Economic development for this region of southern Ontario includes partnership of 7 municipalities
Two-week trek to Japan all about long-term planning and face-to-face meetings
By Mark
Schadenberg
I certainly haven't
seen the full itinerary for the trip, but a group called SOMA might
be visiting Soma, Japan over the next two weeks.
The Southwestern
Ontario Marketing Alliance (SOMA), which promotes the arrival of new
businesses to our area, has departed today for two weeks to Japan to
advertise this geographical area as a destination for investment and
employment. The delegation will also visit the offices/factories of
many companies already operating in this hub of industry in the 401
corridor.
Toyota announced in
2005 that it would be building a satellite manufacturing location (to
their Cambridge facility) in Woodstock. The TMMC facility opened in
2008.
Woodstock City Hall
officials have made many treks to Japan to talk employment,
innovation, and proposed new ventures.
I talked to Len Magyar
from the Woodstock economic development office earlier this week and
while he didn't outline the entire agenda with me, I would quickly
learn that this was not a pleasure excursion for his group. Magyar
then pointed out in social media that it's now his sixth trip to
Japan to re-acquaint with past contacts and meet face-to-face with
other commercial industry leaders who he has had preliminary
discussions and correspondence previously.
According to Magyar,
Woodstock mayor Trevor Birtch is also on this trip.
Brad Hammond (left) and Len Magyar
SOMA membership most
certainly includes other Oxford municipalities such as Tillsonburg
and Ingersoll, but stretches out to encompass Stratford, St. Marys,
St. Thomas and Aylmer. If a community in southern Ontario is on a
mission to attract foreign investment and jobs to this pocket of the
provinces, the SOMA group is working hard to spotlight our area with
a cooperative effort.
While Woodstock
promotes itself through www.cometothecrossroads.com
– the 401 and 403 interchange and its proximity to Toronto/Hamilton
in one direction, Windsor/Detroit in another direction and of course
Niagara/Buffalo along the 403.
In Woodstock the list
of Japan interests simply begins with Toyota, and continues with
Boshuko, Tsusho, Vuteq, Hino trucks, Trans-Mite Steel and others.
Ingersoll has naturally been a long-time participant in all tasks
related to attracting businesses from Japan or other international
companies even though CAMI is now a GM site.
2015 Toyota RAV4
Magyar and his
delegation will represent Woodstock and its surrounding SOMA
communities very well and as is always pointed out – new jobs in
any of these locales is terrific news for the economy of southern
Ontario. SOMA describes this as an alliance “grown out of natural
economic ties.”
Whether it's a power
point show for an overhead projector, or brochures, leaflets,
pamphlets, newsletters and glossy handouts, or whether it's trade
shows (Anaheim, Boston, Chicago, Orlando, Atlanta . . . ), or just
picking up the phone to maintain worldwide contacts, SOMA is a busy
group.
To use a baseball
analogy, and in my opinion as an observer, Woodstock's city hall at
500 Dundas is batting better than .500 in introducing our community
to prospects and setting the stage to maintain our strong foothold in
the playing field.
When this is combined
with a cooperative / amalgamated concerted effort from other
communities, SOMA can be depicted as a big player in the economic
development stadium.
Woodstock's city hall
is brilliant because our community owns much of the available land
set for commercial development (400 acres?) and The Friendly City
(Woodstock) also has three on-going attractive business parks –
Commerce Way, Pattullo Ridge, and Bysham Park. Woodstock's commercial
property in many cases is also shovel ready for your industry.
SOMA is actually just a
small part of a much larger group called the Southwest Economic
Alliance (www.swea.ca), which
stretches up to Tobermory, south and west to Windsor and Sarnia, and
south and east to both Norfolk and Haldimand counties.
In another area of
connections and on a different scale, SOMA is a member of Automotive
Communities Partnership (www.acp.cargroup.org).
As is quickly apparent,
the goal is to be heard and seen, or as they would say in a runway
tower when Len Magyar climbs on another plane, we're on the radar
screen.
AWARD WINNERS
As recently as 2013, won an award from the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) for its re-branding of Woodstock in the concept of www.ComeToTheCrossroads.com
As recently as 2013, won an award from the Economic Developers Council of Ontario (EDCO) for its re-branding of Woodstock in the concept of www.ComeToTheCrossroads.com
Woodstock economic
development officer Brad Hammond said in a Woodstock Sentinel-Review
story about how important the award was for recognition and
awareness, saying:
"The
feedback that we get about our economic development website is that
it has the information in there that the people we deal with are
looking for."
"It
is that one-stop shop where they can get a quick overview of the
community, they can find out the companies that are here, they can
see the real estate that is available in the community for commercial
or industrial developments."
LINKS:
Thinking Woodstock? Contact me today
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty Brokerage
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
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