Economic leaders work on working together more

By Kevin Cooper (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, April 21, 2009

MEADVILLE — Regionalism, a fancy word for working with your neighbors, will be the buzzword today as state and regional economic developers descend on Franklin County.

Members of the Southwest Mississippi Partnership — a consortium of economic developers from 10 counties in the region — will meet at a summit of local and state leaders to discuss upcoming plans.

And, believe it or not, Southwest Mississippi does work together, the group’s president, Cliff Brumfield said.

“I believe people will be surprised to learn how well the economic development groups actually work together in the region,” said Brumfield, executive director of the Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce.

“Regionalism is nothing new to the people in Southwest Mississippi,” he said. “It’s worked well over the past decade.”

The meeting is intended to give attendees an update on what’s being done from a regional perspective for economic development in Southwest Mississippi.

“The economy is making these tasks tougher than normal, but we cannot sit back and use that as an excuse,” Brumfield said.

Today’s summit will feature Mississippi Development Authority’s Executive Director Gray Swoope, Continuous Dialog president Carol Johnson and Entergy Mississippi Economic Development Director John Turner, among others.

Brumfield said he expects more than 200 leaders to attend the event that will be at Okhissa Lake in Franklin County.

The event is a partnership between the Southwest Mississippi Partnership and Cellular South.

Such as sponsorship is a way for Cellular South to give back to the region and to the neighbors where the company first began and where it still has substantial operations, said Jim Richmond, director of corporate communications.

“As we grew as a company and we’ve gotten much larger, we still want to give back to the communities, but we want to do so in a broader way,” he said. “By sponsoring these (type of events), it allows us to reach out and touch business and government communities.

“This is really our first stab in southwest Mississippi with an event like this,” Richmond said, adding that Franklin County was the perfect spot.

“Franklin County is very centrally located and all of our operations call centers are in Meadville.

“It’s a way for us to give back on a larger scale,” he said. “(And a way to) really train them to go out and market themselves to potential industries.”