Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity

7 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 entrepreneurs can grow their business. To that end, it tracks data from organizations like the Milken Institute and devises policies where they can move the needle on those data points. He adds, “We look at best practice data from economics and ask ourselves if that’s a valid measure of success, and what policies we can put in place by marshalling all the energy of industry and education and other government agencies to improve those metrics where we don’t perform as well. We spend a lot of time looking at what we consider key performance indicators for the future economy.” The Go Utah team interacts with industry CEOs and corporate executives, trade groups, and a wide variety of companies within Utah to understand what challenges they’re dealing with and how government can help. Hemmert reports, “We hold business roundtable lunches with government representatives, where we’ll invite small groups of about six business people to discuss issues about a particular industry or group. A continuous theme is workforce availability. That kind of communication and dialogue is so important, and we are constantly out there to make it happen.” Go Utah has earned a stellar reputation. Industry representatives contact the office and know they’ll be put in touch with the right government connection, or even with other companies, where they can get some help. “That’s part of being close with the various trade associations,” says Hemmert. “We have a proactive effort where we’re constantly reaching out via surveys to companies in Utah to get their take on what’s happening, and then aggregating that data, so we have a good pulse on the state of industry in Utah. We are focused on tomorrow, and we’re grateful to be where we are. We also are actively engaged in making sure that Utahns today and in the future have great opportunities.”