I arrived at the Howard County Economic Development Authority’s (HCEDA) recent annual meeting in time for dessert. (It was chocolate-y, rich and rather tasty.) I also got there in time for the awards. (They were short, sweet and inspiring.) However, I didn’t get there in time to see / hear / witness the report on the state of the county, vis-à-vis the EDA’s eyes. But I did discover that there is an online presentation of the report. Sounds dreadful, doesn’t it? Do thoughts of yawn-inducing PowerPoint presentations start to fill your head? I don’t know about you, but the words “stats,” “government” and “annual report” together in one sentence make me nervous.
Happily, the HCEDA annual report presentation is rather easy on the eyes and ears. And worth a listen. You’ll find the link to the report here, and the voice you’re hearing is none other than Howard County Economic Development Authority CEO Dick Story.
Howard County touches five other counties in Maryland and is part of the corridor linking Baltimore and Washington. Several years ago, I asked an in-the-know person (someone who worked at HCEDA), what was the estimated number of people who travel in to Howard County to work each day. His answer was 83,000. You might be one of them! Sadly, imo, that many and more travel out of Howard County, mostly south and north, to work in other counties and cities … but looking at that subject is another blog post for another day.
Curious about what’s going on in Howard County and in the realm of economic development? You can download the HCEDA 2010 annual report as a PDF or watch the online presentation. There is also a covers-all-the-bases story about the annual dinner, including the award recipients and the evening’s guest speaker.
