Area leaders reveal how they tout the Queen City to attract visitors, companies and future residents
A handful of people are in charge of telling the rest of the nation about Cincinnati. They work strategically and collaboratively to cast the region in the best possible light.
And they all are women. They are economic developers and storytellers and they have years of experience.
Their work is to turn visitors into local residents and to attract jobs so that everybody who lives here can earn a decent living.
Population growth and economic opportunity are vital to the region’s future, of course, but their efforts matter in ways that cannot be measured by census or economic data. The stories we tell about this place, and the way we see it, matters. The future becomes how we imagine it.
In December, they all sat down together at the Mercantile Library to talk about selling Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The stories revolved around quality of life, “quantity of life” and how this is a place with soul.
(Photos by Mikki Schaffner for Movers & Makers)
Julie Calvert is president and CEO of Visit Cincy, “a destination marketing organization that drives travel to create ongoing economic impact and vitality for the Cincy Region’s people, businesses, and communities.” This is only the most recent Calvert job in which she has been telling people about her home. Before that Calvert worked at Source Cincinnati (now Cincinnati Experience) and the World Choir Games.
Julie Kirkpatrick is CEO of meetNKY, whose mission is to “drive quality of life and economic growth for Northern Kentucky through tourism marketing and destination development.” On her LinkedIn page, Kirkpatrick refers to herself as Destination Marketing Gal and Executive Bourbon Steward.
Kimm Lauterbach is president and CEO of the Regional Economic Development Initiative (REDI) Cincinnati. REDI is the “first point of contact for companies considering the 15-county, three-state Cincinnati region as a perfect place to locate and grow.” Lauterbach has also worked at CBD Advisors and was economic development director for Warren County and the Warren County Port Authority.
Anastasia Mileham is executive director of Cincinnati Experience, which exists “to show the world what an amazing place our region is for building a life, a business, or an awesome getaway.” Mileham has also worked at 3CDC and Downtown Cincinnati Inc.
Tell me something unique about the Cincinnati region.
Calvert: It’s the fact that we can say you are one cup of coffee away from a CEO of a Fortune 500 company who will sit down and talk to you and have a meaningful conversation.
Lauterbach: People here are accessible. Politicians, business leaders, journalists, people here are willing to sit with you. That does not happen in other places.
It seems like the group of you work together a lot.
Mileham: First thing, our collaboration is rare. You don’t necessarily see that in other cities or regions. Every single one of us, we are working together.
Calvert: We all want the tide to rise for all
of us.
Lauterbach: We’re all speaking with one voice and if you think about the city’s brand or city’s reputation it can’t be the job of just one organization. It is the responsibility of all of us.
Kirkpatrick: It is not normal to see this level of cooperation between agencies like ours. We are all pulling in the same direction, and it is so much smarter for us to be working together. There is not a lot of ego in this group.
What is a challenge you face in telling the
region’s story?
Kirkpatrick: I think housing is something we really need to address. We need to build more housing of all types.
Lauterbach: We all know we need more affordable housing. But I think we need more of all kinds of housing. It helps to recruit businesses.
What do you say to the owner of a 30-person manufacturing plant in Nebraska to convince him or her to move the business to our region?
Kirkpatrick: You’re going to have access to a variety of companies and decision-makers that you likely don’t have wherever you are. You’re going to have proximity to about 65% to 70% of the U.S. and Canadian manufacturing base population. You’ll be able to get to your suppliers and vendors within a day’s drive, a 90-minute flight. But then you’re going to be able to bring in that talent and have such an easier time from talent recruitment. You’ve got five major universities here and 200 educational institutions within a radius for training and opportunities to grow your talent base. You’ve got access to all these major amenities, this vibrant, you know, what feels like a really big city and navigable mid-city-size space. So you’re going to ultimately have an easier time from a talent attraction recruitment standpoint.
Lauterbach: I think what it is, is the richness of experience here, outside of the tangibles, which can nail the areas, it’s the location, it’s the quantity of life, it’s the intangibles, it’s the ability to build a network here. I mean, the fact that you have Kroger, Procter & Gamble, Western & Southern, DHL, Amazon. Whatever you can do here, you can scale.
Calvert: And if you’re a 30-person company and your goal is to get to 90, you’re going to get there faster here. So we always said that this moves at the speed of life. If you want to scale fast, come to Cincy. If you want to maintain what you’ve got going on, come to Cincy.
Where do we need to make improvements?
Mileham: You know what’s interesting as we go around and we talk about the potential of Sundance (Film Festival) coming here or other big things like that. I guarantee all of us have gotten the same thing: “Really?” Yes, us. Really. Us. Like, I need people to start saying, “Hell yes, us. Of course it’s us.”
Calvert: It’s our time. John, going back to something you asked before about what does this city need, what does this region need to really take off and grow, it’s that attitude. Because we came, I mean, thinking about where we were 10 years ago in terms of telling our story, oh, just humble, right? Somebody says, oh, you got a new dress, it’s lovely. And the person would respond: “Oh, I got it on sale.” Well, I didn’t ask you if you got it on sale. I just said it was beautiful. We can hold our heads up a little higher.
How can people who live here help attract more people? People not in the industry.
Calvert: If I could ask one thing from the people that live in this region, it is that your words have power, and to be proud, to be loud and to amplify everything good that’s going on here.
Mileham: I mean, we need to be our own best friend instead of our own worst enemy. And it’s been too long of, you know, the mentality that Julie spoke of earlier where we’re apologizing for the dress we bought on sale. I mean, we’ve got it all going on here and we need to be proud of that. Lean into all of the positive things that are happening. Be a force and a power to continue to elevate this region versus using your words that unintentionally you might not understand could have really negative consequences. Because we can do our work all day long and we do it well but the first time that somebody flies into the airport and gets into an Uber, and the driver is complaining about whatever, this place sucks, why are you here? It can change that one person’s experience. Certainly their expectation.
What are you finding that Cincinnati is known for when you talk to people in other cities? (These answers came in so rapidly, from everyone, it was impossible to tell who said what.)
“When they come here they might know nothing about Cincinnati. We are not Music City or Motor City. We don’t have one slogan or tagline.”
“Correct. We’ve got everything. That’s intentional. We have so much to offer.”
“Right, exactly. And even Nashville’s trying to move away from Music City. They don’t want to be a one-trick pony.”
“Oh, I was gonna say, you’re right, because when you have one tent pole, Louisville’s finding this. They have bourbon, that’s their tent pole.”
“If you have one tent pole, I mean, your tent can fall down very easily.”
“Very, very easily. So to have this richness here with our world-class art scene.”
“We have food. We have Fortune 500.”
“Mm-hmm. Sports. Sports, sports, sports. Parks, outdoors. We have so much.”
“Think about our trail system and our park system, both Great Parks and city parks.”
“Right? Festivals and music.”
What is the hardest part about selling Cincinnati?
Mileham: Overcoming the fact that, honestly, that we’re in the state of Ohio, and you think of corn fields and flatlands and…
Calvert: Right. The flyover perception.
Lauterbach: That. I don’t think it’s anything legitimate here that’s hard to sell. This is an easy region to sell. It’s the perception, overcoming that it’s, you know, corntown.
Tell me a strength that used to be a weakness.
Mileham: The airport.
Calvert: The airport.
Lauterbach: The airport.
Kirkpatrick: The airport has become a real strength. You can fly just about anywhere now, and there is a lot of value. But more than that, it’s the commerce going through there.
Meaning what?
Kirkpatrick: Cargo, the hangar road, Amazon. So it’s creating jobs. Training plane mechanics on site. These are good jobs. We’re not just talking about the fact that there’s affordable airfare. You can fly on Frontier or Allegiant. You can fly non-stop business class to London or to Paris. You can get anywhere.
Is it easier to attract people from inside the state or outside the state?
Lauterbach: Honestly, outside. You can talk to somebody in Chicago and say, if you lived in Cincinnati, you might be buying your first house now. If you lived in Cincinnati, you might be two phone calls away from a meeting with the mayor who would spend an hour with you. These are compelling reasons to consider.
Julie, I want to circle back to something you said earlier. What do you mean by quantity of life?
Kirkpatrick: So I look at the way that people decide to move, and it’s always the quality of life. If you take the job and wage out of the equation, and you have the same job opportunity in Greenville, South Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Cincinnati, Ohio. You try to imagine what it would be like living in a place and asking what can I do in Cincinnati? And you’re like, OK, I am a football fan. I am an arts fan. Oh my God, this is an arts town. And then you start looking at the other tangible things. I call those the quantity of life. How much is my house gonna cost? What is my daily drive gonna be like? We don’t have traffic, notwithstanding bridges being down. We don’t have traffic in this region. That contributes to my quantity of life. Great health care, great schools. And believe it or not, a very safe destination. Of course, anytime there is something that happens, it ends up in the news. But overwhelmingly, our crime stats keep going down and down. So from a safety standpoint, this is a really safe region to live in. And all of those things add up into what I just call the richness of the quantity of life that you can have here. And it’s a big one, it’s huge.
For years we have read about boomerangers. The people who leave Cincinnati, and later come back. Do you still see that here, and why?
Calvert: We do, absolutely.
What is it about this city?
Lauterbach: When you go to other cities to live and really get around, you see the things that aren’t there. The quality of life. You miss part of Cincinnati being so accessible. You have art, you have food and culture. But you can buy a house and you can make a difference. It’s all these big-city amenities wrapped in a package that’s just comfortable.
Calvert: But just don’t really appreciate what’s here until you don’t have it. Theater and arts and culture and music and hotels and amusement parks and things like that and housing. I mean, it’s just, you know, we kind of take that for granted because it’s always been there.
Mileham: And I think what helps that boomerang piece a bit too, because we see a lot of this, is the trailing spouse or the trailing partner or the trailing other. But it’s such a diverse economy, like we know that if you move here as the primary job seeker, there is an industry and a job for your trailing partner.
Kirkpatrick: This region just becomes a part of you. Friends and family matter, sure. I think we are the right size. I think we have enough opportunity. And I do think people crave the authenticity of this place. It is hard to find in other places.
Calvert: Cincinnati does have soul. Or it’s the chili.
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