Two organizations serving one region of eleven counties
The Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation (CCREDC) is a nonprofit that recruits businesses to the Coastal Bend and helps local businesses expand. Its primary focus is attracting large employers, a role the organization has played for about 15 years since the oil boom. CCREDC works from the view that large employers create downstream opportunities for businesses of every size. A staff of six carries that mission, with one person leading local business incentives, one leading business attraction, and one leading business retention and expansion.
The Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center (CBBIC) is part of the College of Business at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and has been in operation since about 2010. It serves three stakeholder groups, which are students, faculty, and the community at large, and it defines the community as 11 counties covering about 10,000 square miles of the Texas coast. About 80 percent of its work faces the community. The center occupies a 35,000 square foot building off campus, houses about 15 local startups and small businesses, and works one-on-one with entrepreneurs, startups and existing small businesses. Much of its day-to-day work is connecting people to university expertise or to other resources in the region.
The two organizations recently launched CCBizConnect, a shared resource directory built with EcoMap.
A challenge common across many regions
Regions that grow quickly tend to reach a point where the people who know the local landscape can no longer hold all of it in their heads. Sarah Tindall, COO of CCREDC, describes that point in Corpus Christi. The region once had a handful of engineering firms that everyone knew, and it now has 30. Word of mouth had carried the business community for years, and the volume had grown past what it could handle.
The same pressure reached the front desk. CCREDC receives four or five calls a week from people asking what it takes to start a business in Corpus Christi, and each new administrative hire learns early that those calls are coming. The CCREDC website offered a static page listing permitting departments and a second page listing available business support organizations and incentive opportunities. A person had to find those pages or call to ask. Some callers proposed services that already existed because nobody had told them where to look.
Events followed the same pattern. Doug Milbauer, Director of CBBIC, saw his team plan for 40 or 50 registrants and welcome five to ten, on days when many other organizations were hosting events of their own. Doug adds that institutional knowledge in any region walks out the door when people who have spent a decade or two in their roles move on.
One place for the resources, events, and funding available in the region
CCBizConnect works as an ecosystem front door for the Coastal Bend. It gathers resources, programs, events, and funding opportunities in a single directory that anyone can search. Sarah calls it a "one stop shop for business resources" for people starting or growing a business and for anyone following what others in the market are doing. Doug describes it as "a curated list of resources that's available online and updated regularly," and he adds that regular updates are critical when about 30 organizations are contributing and programs and calendars keep changing.
The shared event calendar addresses the scheduling problem directly. Organizers can see what else is planned before they choose a date, which keeps an event from repeating one held two weeks earlier or landing on the same day as another.
Part of a larger strategy for local business participation
For CCREDC, the directory extends a program that already existed. Its business retention and expansion program connects businesses to each other and to the help they need, and CCBizConnect lets that work reach further without CCREDC building a direct relationship with every business. The directory also serves the attraction side of the mission. Incentive packages for recruited companies include a commitment to use local firms as much as possible, and those companies ask for a list of who the local firms are. CCBizConnect gives CCREDC a current answer.
Sarah also sees the directory as marketing for the region. People considering a business in Corpus Christi can see everything underway in one place, which she expects will help newcomers feel they can step in and become part of the business community.
For CBBIC, the directory scales the work the center already does. Connecting people to other resources accounts for much of what Doug and his staff do each day, and a public directory lets that connecting happen before a person ever calls or visits the center.
A directory the two organizations funded together
The project began with the event calendar. Doug and Sarah belong to a small group of like-minded people in the region who kept returning to the same frustration. Doug had tried to build a calendar in-house, and the center did not have the resources to keep it going. After meeting the EcoMap team at several larger conferences, he concluded that the work belonged with a company that does it for a living, so the region could benefit from what that company had already built. Sarah credits Doug with the idea and calls it his brainchild.
The two organizations complement each other. CCREDC concentrates on large employers coming into the region and helping existing local businesses to grow. CBBIC fills the startup niche that a regional economic development corporation does not focus on, so the two refer to each other and do not compete.
To bring the region's other organizations into the conversation, Sarah and Doug presented to ecosystem partners across the 11 counties on two Zoom calls with EcoMap. About 15 to 20 people attended on behalf of what Doug estimates are 30 ecosystem players. CCREDC and CBBIC then funded the first year of the directory together and plan to see how it goes from there. Doug credits EcoMap's team with quick communication and says it delivered on time and on budget.
Measuring what happens next
The directory is new, and both leaders know what they will watch. Sarah plans to embed it on the CCREDC website once the early fixes are complete, and she expects to look at who visits and which pages they use so the directory can be refined over time. Her hope is that people who once searched for how to start a business in Corpus Christi and then phoned CCREDC will use the directory instead, and that new business owners will say they started with it.
Doug wants to keep adding additional resources and begin using digital marketing to bring traffic to the directory. He hopes to see more visits to the site and to the center, using the site to filter the inquiries his team receives. Both expect events to draw new faces, including people who did not know what they were missing.
Doug also sits on a board of university innovation directors across Texas, and he plans to build a case study on the directory to share with them.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is CCBizConnect?
CCBizConnect is an ecosystem front door for the Coastal Bend region of Texas. It gathers resources, programs, events, and funding opportunities in a single directory that anyone can search. The Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation (CCREDC) and the Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center (CBBIC) launched it, and it was built with EcoMap.
Who can use CCBizConnect?
Anyone starting or growing a business in the Coastal Bend can use it to find local support. It also serves people following what others in the market are doing and people considering a move to Corpus Christi who want to see everything underway in one place. Event organizers can use the shared calendar to check what else is planned before choosing a date.
Who is behind CCBizConnect?
CCREDC is a nonprofit that recruits businesses to the Coastal Bend and helps local businesses expand. CBBIC is part of the College of Business at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and works one-on-one with entrepreneurs, startups, and existing small businesses across 11 counties. The two organizations funded the first year of the directory together and presented the project to ecosystem partners across the region.
How does the shared event calendar help local organizations?
The calendar lets organizers see what other organizations have planned before they commit to a date. That keeps an event from repeating one held two weeks earlier or landing on the same day as another. CBBIC saw this problem firsthand, planning for 40 or 50 registrants and welcoming five to ten on days when many other organizations were hosting events of their own.
How does CCBizConnect help someone who wants to start a business in Corpus Christi?
Before the directory, a person had to find separate pages on the CCREDC website or call to ask what starting a business requires. CCREDC receives four or five of those calls a week. CCBizConnect puts the region’s resources, programs, and funding opportunities in one searchable place, so people can start there. CCREDC and CBBIC expect that more new business owners will say they began with the directory.
Learn more about the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation at https://www.ccredc.com and the Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center at https://cbbic.tamucc.edu.