New economic development practices in a region is not the result of a sole leader. Changing the economic landscape of a region will be the work of individuals who collectively engage into innovative economic development practices.
Last week, I had the opportunity with my colleague Aicha Habiby to conduct the seminar, “Optimize Investment Attraction Strategy Through Information and Social Media Applications“. Sixteen participants representing different sub-regions in the Mauricie Region gathered in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. Canada.
It was a busy day 
Needless to say that because this course was computer based and we were more than happy to provide this training as a team. All participants agreed to start slowly but surely embraced social media tools to improve their regional investment attraction strategy and place their region on the radar of investors and site selectors. The process included achieving the following goals:
- Establishing their “web identity” on social networks
- Putting into place an information monitoring system
- Improving their web researching skills by learning advanced research techniques using web 1.0 tools and sources, social media applications and real-time search engines
- Generating “Intelligence” using specific analysis frameworks for investment attraction
- Nurturing their virtual and real life communities by sharing information and knowledge
- Being aware of key success factors and best practices for their future communication strategy
For quite awhile, investment attraction techniques have included taking advantage of the web 1.0 however; it was just the beginning. By tapping into the new applications on the internet, the participants can now efficiently benchmark their region, target leads and promote their region.
If you want to know more about economic development opportunities in Mauricie, you can get in touch “within a click” with the following professionals:
- Luc Arvisais, General Manager of Shawinigan’s Centre local de développement(CLD)
- Caroline Ducharme, Tourism Agent at Shawinigan’s Centre local de développement(CLD)
- Patrick Baril, General Manager of Mekinac’s Centre local de développement(CLD)
- Geneviève Bédard, Communication Agent at Mekinac’s Centre local de développement(CLD)
- Denise Béchard, Communication Consultant at Mauricie’s Conférence Régionale des Élus (CRE)
- Lucie Proulx, Development Consultant at Mauricie’s Conférence Régionale des Élus (CRE)
- Jean-Frédéric Bourassa, Communication Consultant at Maskinongé’s Centre local de développement (CLD)
- Pascale Plante, Tourism Consultant at Maskinongé’s Centre local de développement (CLD)
- Sandra Dessureault, Communication Consultant at Des Chenaux’s Centre local de développement (CLD)
- Benoit Lacerte, Businesses Consultant at Des Chenaux’s Centre local de développement
- Solange Laflamme, Administrative Secretary at Des Chenaux’s Centre local de développement
- Marylène Fortin, Communication Consultant at Haut St-Maurice’s Centre local de développement (CLD)
- Jean-François Hinse, Communication Agent at the City of Shawinigan
- Daniel Rousse, Industrial Development Consultant at the Innovation and Economic Development Corporation of the City of Trois-Rivières (IDE)
- Dominique Longval, Communication Agent at the Innovation and Economic Development Corporation of the City of Trois-Rivières (IDE)
- Patrice Tardif, EDO at the Innovation and Economic Development Corporation of the City of Trois-Rivières (IDE)
At the end of the day, interesting opportunities are just one click or one phone call away from you… It’s yours to discover
Happy to find out the great visibility that will be given to the Mauricie region with our combined presence over the Internet ! Congratulations to you all for taking the Web 2.0 turn. Hoping for further collaboration !
Gabriel,
I completely agree with your comments. No doubt that social media will put Mauricie on the map for great things ahead.
I am from Centre-du-Quebec and it sure will put the mauricie on the map. The social media in the mauricie seem to be positive!