JEC staff has partnered with the Jefferson County Workforce Center, Colorado Association of Manufacturing & Technology (CAMT), The Rocky Mountain Trade Adjustment Center, and the Rocky Mountain Training Institute at Red Rocks Community College. The group works together to develop services aimed at Jeffco’s manufacturing and high-tech industries. Some past projects the group has worked on include the WIRED Training Program, the Procurement Conference, target industry marketing materials, Powwow marketing resources for businesses. The group is currently developing a Training & Resource Guide for Jeffco companies
11. Opening the future for business in Jefferson County, Colorado JeffcoPowwow Helping companies put all the pieces together!
12. Jeffco Powwow Opening the future for business in Jefferson County, Colorado Source: WordNet (r) 1.7 powwow n : (informal) a quick private conference [syn: huddle] v : hold a powwow, talk, conference or meeting
37. Opening the future for business in Jefferson County, Colorado Thank You!
Editor's Notes
PRISCILLA: Good afternoon. We’re here to talk about a collaborative effort we started in Jefferson County called the Jeffco Powwow. We were informally working together on projects for several years but formally put the collaborative group together about a year ago.We’ll just go down the line and introduce ourselves: (Priscilla, Michelle, Sumer and Jeanine.)Jeanine also is the local administrator for the Colorado FIRST and Existing Industry Training Grants for most of Jefferson County. Missing but part of the Powwow is the Rocky Mountain Trade Adjustment Assistance Center folks who couldn’t make the trip. Now I would like to turn it over to Michelle Claymore.MICHELLE: Thank you, Priscilla. How many of you have worked with the RMTAA? CAMT? Workforce Center? ED Partners? Has it always gone smoothly? What seems to be the biggest hurdle you face working with the different groups in your community? (audience participation here)
MICHELLE: We experienced a lot of these same issues in Jefferson County.Each of our groups are very anxious to help our companies so that they stay and thrive in our community. We want our companies to belong to our chambers of commerce, participate in BRE visits from our local economic development groups, attend training programs on LEAN manufacturing or international supply chains; hire and train folks registered with our local workforce development groups; and sit on our local Rotary Clubs—especially our economic drivers.
MICHELLE: These are some of our economic drivers in Jefferson County. You’ll notice that a lot of them are high-tech manufactures! We have about 600 manufacturers in the county that employ over 19,000 people. These companies are the targets for a lot of the work that we all (the panel) do.
So there was a lot of Individual Activity amongst all of us as we hit the streets, making appointment after appointment with our companies. This activity seemed to increase as the downturn in the economy hit because of increased programming dollars flowing down from the Federal Government and a higher competition for paid investments in the membership-based organizations.
Unfortunately, all this well intentioned activity is confusing the customer – our high-tech businesses.Priscilla to give the example: PrimeStar Solar
Jeanine: Because of this we all decided to meet regularly and call our meetings the Jeffco PowwowMeetmonthly to:Communicate about employers and other industry programsCollaborate on projectsReinforce the goal of cross-marketing each other’s programs
Jeannine: There has been some chiding about the name. We just want to share that this (point to screen) is the definition we are using for our group!
Michelle: Meeting monthly has really improved our communication with each other. I’m always amazed at how much each of us does on a daily basis and sometimes meeting once a month doesn’t feel like enough time.
Michelle: Coordination amongst all of us within Jefferson County is much better since we started meeting!Meeting monthly has really improved our communication especially. We are all extremely busy. I’m always amazed at how much each of us does on a daily basis and sometimes meeting once a month doesn’t feel like enough time.
Sumer: Confidentiality is a big concern. We all have verbal agreement to keep information discussed about companies private and this is the reason that we don’t have individual cities represented. We don’t want to talk about sensitive issues about a company in one jurisdiction with someone from another jurisdiction at the meeting.
Sumer: Cross marketing each other’s programs and the network for lead referral has been terrific.
Jeanine: At the start of the Jeffco Powwow, we all took turns and gave a presentation about what each of our organizations do so that we all collectively could cross-market each other’s programs. We also put together some materials that each of us use during our company visits. If Priscilla is meeting with a great company in Golden, each of us want that company to know about us and our programs as well. (Michelle to give Ocean Optics story)
Jeffco Manufacturers Council is a forum for collaboration and knowledge exchange between manufacturers doing business in Jefferson County, Colorado.AND Jeffco Mfg Consortia – Workforce DevelopmentCase Study: DSC WindowsFront Range Manufacturing Group - SundynePrimus Metals - Lakewood
Michelle:One of the programs we collaborated on was a statewide procurement conference held in Jefferson County to help our small, high tech companies do business with the federal government. We had well over 400 attendees and is one of the reasons we were asked to host a satellite office for the Colorado PTAC in Jefferson County.Priscilla: Primus Metals story- Lakewood
Michelle: The JeffcoManufacturers Council was formed in 2007 for collaboration and knowledge exchange between manufacturers doing business in Jefferson County, Colorado………Priscilla: JeffcoMfg Consortia – Workforce Development……………Sumer:Front Range Manufacturing Group - Sundyne
Michelle: We’re also doing a lot of collaboration around industry clusters.
Michelle/Priscilla: Co-opedon target industry brochuresWhat our industry clusters are in JeffcoWhich companies are in the clustersWhat are their needs?Education/Marketing videosRenewable Energy consortiumAerospace coordinator
SUMER SECTIONExplain what is WIRED and grant application forList partners: CAMT, Jeffco Workforce Center, JEC, Boulder EDC, Boulder County Workforce CenterTarget industries: aerospace, bioscience, energy
Funding: $725,336 $284,483 program funding/ $440,853 Partner leveraged funds
Sumer: Executive Aerospace Exchange: An AS9100 Forum for SuppliersHeld at Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Canyon campus146 attendees including prime contractors, suppliers and government resources to discuss innovation and quality andAS9100 certificationGoal: increase opportunities for business growth and collaborationNext steps: Supplier Development Program for the aerospace and energy industries and work with NASA to increase our robust regional innovation cluster for aerospace in Colorado.
All Chime in!We are seeing better communicationMore comprehensive assistance to our companies (package programs better). In Colorado no incentives so Powwow helps us bring something to the table.More collaboration on programs and less of overlapping efforts
SumerReported Impact:Q4 2008New Employees: 0Retained Employees: 10Sales Increase: $200,000Retained Sales: $150,000Total Cost Savings: $25,000Investment Impact: $35,000 (IT Systems $25,000 Workforce $10,000) Empowered Workforce24% decline in business as opposed to industry average of 50%5 day lead time as opposed to industry average of 3-5 weeksCompany Commitment
Sumer(Other examples if we need to eat some time:Lockheed Martin – OrionCoorsTekSorin)
Jeanine: We are still learning/growing as a group- quarterly meetings with our cities More joint company visits spend more time in monthly meetings talking about businesses versus our individual programs
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