The NEI Business Development team hosted a group of site consultants for their annual Spring FAM Tour.

Site consultants guide businesses in selecting the best locations for growth and success.

The team welcomed Suzanne Mills from Ernst & Young (Chicago), Anastasia Geminden-Lowe from Ginovus (Indianapolis), and William Floyd from Vista Site Selection (Houston). The group boarded an RV, generously provided by Adams County-based Fleetwood RV, and ambitiously set out to visit 7 of the 11 counties in the NEI region.

The consultants stayed in downtown Fort Wayne at the Bradley Hotel. They departed early on April 30th for breakfast with elected officials in Adams County, available building tours in Wells, a Teijin plant tour in Huntington, lunch at the Honeywell Center in downtown Wabash, coffee and discussion with LEDOs in Warsaw, late-day drinks during a tour of the Edwin Coe Distillery in Whitley, and finally ended with networking and dinner at the Carson LLP law offices overlooking Parkview Field and taking in a TinCaps game.

The purpose of these familiarization tours is to help acquaint these site consultants with a place and a positive experience, and to learn more than they normally would in their day-to-day research on behalf of their clients. It helps provide much-needed nuance to a data-heavy process, introduces these consultants to the region, grows familiarity with the NEI Business Development team, and builds confidence by meeting the talented LEDOs present throughout Northeast Indiana.

I look forward to working with our new friends to build on this trip and bring additional economic development projects to Northeast Indiana.

We are sincerely appreciative of the work put in by all our local economic development organizations to showcase their communities, organize thoughtful and engaging discussions, and further prove the economic and business case for Northeast Indiana.

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