  There was something about Canada she couldn’t understand.  She paused, took a breath, and leaned into the question: Why don’t you Canadians market your culture?

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By Andrew Redden

How can we best prepare to build our communities for tomorrow? The answer may be situated within sport.

It occurred to me last Spring when I learned how to kiteboard.

Kiteboarding is awesome! You wear a harness that’s attached to this huge kite in the sky and ride a tiny board jumping over waves and doing tricks. People watch on the beach with envy.

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By Martijn van Luijn

Having worked in economic development and tourism off and on ever since I graduated with a college degree in tourism, I have taken many different courses and seminars, attended educating conferences, built a (offline and online) network of fellow practitioners and did my fair share of reading. I noticed that there are many different views of what the basics of ED (no, not that one) really are.

I noticed it very much depends on who you are talking to and what their (the ecdev-er) respective experiences and opinions are. Some say it’s all about business development. Site selection, reverse site selection, zoning bylaws, commercial realtors, retention and expansion strategies and municipal strat planning are the terms of the trade, right? Or is it more about community development? Social enterprise, business incubators, recreation, amenities, housing and (sport) tourism?

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By Ian Smith

As a part of the benchmark exercise for the 2012 Canadian American Cities Online Marketing Index©, Intelegia performed search queries via Google using the following search parameters between (July 2012 to mid-September 2012):

“economic development” + Name of city + “Canada” or “United States”
“investment attraction” + Name of city + “Canada” or “United States”
“investment” + Name of city + “Canada” or “United States”
“invest in” + Name of city + Canada or “United States”
“incentive” Name of city + keyword, “Canada” or “United States”

Based on our research, we found that only two economic development agencies had their webpages appear on the first page of results on Google when all of the five search queries were done. The two agencies were: Hamilton Economic Development and Windsor and Essex County Development Commission.

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By Brock Dickinson

"Gift Ecology: Reimagining a Sustainable World" is a little book packed with big ideas. It’s the latest effort from Peter Denton, a Winnipeg-based academic and blogger, whose regular contributions can be seen at EconomicDevelopment.org and elsewhere.  Denton’s past work is in diverse fields – theology, literary studies, the history of science – and is matched by an equally diverse teaching experience at institutions ranging from Red River College to the Royal Military College. At its heart, "Gift Ecology" is a lament for the excesses of transactional life – the economic realities of exchange and commerce that blind us to the true value of both the people around us and the earth on which we live.

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