S P O N S O R S P O T L I G H T:
Checking In on ‘Team Texas'
David Miracle, chair of the organization, says the change reflects the many facets of this select group of 55 corporate and community leaders. He says there was some resistance to this change — as there is to any change — but it was time to communicate that the group was about a lot more than marketing.
"It's about expertise," he says, citing the groups' sterling lineup of economic development professionals, railroads, utilities and real estate companies, a third of which are corporations themselves. "We're certainly not trying to be lead generation for the state, that's what the Governor's office does. [But] we know people, and our relationships with decision-makers make a good fit with the Governor's office."
The good fit with IAMC has prompted Team Texas to step up its Professional Forum's sponsorship activity from the Sunday night cordial reception to a dinner on Tuesday night this fall in Corpus Christi.
Meanwhile, the link is indeed strong with Governor Rick Perry's office. Team Texas has been a member of the TexasOne marketing effort for over a year, and the Governor's office is an ex officio member of Team Texas.
"Because of our level of support for TexasOne, we have a chair at the table in deciding what they're going to do with their marketing dollar," says Miracle.
The marketing dollars of Team Texas have gone in a different direction since Miracle took the helm, evolving from straight promotion via splashy events to smaller, more collegial groups like IAMC.
"In the year and a half I've been chair, we've managed to get a general consensus on direction, and move the marketing emphasis toward relationship building, as opposed to just promotion," says Miracle. "We think most corporations and site consultants on Planet Earth know something about Texas. We don't need to promote Texas so much as promote relationships with decision-makers."
In fact, the past two years have seen a flurry of guideline changes and strategy at Team Texas, in many ways mirroring what Miracle calls the "lean and mean, results-oriented " state economic development operation that now resides within the Governor's office. Team Texas now has a full continuity plan in place, as well as active support of committee work. And even though it's raised dues, there's still a waiting list of half a dozen organizations that would like to join.
The momentum at Team Texas is again a mirror of the state's momentum, as it rides a record year of corporate investment in 2004. Not resting on its laurels, the state has welcomed big 2005 investments from Tyson Foods, Washington Mutual and, on June 30, telecom giants Ericsson and Cingular, which are investing in an R&D center in Plano.
That project is being aided by the state's $200-million Emerging Technology Fund, signed into law in June as a natural complement to the state's just-renewed, $185-million Texas Enterprise Fund, described by Gov. Perry as a "clincher" in sealing deals like the Tyson plant in Sherman.
"So we have a lot to talk about when we meet with folks at IAMC," says Miracle.
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IAMC Notes