Looking Ahead into 2020

Happy New Year and welcome to a brand-new decade! The last 10 years were very good to the Ames and Story County community and I remain optimistic for more of the same in the new year and beyond.

Did you know that from January of 2010 to October of 2019 (the most recent data collected) our market added 12,600 new jobs? That is a very large number for a market of roughly 100,000 people. The market being the Ames Metropolitan Statistical Area (Ames MSA), which is the geographic boundary of Story County. MSA’s are how the federal government measures a number of data points in population centers. In that same time period, our MSA went from 4.8% unemployment to 1.3%, which is the lowest in the United States! This number one ranking is a distinction the Ames MSA has held for roughly the last 36-40 months. Truly incredible.

I remain bullish on our economy going into the new decade. I am also very excited that the Ames Chamber of Commerce and our Affiliate entities will be launching a new strategic plan that will chart our organizational course for the next three years. Watch for this the latter part of January.

Many of my peers across the country often ask what the secret sauce is for our market success. I tell them it is a combination of things. First, we are home to a world-class educational institution in Iowa State University. Follow this with a wide array of strong partners like the City of Ames, Story County, Alliant Energy, and Des Moines Area Community College, to name a few, and when you couple all of this with an engaged business community – it really starts to come together.

The constant challenge is keeping people in the boat and what I mean by that is keeping all of the partners engaged. We do this through constant communication and by being inclusive. Hopefully you see this as we go about our business.

2020 will also be a rich opportunity for our team here at the Ames Chamber of Commerce to take Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to a new level. Watch for a blog or other presentation from us on this outstanding process that I believe is making me, and our team, better communicators internally and more accountable to one another, which should ultimately make us a more responsive organization for our members, investors, and public and private partners.

Speaking of our members, investors, and public and private partners; thanks to all of you for a great decade! With your ongoing engagement the continued success of the Ames/Story County market is assured.

Happy New Year!