“Jason is a visionary person with a remarkable ability to put ideas into action. In supporting economic development, highest recommendations!” — Stephen Turner, Director of Urban and Economic Development, Rock Hill, SC (retired)
“Jason’s keynote presentation made Economic Development crystal clear.” — Patty Schmucker, EDC Team Jefferson, WA
“The one word I would use to describe the actual meat and bones of his talk would be: high-value.” — Leslie Friedman, Executive Director, Elbert County Chamber of Commerce
“Jason speaks from the heart. I would highly recommend him again.” — Anthony Gallo, President, Lorain County Chamber of Commerce
“This was the best seminar I was privileged to attend in the past two months. The speaker was unreal good and the info he gave us has already had a positive impact on our town. Good job. No, great job. Thank you.” — Bill Beall, Mayor, Federalsburg, MD
“Jason is a seasoned speaker with a charismatic style that blends messaging around economic development, community building and marketing. Truly inspirational!” — Lynn Carpenter, VP Marketing, VisitCalifornia
“Jason provided our group with a great mix of data, humor, and insights that were informative and entertaining at the same time. We’ve received very positive feedback from attendees. He was a hit for sure!” — B Gorman, President & CEO, Tahoe Chamber
“Jason… Your share in Salisbury was exceptional on many levels.” — Bob Rich, Owner, Delmarva Farm Management Services / Land Advisor, Sperry Van Ness
“Your presentation was the icing on the cake. You brought a very inspiring and well thought out message. I would love to see your ideas begin to root here in Nevada.” — Sheryl Gonzales, Project Manager, Western Nevada Development District
“Jason’s ability to convey the message of how crowdsourcing can be used as a tool to spur redevelopment efforts is uncanny. He has made the connection between public engagement and community redevelopment.” — Wade Luther II, Economic Development Director, Camden, SC
“Jason is a self-organizing and visionary entrepreneur and a leader in our community.” — Debra Heintz, Executive Director, Arts Council of York County (retired)
“Jason excites the mind when he is speaking. He is creative and brings the ever-changing culture to the discussion of long-time problems. He looks through new eyes. Our 60-plus CEO attendees enjoyed his talk greatly…and are still referring to his ideas!” — T. Jan Wiseman, Executive Director, Greater Salisbury Committee
“Jason has the incredible ability to take complex, creative ideas and articulate those ideas in a very powerful way. Our community WILL move forward thanks to Jason Broadwater.” — David Bradley, President & CEO, Athens Area Chamber of Commerce
While Shop Local campaigns may generate a slight bump in local sales for a few weeks, the results are usually mediocre and temporary. This is not a criticism of the people running these campaigns. The problem is, instead, with the nature of the Shop Local campaign itself. Ditch your Shop Local Campaign for a Discover Local initiative, and see a permanent change in local consumer behavior.
A Small Business Debt Fund can save your community’s local small businesses from extractive debt cycles that kill small businesses and send money out of the local economy.
Are the people of your community getting richer or poorer? Well, by isolated metrics, like wages and 401ks, one could argue richer. But by lived experience, in relation to the important expenses of our lives and our ability to build wealth over time, the clear answer is poorer. But why? The answer is woven into our economic system.
There is no better workforce investment than my wife. My wife is a counselor at a small, rural, Title I elementary school in South Carolina. How much money is being spent to address the soft-skills crisis in the US right now? How many billions of dollars? How many employers report that workers struggle with communication, teamwork, adaptability, conflict management, and self-regulation? Working with adults is triage. We must invest in the future of our workforce.
Economic Developers have traditionally focused on business recruitment and real estate development. Now we find ourselves in workforce development, skills training, soft-skills, even transportation and childcare. We need a new perspective on what it means to serve a community in Economic Development.
More people are getting poorer over time. We must evolve our understanding of the economy so that we can see the pending crisis that lurks underneath. Only then can we design the changes that will avoid calamity and create a better future for all.
York County should invest significantly in developing the “Agriconomy” (as I call it) – agri-business, agri-tourism, agri-lifestyle, etc. – in the western part of the county.
Some of you will not like these solutions… I get it. Some of these are pretty radical. But, the fact remains, doing all of (or even some of) these things that I spell out below would help combat the economic crisis in the US, The Great Slide I call it, of the working class into poverty.
Recently, I attended a joint meeting of City Council and the Planning Commission in Rock Hill, SC. I was among the listening public.
Athens Achieves is a county-wide workforce initiative in Athens / Clarke County, Georgia, managed by the Athens Area Chamber of Commerce. Jason designed and developed (along with RevenFlo) the job portal for the project, which is designed to connect job-seekers, employers, and support organizations (for childcare, transportation, second chance programs, and more) through a single, locally focused digital platform. The initiative combines thoughtful brand strategy, human-centered technology design, and coordinated community participation to improve access to employment and strengthen the local workforce ecosystem.
Jason worked with York Technical College in South Carolina to create a workforce development initiative that served as a recruiting tool for York Technical College through career education (with a focus on the skilled trades). The site used video, career data, and integrations with local job websites to help people in the community understand what careers were available, what companies in the area employed those careers, what jobs in those careers were currently open, pay and growth data for those careers, and what training they needed to get started. Then, they could sign up for the training they needed from York Technical College.
Jason Broadwater worked with Dr. Velma Love and the York Economic Development Corporation (YEDC), in collaboration with the City of York, South Carolina, and its economic development staff, to garner input from the community, craft a vision for the community, and develop a playbook of economic development projects that could be further developed over time. The vision and playbook covered all areas of community development including business recruitment, tax base, small business ecosystems, transportation, childcare, elder care, homelessness, inclusion, social justice, culture & arts, and more.
Givolio (your giving portfolio) was a personalized giving platform that allowed a user to select from over 1.8 million nonprofit organizations and build their own portfolio of giving. The application kept up with all of your giving in one place and provided a one-click tax report for all of your needed tax information for your giving throughout the year. Givolio also offered workplace giving options, working with employers to provide giving opportunities to their employees. Not only was this good for giving, but it was good for recruiting a talented millennial workforce, who want to work for companies that demonstrate social responsibility.
Aday Remus allowed participants to identify buildings in their community and design prototypes of the use of those spaces (a coffee shop, a cowork space, a bookstore, a pizza place, etc.). A hand-picked group of MBA students from Winthrop University worked with Economic Development staff at the City of Rock Hill to identify available buildings in the fledgling historic downtown and develop business ideas for the use of those spaces. The ideas were presented to the community in the form of a conference, engaging the community in imagining what their downtown could become.
Jason worked with Sidewalk Development to provide input on strategy, audience, and voice for a bold new vision for a long-vacant textile factory adjacent to the beautiful campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The plans included commercial office space, an indoor Athletic Complex with competitive courts, a 120 room hotel and banquet center, a Market Pavilion with retail and food vendors, Restaurants and an indoor stage complex, 500 bed student housing, Market rate apartments as well as Active Adult living, and outdoor festival spaces.
Jason facilitated a strategic process with staff and key stakeholders of the Columbia Museum of Art to design changes to the museum’s brand, approach to marketing art and events, and internal processes and tools. The museum was looking to be successful with the next generation of supporters while maintaining value for its current supporters. RevenFlo helped redesign the brand, website, and marketing materials.
Jason worked with the economic development staff of the City of Rock Hill, South Carolina, to develop the concept of Knowledge Park, which was a business-park-esque economic development strategy for the center of the city that included the burgeoning downtown, Winthrop University, and the previously blighted abandoned textile corridor that lies in between. The project was focused on placemaking in the urban environment. The project was multifaceted, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment in the Knowledge Park area.
Jason designed, co-founded, and managed The Hive, which was a collaborative program that brought students from Winthrop University and York Technical College into an office space in the fledgling downtown Rock Hill, SC and trained them to design and develop websites by building free and low-cost websites for regional non-profit organizations. Part workforce development, part capstone experience, part social support through helping nonprofits market better, the program demonstrated to the community the power of collaboration and what the knowledge economy looks like in our downtown revitalization.
Jobs Rock Hill was a jobs website for the City of Rock Hill and the surrounding area. The site was developed in reaction to a study that revealed that 50,000 people drive out of York County everyday to work in neighboring Charlotte, NC. The Jobs Rock Hill project was an attempt to retain talent in Rock Hill and York County, South Carolina. The website integrated with a career education website from York Technical College called Career Connect, and showed training courses that matched current job openings. Tens of thousands of people used the site to search for and find jobs in the Rock Hill area.
Chris Wallace discusses using existing railroad infrastructure to create passenger service between Rock Hill and Charlotte.
Dawn Johnson discusses entrepreneurship, financial empowerment, leadership, and building stronger communities in Rock Hill.
LaKesha Womack discusses her grassroots campaign for North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District.
