Mid-America Economic Development Council

Mid-America Economic Development Council
Name	Mid-America Economic Development Council
Type	Nonprofit association
Founded	1950s
Headquarters	Kansas City, Missouri
Region served	Midwestern United States
Leader title	Executive Director

Mid-America Economic Development Council is a regional nonprofit association serving economic development practitioners across the Midwestern United States, linking civic leaders, business organizations, and public institutions. The organization functions as a convener for trade promotion, site selection, workforce initiatives, and investment attraction, drawing members from metropolitan areas, state agencies, and tribal governments. Its activities intersect with municipal planning, transportation corridors, and industrial strategy through collaboration with universities, foundations, and federal agencies.

History

The council traces roots to postwar cooperative initiatives that paralleled networks such as Regional Plan Association, Federal Highway Administration, Economic Development Administration, Interstate Commerce Commission, and state-level development agencies. Early convenings included representatives from Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, and Omaha, mirroring organizations like the Council of State Governments and aligning with programs influenced by the Marshall Plan model of regional coordination. During the 1960s and 1970s the council engaged with projects associated with the Tennessee Valley Authority approach to infrastructure and partnered on studies with research bodies such as the Brookings Institution and Rand Corporation. In the 1990s the council adopted performance benchmarking similar to initiatives by the Conference Board and worked with trade groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and United States Chamber of Commerce. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s it expanded ties to higher education partners like University of Missouri, Iowa State University, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, Purdue University, and University of Kansas for workforce and technology transfer programming.

Mission and Objectives

The council's stated mission centers on promoting regional competitiveness through investment attraction, talent development, and infrastructure readiness, complementing efforts by entities such as Trade and Development Agency, Export-Import Bank of the United States, International Economic Development Council, Economic Research Service, and state departments of commerce. Objectives emphasize site selection assistance, supply chain resilience, and public-private partnerships akin to models used by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Strategic goals reference workforce pipelines established with institutions like Community College System of New Hampshire analogs, innovation clusters similar to Research Triangle Park, and export promotion collaborations reflecting practices used by SelectUSA and U.S. Commercial Service.

Membership and Governance

Membership comprises local economic development corporations, chambers of commerce, port authorities, utilities, tribal nations, and municipal planning agencies, including organizations akin to Greater Cleveland Partnership, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Greater Omaha Chamber, and Mid-America Regional Council. Governance follows a board structure with officers drawn from public sector executives, corporate CEOs, and university presidents comparable to leaders from Bank of America, Ford Motor Company, Walmart, and higher-education institutions such as University of Minnesota and Notre Dame. Committees reflect areas of focus similar to those of the National Governors Association and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, covering site development, workforce, trade, and rural vitality. Membership tiers often mirror models used by Economic Developers Association of California and include corporate sponsorships, municipal dues, and affiliate programs.

Programs and Services

The council offers site selection databases, workforce training toolkits, grant-writing assistance, and export readiness programs paralleling offerings from Site Selection Magazine, ManpowerGroup, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Small Business Administration, and SCORE. Technical assistance includes market analysis with methodologies like those used by Dun & Bradstreet and IHS Markit, strategic planning workshops modeled on McKinsey & Company frameworks, and entrepreneurship supports comparable to Kauffman Foundation initiatives. The organization administers certification programs for industrial parks and brownfield redevelopment that reflect standards similar to International Organization for Standardization guidelines and coordinates resilience planning drawing on practices from FEMA and Department of Transportation grant programs.

Events and Conferences

Annual conferences and trade missions bring together delegations from metropolitan regions, investor groups, and economic development professionals, following event formats similar to EXIM Export Conference, SelectUSA Investment Summit, World Economic Forum, SXSW, and the National Main Street Conference. Workshops and webinars feature experts from universities such as Ohio State University, consulting firms like Ernst & Young and KPMG, and federal agencies including U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Labor. Past keynote speakers have included CEOs, governors, and academic leaders paralleling figures associated with General Electric, Cummins, Procter & Gamble, and state executives from Iowa Governor offices and Missouri Governor offices.

Regional Impact and Economic Initiatives

Initiatives target manufacturing clusters, logistics corridors, renewable energy deployment, and advanced agriculture systems, aligning with projects such as the Heartland Corridor, Gateway Program, Big River Steel investments, and renewable projects by NextEra Energy and Iberdrola. Programs support workforce retraining in partnership with community colleges and universities similar to Metropolitan Community College (Kansas City), and foster cluster development resonant with Silicon Prairie and Automotive Alley formations. The council has contributed to site-ready designations, brownfield remediations, and federal grant consortia comparable to Rebuild by Design and has engaged with regional transportation initiatives linked to Amtrak route improvements and inland port concepts modeled on Port of Long Beach practices.

Partnerships and Funding Sources

Partnerships span municipal governments, state economic development agencies, philanthropic foundations such as Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Kresge Foundation, corporate sponsors including Caterpillar, Boeing, and Siemens, and higher-education research centers like Northwestern University and Michigan State University. Funding derives from membership dues, corporate sponsorships, fee-for-service contracts, foundation grants, and competitive federal awards from entities like Economic Development Administration, Department of Energy, and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Collaborative grants often involve multi-jurisdictional consortia similar to projects funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies or regional planning initiatives led by the Metropolitan Planning Organization network.

Category:Non-profit organizations based in the United States Category:Organizations established in the 1950s