In my last post, I described how the COVID pandemic has irrevocably changed the practice of corporate site selection and economic development. This has also been fostered by large business media outlets telling many new stories of how COVID has disrupted and enabled new ways to replace traditional business practices.
Within the specialization of corporate site selection consultants, the digital transformation of corporate site selection is viewed as a permanent change.
"What we’ve found is a tremendous amount of the work can be done digitally. We’re seeing economic developers become very sophisticated in their use of Zoom rooms to communicate and respond to RFIs. We’re seeing drone footage for site locators to be able to visit sites virtually."
Weddle explains that "We’re seeing, in many ways - I’ll be careful how I say this - but in many ways that work – analysis, data collection, review work – has become more effective and more efficient because it’s more real time.” Weddle continues saying, “…by-in-large it’s going to be a hybrid operation for a long time to come and I don’t think we will lose some of that virtual aspect. I think we’ll stay virtual.”
As can be seen both from the corporate real estate or site selection consultant perspective, hybridity or purely digital site selection is here to stay. This has significant implications for communities and economic development organizations.
The transition toward digital site selection started in the late 1990s. By the early 2000s communities were competing for business location expansions, but they were in a competitive race in which EDOs/IPAs were being evaluated online and being selected or eliminated from consideration before they even knew they were in the competition. The more recent digital transformation of site selection due to the COVID pandemic has created a new normal of digital site selection in which most – if not all – of the competition for a corporate location decision occurs online.
This material and permanent change in the site selection practice of corporate real estate means that EDOs and IPAs that are not digitally capable of delivering all of the new requirements for digital site selection assistance will suffer as they are eliminated from expansion consideration.
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