Business View Civil & Municipal l November 2022

22 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 within these industries creates another opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of the region. “I can sell you on coming here, but it’s really great if your peers can sell you,” she says, adding that public and private partners will accompany GPI staff on trips to Vancouver and San Francisco this year. Taking a positive approach to workforce challenges, GPI sees it as a chance to promote the positive assets and location advantages of Greater Portland. Claiborne explains, “There is an opportunity, where you have a central organization that understands the private sector workforce needs, and they go out and market to that talent to bring them into the region, just as though we’re marketing and bringing competence to the region.” As for other issues facing the organization, she reports, “The more pressing challenge is just getting the Portland name out there. We’re a large city, but we’re one of the smallest large metropolitans in the country. When companies are looking across the country or looking at the West Coast, we’re just not top of mind. So, it goes back to that opportunity of us getting in front of as many people and us marketing our region as much as we can.” In the fourth quarter, leading into 2023, Greater Portland Inc will put an added emphasis on all the positives that the region has to offer and improve the image of the community. “I think it is important that we really showcase the region. We will bring in companies, we will generate investment opportunities, we will bring in talent, we will increase net migration for the state and for the region,” Claiborne says. In other future plans, there is consideration towards hiring a specialized consultant to look at the organization and its operations and make recommendations. Summarizing the importance of this work and what it brings to the Greater Portland region, Claiborne says, “If you don’t do it, it falls through the cracks. Everyone is focused on their own lane. In your professional career, they say you have to toot your horn a little bit, you have to promote yourself. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it you have to get a friend who can do it for you. Sometimes you don’t get noticed for promotions if you’re just quiet. People have to know who you are, you have to stand out. I think the same goes for regions. Someone has to do it or you get overlooked.”