Chmura Economics At Work Chmura Economics & Analytics

Our President, Leslie Peterson, sits down with our special guest, the President of NASCO, Tiffany Melvin for a conversation on Eating the Elephant-One Bite at a Time - How NASCO (North American Strategy for Competitiveness) helps connect North America globally.

Tiffany Melvin has led NASCO for 23 of its 26 years – first as the Executive Director of NASCO, and now as its President.
Under her vision and leadership, and with the dedication of the NASCO Team, the organization has grown into a widely respected, partnership focusing on freight logistics, the environment, and growing North America’s skilled workforce. She directs NASCO with an aggressive, far reaching, cooperative approach to solving critical issues impacting the efficient, secure and sustainable movement of freight throughout North America.

This episode, we'll be playing you a recent webinar Mark Hays presented for on why educators need to engage with workforce and economic development.

Introduction: 0:00
Changing Times: 2:50
Crisis of Confidence: 6:30
Importance of Skills: 10:25
Synergy Between Education and Business: 12:08
Why? 19:50
JobsEQ Introduction: 22:04
Workforce Alignment using JobsEQ: 27:09
The Power of LMI: 38:40
Q&A: 46:00

Intro: 0:00
Global Location Strategies: 4:41
"Think Like The Client": 10:18
Communities working together: 13:00
Demographic challenges: 17:20
Site selection across industries: 23:42
Common site selection mistakes: 26:28
How GLS uses JobsEQ: 28:00
Impact of Covid: 33:20
Outro: 41:54

Kelly O'Keefe, Managing Partner of Brand Federation, sits down to chat with Leslie on modern branding strategies, how current events have affected these strategies and the importance of responsible branding.

Intro: 0:00

Brand Federation: 5:46

Messaging vs. Behavior: 11:11

COVID impact and responsible branding: 14:45

Cancel culture: 20:09

Balancing history: 23:38

Innovation and adapting to changing times: 29:13

Evolving a brand: 33:03

Kelly's advice to himself: 40:04

Outro: 42:50

Gray Swoope, President and CEO of VisionFirst Advisors, sits down with Chmura’s CEO, Dr. Chris Chmura, to provide insight on economic development and site selection in a post Covid environment.

Introduction/Gray's background: 0:00

VisionFirst Advisors story: 4:40

Changes in economic landscape over past 5 years and Covid: 9:07

Advise for economic developers post-Covid: 12:29

How Gray uses JobsEQ data: 18:28

How economic developers benefit communities: 21:07

Collaboration between business and education: 26:17

The next big thing in local economic development: 28:10

Gray's advice for economic development organizations: 30:37

Outro: 33:20

Joined by the the Managing Director of the George W. Bush Institute, Matthew Rooney, Leslie and Matt have a fascinating discussion around the important work that the Bush Institute is leading. Leslie and Matt also give us insight into the timely and important subject of world trade, diving into all aspects of challenges and opportunities the United States faces with her allies and adversaries alike.

Introduction: 0:00

Matthew's Background: 5:01

How he came to the Bush Institute: 10:46

The Institute's approach to leadership: 14:43

US Trade, NAFTA and their effect on the economy and labor force: 17:43

How NAFTA has been a win for North America: 27:24

NAFTA Coordination: 29:42

US and China trade disputes: 35:20

World trade over the next decade: 38:50

India's role in trade: 41:20

The future of the Bush Institute: 42:54

George Bush's artwork and immigration reform: 46:24

Outro: 51:40