The top site selector consultants, who help companies throughout the world relocate or expand, have chosen Tucson as the site of their 2017 conference.
It’s an opportunity local economic development officials hope will mean more businesses moving to the region.
The group considered about 10 locations throughout Arizona as part of a statewide pitch, said Phil Schneider, chairman of the Site Selectors Guild.
“We had good alternatives in Arizona but it’s the combination of the team and the facilities and the timing,” he said. “Everything came together extraordinarily well for Tucson.”
The guild’s combined membership manages projects valued at more than $30 billion in capital expenditures and thousands of new jobs every year, officials said.
Guild members have been involved in many large projects that have come to Tucson, including the expansions at Ventana Medical Systems and Bombardier Aerospace, and the HomeGoods distribution center.
“You work hard in our line of work to get in front of these people,” said David Welsh, executive vice president at Sun Corridor Inc. “To have 35 or 40 of these folks come as a group to our community is huge.”
The economic development agency, formerly known as Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities, partnered with Visit Tucson to put together the proposal that attracted the guild to the area.
The conference will be held March 13-15, 2017.
Companies hire site selection consultants to evaluate communities when considering expansion or establishing an operation in another market.
Consultants analyze a wide variety factors with the goal of identifying the best place for a particular project, Schneider said.
“A lot of people think, ‘Oh, they just go out and find them real estate,’ but that’s not what it is,” he said. “Many of these projects can be huge. Think of an automotive plant — that can be a $2 billion investment. Getting it wrong is not an option.”
Guild members work throughout the world, Schneider said, with companies that reach beyond borders.
“Clients may engage them on a project for a manufacturing plant in the Southeast this year, next year it could be a research and development facility in Asia, and the year after that it could be a regional headquarters in Europe,” he said.
The group’s annual conference is a hot ticket among economic development professionals. This year’s conference, held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, sold out in 10 minutes, officials said. Next year’s event, to be held in Nashville, Tennessee, sold out in seven.
About 350 people in total attend the conferences, which are limited in size by design, Schneider said.
“We’re trying to create the perfect networking organization for the site-selection professionals and the attendees,” he said. “Everybody can network and be together, but we’re not overwhelmed by the number of people.”
Along with networking, the conference is also an opportunity to address issues that are important to economic development professionals and site-selector consultants, said William Hearn, guild member and 2016 conference chairman.
Presentations at the conference include topics such as “reshoring,” workforce development and investment trends, he said.
Hearn, who was part of the selection committee that chose Tucson, said Arizona’s pitch was outstanding.
“The Arizona pitch kind of set a new standard for how the future conferences will be sited,” he said. “The way they positioned their messaging to the guild was very powerful in that they presented a statewide proposal and then allowed us to select.”
Although the conference is not meant to spotlight the host city, it is still considered a chance to promote the region.
Aerospace and defense, transportation and logistics, alternative energy and natural resources, bioscience and diagnostics are all areas the region is competitive in, said Sun Corridor’s Welsh, and conference attendees will not leave Tucson without knowing about them.
“It’s hard to underestimate what it means to have this group come here,” Welsh said. “I’m really looking forward to adding those folks to our Rolodex and make sure we’re a phone call away on projects that they’re working on.”
