Dear Alliance Stakeholders, Chamber Members and Partners,

The Alliance Board, Councils and staff are getting ready for the premiere event on May 17th! We hope you have all received your personal invitation to the Great Connect and will plan on being part of the community update. If you have not done so, please RSVP for your organization!

It remains critical that The Alliance continue to lead the effort in our 3 focused operating areas: economic development, Chamber and existing business services and quality of place. The direction from the Board and Councils to drive initiatives that will position our existing businesses and attract new ones to our market, are moving down an active path.

On the economic development front, we are engaged with more prospects than ever before, competing for those who are interested in the assets our community has to offer and targeting those that we are well positioned for. As I have mentioned previously,the increase in activity is one indicator that shows improvement in our overall economy in 2011. This partnered with a declining unemployment rate and stabilization in major industries is additional leading indicators. Companies know that they will need to invest in their business to compete as the economy adjusts and we are dedicated to provide them with the best choice to land. We are making progress in developing additional strategies surrounding business development, which include building a medical device market strategy to "play" in that market and an international strategy to attract new jobs and investment to Kokomo and Howard County globally.

For our existing businesses, 2011 will be bringing you opportunities to participate in programs through our Chamber University. The programs are in place and invite you to attend those which will be beneficial to you and your organization. We are committed to bringing business to business activities that allow for our local businesses to interact and learn about new products and services available locally.

We continue to see strides in playing a role with our quality of place area. We are excited about activities in our downtown, developing new opportunities at Inventrek Technology Park and strategizing about opportunities a new and current US 31 corridor will bring to our community. We are working closely with local government on a residential attraction strategy to package our story with access to programs to "sell" Kokomo and Howard County as a place to call home. We will be leveraging this with key employers beginning in early May.

A thank you goes out to our Advisory Councils, Staff, Board and volunteers, who support the initiatives that impact the over 75 annual programs that The Alliance leads each year. The greatest compliment is being asked to provide direction to other communities who are transitioning and hear the feedback from others in the state complimenting our achievements. We are in a great position with many of our key audiences to bring new and exciting opportunities to our stakeholders and community, but must not rest on our success. It remains a competitive world, but thanks to the leadership of our community, we are making progress. The Alliance will continue to lead in providing professional experience to local economic development, existing business programs and quality of place in Kokomo and Howard County and we thank you for your support.

President & Ceo