One of our clients, a leading economic developer in the Southeast, used to think attending conferences and trade shows was a waste of time. And many other economic developers feel the same—with good reason. They’ve shelled out a good chunk of change to travel to the “Next Biggest Trade Show,” only to spend four or five days sitting in a booth, watching people walk by, watching business happen elsewhere. They don’t meet with any qualified leads, and they leave the conference in no different a position than when they arrived.

Others spend the conference with a bustling booth, meeting plenty of contacts—only to get home and realize none of the businesses they met with are a good fit for their area. Nothing much was accomplished at the conference, and the trip seems, in hindsight, to have been a waste of precious funds.

When you allocate money for a trip, you want to make the most of that money and the time you’ll spend traveling and attending the show. You want to meet with qualified contacts that will actually translate into leads for your area. To do this, you must do two things. First of all, you’ve got to get the word out that you’ll be attending the show. And next, you’ve got to set up pre-arranged meetings with businesses that are open to discussing your area. Scheduling meetings for the conference allows you to have your contact’s full attention, and it also allows you to confirm ahead of time that the business is actually interested in your area. You’ve got to do this early, though—before competing areas contact the businesses first.

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You don't need to be in a wind-producing state to attract renewable energy companies. You don't need to be in a state with tremendous amounts of sunlight each year to attract sub-suppliers in the solar energy industry.

What you must do is position yourself as a manufacturing hotspot to attract industries that make up the industry cluster--the sub-suppliers that are required to produce windmills and solar PV arrays as well as the industries that complement these systems.

We all know that renewable energy is the future. Green energy methods are growing quickly. But their influence is not limited to the future; they impact the immediate present. The new emerging federal government promises to place a much greater emphasis on green energy solutions. Thus, more federal funding will be earmarked for the development of renewable energy infrastructures on a national basis. Economic development agencies can position themselves to take advantage of these emerging trends.

There is one key element that will help you discern how to approach this industry, and that is what I call following the supply chain. I want to discuss a few examples of this with you to help you understand what I'm talking about.

More than half the states now have mandatory requirements specifying that electric utilities generate a certain amount of electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, and biomass. For instance, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed an executive order that requires utilities in his state to produce 33% of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020.

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Venture capitalists are investing billions of dollars in environmental technology.

According to a recent article by Cargill, “Environmental technology is predicted to be the second fastest growing sector in the world after IT over the next twenty years.” (Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services.)

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