Webinar: Economic Resilience for COVID-19 Recovery with Quality Data

Data is a critical way for economic developers to tell the story of their region, whether they are trying to attract new investment or support the local businesses already there creating jobs. The beauty of GIS data tools is that it does this storytelling in a visual way, laying the information across your regional geography with detailed, layered maps. 

As we all move through different phases of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, data has become important in entirely new ways, because it reflects these new, unprecedented, and unexpected economic shocks and changes. In tomorrow's free webinar, we'll be looking at the role of data in building economic resilience during this critical time.

This practical webinar, featuring guest presenter, Gary Menger, president of Applied Geographic Solutions, looked at the presentation and adaptation of core data products, along with a new offering of unemployment data.

"Reliable data is important always, but it will play a key role in the economic recovery of communities as we move past the COVID-19 pandemic," explains Gary.

"While many businesses will fail over the coming months, there will most certainly be tremendous growth opportunities for companies that have positioned themselves well for recovery. Communities will need to adjust quickly to aid business recovery in what is likely to be a restricted financial environment, and key to that effectiveness is the pairing of quality databases with analytical applications." 

Gary explains that AGS has adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic by finding new ways to offer data that can be helpful to decision makers during these difficult times.

"Since March, we have offered geographically detailed weekly unemployment estimates without charge, which has been used for educational research, news and editorial content, as well as by governmental agencies to evaluate the needs of their communities. We have also developed measures of diversity and income inequality to help identify vulnerable neighborhoods, and those which may be more resilient in recovery."

A big focus of this presentation was a consideration of economic resilience, or why some cities may rebound faster than others, all through the lens of how data can help your business right now. The webcast featured a case study on Los Angeles.

View the video recording of this webinar to learn more.