The partner universities have developed a core curriculum that specifically addresses the demands of our complex profession. AEDL relies on experienced faculty, industry practitioners, business leaders and the country’s foremost site consultants to present leading-edge strategies and techniques necessary to succeed in the evolving world of quality job creation.
Monday, November 2, 2026
9:00 a.m. Course Opening Introductions and Announcements
9:30 a.m. “Setting the Economic Outlook Stage” Dr. Gary Wagner, Economist/Professor, University of Louisiana – Lafayette
11:30 a.m. Lunch (Meal Provided)
12:15 p.m. Site Selection Afternoon, John Longshore, Newmark, Gray Swoope, Vision First, Mark Williams, Site Selectors Advisors, LLC, Kim L. Moore, Newmark
4:00 p.m. “Welcome to Fort Worth” Robert Allen, CEO of Fort Worth EDC
4:30 p.m. Open Discussion re: Monday’s Key Points – Evening Instructions
6:00 p.m. Evening Reception, Pacific Table, 1600 University Dr. #601, Fort Worth
Tuesday, November 3, 2026
8:30 a.m. “Influencing Change for Economic Success” Cameron Potter, Employee Success Manager, TCU Human Resources
10:30 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. “Resilience Under Pressure: Fueling the People Who Fuel Growth” Dr. Shanna Ullmann, Founder and CEO Transformation Partners
12:30 p.m. Lunch (Meal Provided)
1:30 p.m. “Understanding Personal Communication with Staff, Local Leadership, Prospects, boards, etc” Dr. Ed Nichols, COO of Leadership Greater Huntsville
4:00 p.m. Open Class Discussion “Workforce Development” in your demographic area.
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
8:30 a.m. “Effective Negotiation Strategies” Dr. Rita Kosnik, TCU
10:30 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. “Community Metrics” John Karras, TIP Strategies
12:15 p.m. Lunch (Meal Provided)
1:00 p.m. “It Does Matter What You Say & How You Say it! Media Relations Intense Training” Ken Haseley, Corner Suite Communications
3:00 p.m. Break
3:15 p.m. “Lessons from HGTV’s Home Town series” Shellie Phelps Whitfield, Biggest Fish Consulting, LLC
4:30 p.m. Open Discussion re: Wednesday’s Key Points
Thursday, November 5, 2026
8:30 a.m. Class Picture and Graduation Ceremony
9:00 a.m. Panel of Experts on Utility and Datacenter Struggles, Kenny McDonald, Little Dry Consulting, David Gattie, Assoc. Professor & Sr. Fellow, University of Georgia
11:00 a.m. Break
11:15 a.m. “From Vision to Momentum: The Power of Strategic Storytelling” Eric Harris, Founder, GatherRound
12:00 p.m. Lunch (Meal Provided)
2:00 p.m. Adjourn
Hands-on learning is the foundation of the Advanced Economic Development Leadership program with evolving economic and community development issues taught through an experiential, applied learning approach.
With limited lectures and no tests, AEDL immerses participants in a collaborative, team-centric approach that fosters learning through exploration, debate, exercises and team competition. The program attracts practitioners from across the U.S. bringing a wide range of thought, ideas and experiences to these sessions. Through this approach and the diversity of thought represented, participants often learn as much from interaction with fellow professionals as they do from faculty instruction.
“I had an incredibly beneficial experience going through AEDL. As someone who has been in the field for several years, it was great to review some legacy topics and learn new ones. I especially appreciated the media training and strategy discussions. I found it to be one of the more thought-provoking economic development programs.”
Subash Alias
Professionals face unexpected crisis that impact the economic vitality of a community. It could be a historic pandemic or the unexpected closing of a major industry. How we handle these events quite often determine how the community recovers.
The Rainforest is a seminal book on entrepreneurship and this session featuring the author will examine principles for job creation in communities and lessons for initiating a successful virtual or brick incubator.
Given the past pandemic year, workforce challenges are more complex than ever. More workers, often not fully trained, are out of work presenting the opportunities to grow the workforce pipeline through targeted local training. This session examines pathways to grow and retrain the skilled workforce to retain and support existing businesses and compete for quality new companies.
Patrick Lencioni’s classic book is the foundation for this session that focuses on the importance of teams within the organization and the community. Trust, conflict resolution, commitment, accountability and results-focus apply to every organization.
Negotiation – something that professional economic developers do on a daily basis. This interactive session examines negotiation techniques and strategies that can be applied in project management, staff and community interaction and everyday decisions.
Leaders can influence change for economic success, even in uncertain and turbulent times. This session explores the importance and inevitability of change and how professionals can channel change into positive action.
Best and not so good practices can offer valuable lessons for developing community strategic plans that work. This session examines strategic plans from the class members with examples and principles that every size community can employ.
With the pandemic impacting many funding streams, organizations are facing unexpected revenue challenges. This class requested session explores creative ways to enhance EDO funding and the importance of a well-prepared and executed funding strategy.
Site selection may never be the same. The evolution and use of technology and virtual interaction has emphasized the importance of websites, marketing, good virtual skills and creative ways to interact with decision-makers. A premier site consultant takes the class through the evolution and how communities MUST adapt to be successful.
A new session for AEDL, one of the country’s chief economists examines the impact of COVID, national unrest, global uncertainty and forecasts the nation’s economy over the next 3-5 years. This session will also look at the serious consequences for rural America.
With the dramatic shift to virtual site selection the emphasis becomes data, more data and the right data. This session explores the importance of an organization’s data selection, efficient targeting and effective marketing in today’s technology-driven world.
This new session explores proven lessons on event planning, recruiting and trade show preparation in the New Normal. With marketing budgets tight and new strategies required. this session uses real life examples of how to be effective and achieve results as we eventually move into in-person events with COVID protocols.
Thousands of retail jobs and hundreds of restaurants have been lost during the pandemic, impacting every community in America. This new session examines the latest retail trends, analytics and how they fit into an overall community economic strategy.
Industry or business hunting evolved even before the pandemic caused even more change. There are valuable lessons from well-known selection decisions that apply to every community that has business attraction as a key job creation strategy.
Every EDO needs partners and resources. This class requested topic evaluates successful ways utilities and other partners can enhance community growth strategies with valuable resources, expertise, service-area engagement and leadership.
Effective communication with local media, stakeholders, social media and through public presentations are essential in today’s job creation environment. This is so important to successful economic development professionals that we devote a half-day training on media relations and another half-day on public speaking and presentations, including 3-minute speeches to the class by each class member.
