About 30 Adair County government officials and business professionals attended last night’s Economic Development 101 Session at the Hotel Greenfield. The event, hosted by Midwest Partnership and Western Iowa Advantage, gave participants the opportunity to network, listen to a guest speaker, and enjoy pizza.

Mark Reinig was last night’s speaker. Reinig is the Economic Development Program Manager for the Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) at Iowa State University. Reinig touched on many aspects of economic development, including: business retention and expansion, workforce development, quality of life, civic partners in development, and public policy matters.

Reinig also touched on the important role housing plays in attracting new business ventures to a community. Reinig commented on Stuart’s current housing situation. “In Stuart, you sort of bucked the trend with that. You have developers coming in out of Des Moines. Other counties, other communities around the state are jealous of that in the new subdivision on the East side of town. That’s not happening everywhere.”

CIRAS works in all 99 Iowa counties to help businesses and communities grow and prosper economically. The sessions continue in Audubon today and Guthrie Center tomorrow and pre-registration is requested. Contact Midwest Partnership for more information.