SOREDI News: Staff attend OEDA Conference – Surprising Highlights

SOREDI staff Amy Browne, Operations Manager, and Terrill Roper, Business Development and Loan Manager, attended the Oregon Economic Development Association (OEDA) conference October 8, 9 & 10. The theme this year was Trailblazer Economy. The 3-day event had a FULL agenda with breakout sessions and keynote speaker presentations.

Roper commented there were two breakout session topics that stood out to him. The first one was the potential impact of AI on the world of manufacturing, potentially eliminating thousands of jobs, jeopardizing livelihoods and our economic strength. The potential AI effect does need to be considered in economic development when looking to the future if this is the case. Proponents of AI state that jobs will not be replaced but actually free up humans to do more thinking tasks, actually collaborating with artificial intelligence to make the job quicker and more efficient.

The second topic was in regard to the CHIPS Act. In that breakout session, Hewlett-Packard, the City of Hillsboro, the State of Oregon and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce each had representatives addressing the topic of Oregon’s semiconductor industry and how they see what’s next. For the CHIPS topic, they drilled down into how securing these grant funds would explode our Oregon economy.

Browne was a panelist addressing the State of the Regions, with her focus being on the Southern Oregon Region. Five other panelists were Monique Claiborne of GPI, Susan Christensen of GEODC, Jon Stark of EDCO, and Abisha Stone of SEDCOR in Yamhill County.

A panel presented on the 2023 legislative session noting how hard they fought for renewing the Enterprise Zone incentive, which was scheduled to sundown in 2025. Oregon has limited incentives to attract companies to do business in our region so the Enterprise Zone tax abatement program is an important tool for our economic development. SOREDI is the manager of Southern Oregon’s Enterprise Zone and has fought hard alongside the legislature to keep this program moving forward.

Both appreciated the added benefit of networking with other ED agencies to hear what they do and how different SOREDI is from other Oregon agencies in regard to scope and outreach.

The Oregon Economic Development Association is comprised of Oregon economic developers with a passion for building an innovative and prosperous Oregon economy. They are