Is the Plan to Market Worcester a Bust?
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Aerial of Worcester
“It is really important that the private sector and Worcester leadership put together a plan that really markets the city,” Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray told GoLocal Worcester recently. “There’s a real story to tell here.
Then why hasn’t it been told, yet?
“I don’t believe it was out of malcontent,” Richard Kennedy, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce (WRCC) said of the lack of collaboration with the city. “I think everybody has done their part individually. We’re saying let’s start looking out for some key initiatives we can undertake collectively.”
City Manager Michael O’Brien, whose strong suit admittedly isn’t patience, in this case has tried to exhibit restraint.
“Big ideas can’t happen overnight,” he said. “You don’t want to rush something like this and have it done less than perfect.”
The city certainly has much to offer to outside businesses looking to set up shop and families looking for a new place to call home, starting with the CitySquare project and the peripheral housing and business development it has spurred. It has entertainment venues like the DCU Center, community and private colleges and universities and top-notch hospitals. It even has a train station, with promises for more commuter service despite the financial struggles of the MBTA. There’s a $100-million rail yard expansion in the works and a school in WPI that is widely regarded as among the best engineering institutions in the country.
Deliberate plan
“We need to leverage the synergy taking place with all the projects the city has going on,” said Murray. “There needs to be a deliberate plan that says, ‘How do we plan to market ourselves going forward?’”
He cited CitySquare, noting the availability of business space, as well as the promise of more trains rolling in and out of Worcester.
“What are we doing to tell people about all this,” he said.
With hospitals such as UMass and St. Vincent’s, he continued, “How are we working to attract businesses that manufacture medical devices?”
Efforts such as Choose Worcester, a nonprofit marketing organization that had members from agencies such as the WRCC, have tried and failed to adopt a successful marketing campaign. Choose Worcester went defunct about two years ago.
“This has been keyed up countless times in the city,” Kennedy noted. “It’s not like there haven’t been efforts to do this in the past.”
Meeting planned
There at least appears to be a newly concerted effort to bring together private and public partnerships to tie individual efforts into a coordinated plan.
Kennedy said a meeting has been planned for the end of the month between city officials and private sector companies, such as the Massachusetts Biomedical Initiative and Worcester Business Development Corporation.
O’Brien and Chief Development Officer Timothy McGourthy both will be at the meeting, which will not be open to the public.
Kennedy said it is the start of an effort to build a cohesive marketing partnership.
“It is the beginning of that process to identify what we’re doing today and what we should do collectively,” Kennedy said.
It’s a process both Murray and City Manager Michael O’Brien hoped would have already started. The two authored an Op-Ed piece to the local media in August last year. Their chief concern was that no one outside Worcester knew of the development, both private and public, going on there.
The two singled out organizations including the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, Worcester Business Development Corp., Destination Worcester, Central Mass. Convention & Visitors Bureau (CMCVB) and Mass. Biomedical Initiatives.
The time, they said, had come for those and other neighborhood and community business groups “to get around the table, roll up their sleeves, and implement a new strategic plan for promoting Worcester and the region.”
“The initiative,” they wrote, “should focus, at a minimum, on business retention; recruitment and expansion; business advocacy and support; project development and implementation; and promoting the region for travel, tourism, events and conventions.”
By all accounts, Destination Worcester, led by Robert Murdock, has been among the city leaders in promoting events and other happenings in Worcester.
Murdock could not be reached for comment. Messages also were left for the Worcester Business Development Corporation and CMCVB.
Missteps
Kennedy acknowledged missteps along the way as part of why there has been no concentrated city-private business collaboration as yet when it comes to marketing efforts.
“You can look back at some of the decisions,” he said. “The Chamber really focuses on member services these days.”
Murray noted the individual roles some businesses and organizations have played in starting initiatives and funding projects. That alone won’t let the outside world know what the city has to offer, he said.
“To take it to the next level, you’ve got to be knocking on people’s doors,” Murray said. “Now it’s up to the leadership to develop the plan and begin implementing it.”
O’Brien, who said the city is not just competing in the state, or even nationally, but internationally, said the city is ready to be at the table.
“The reality is we’re competing with Pakistan, India and Southeast Asia,” he said. “We’ve got to be bold and smart. What we need is the private sector to focus in on what’s next in the pipeline.”
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