In this episode of Site Selectors Are People Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith heads to the East Coast to address one of the most critical hurdles in the economic development industry: rapidly recruiting and training a specialized workforce. He is joined by Jason El Koubi, President and CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP), to unpack how the Commonwealth customizes its talent initiatives for the exact needs of employers.

When faced with a massive corporate expansion or relocation, the instinct for many states is to offer standard, transactional workforce development grants or programs. But Jason pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly how Virginia sets a new standard with its Talent Accelerator Program. Spoiler alert: true economic development doesn't just promise a good labor pool; it delivers a fully customized, turnkey workforce ready to operate on day one.

Jason breaks down why bespoke training and proactive site readiness are the ultimate deal-clinchers for major brands like Amazon, Lego, and AstraZeneca, and he introduces the partnership framework VEDP uses to move at the speed of business.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• The Power of Customization: How the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program designs, develops, and delivers fully branded recruitment and training solutions at zero cost to the company.
• The "Authentic Partnership" Advantage: Why VEDP’s unique structure as a nonpartisan state authority creates the long-term stability needed to mitigate development risks and shrink timelines.
• Future-Proofing Economic Development: How embracing AI, virtual reality, and digital twins in both industrial training and internal workflows keeps Virginia ahead of the curve.

Stop relying on generic workforce promises and start building the tailored infrastructure that major employers actually need to succeed from the moment they cut the ribbon.

You don’t need a Silicon Valley zip code to build world-class tech solutions—you just need the right talent, the right tools, and a community ready to build.

In this extended "Stories from the Road" episode of Site Selectors Are People, Too, Devin drives up to his hometown of South Bend, Indiana, to sit down with his old high school friend turned tech entrepreneur, Alex Sejdinaj. As the co-founder of South Bend Code School and Code Works, Alex is on a mission to democratize technology education and prove that tier-two cities have massive potential as emerging tech hubs.

Devin and Alex dive deep into the intersection of technology, workforce development, and economic strategy. They explore how AI is fundamentally changing the way we work—and why economic developers must look beyond stale BLS data to truly understand their local labor markets.

In this episode, we cover:

• The Grassroots Tech Ecosystem: How South Bend is shaking off its rust-belt history to build a thriving, community-driven tech scene.
• Rollie Jobs: A look into Alex’s AI-native platform that uncovers the "invisible" local jobs traditional data misses, providing real-time, actionable intelligence for economic developers.
• AI as an Economic Multiplier: Why smaller companies are better positioned to adopt AI, and the dangers of using generative AI as a crutch rather than a tool.
• Democratizing Tech Education: The inspiring story behind South Bend Code School and how teaching kids (and adults) to code empowers underserved communities and builds future-proof talent pipelines.
• The Digital Storefront: How targeted tech interventions helped small, minority-owned businesses survive the pandemic and generate millions in new revenue.

Whether you are an economic developer trying to decipher your region's workforce data, or a community leader looking to build tech literacy from the ground up, this episode is packed with actionable insights.

Guest Information:

Alex Sejdinaj, Founder/CEO of Code Works.

Contact: alex@sbcodeworks.com

In this episode of Site Selectors Are People, Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith gets on his soapbox to address one of the most common—and fatal—pet peeves in the economic development industry: the dreaded "TBD" on a Request for Information (RFI) response.

When faced with a glaring site constraint or an unfunded utility upgrade, the instinct for many economic developers is to buy time with vague answers like "TBD," "will investigate," or a highly generous interpretation of "shovel ready." But Devin pulls back the curtain to reveal exactly how these answers are interpreted on the other side of the table. Spoiler alert: TBD doesn't hide your site's flaws; it hides your competence.

Devin breaks down why unquantified risks are the ultimate dealbreakers for site selectors and their corporate clients, and he introduces a simple, powerful framework to use instead.

• The Danger of Ambiguity: Why a site with three priced and planned problems will always beat a site with zero disclosed problems.
• The "No, But..." Formula: The exact five-step sentence structure you must use to address site gaps (Unqualified No + Specific Action + Cost & Funding + Timeline + Proof Document).
• The Pre-RFI Readiness Checklist: The essential due diligence files (like Phase I ESAs and Geotech borings) you need in your portfolio before the RFI ever hits your inbox.

Stop selling the illusion of a perfect site and start selling your credibility as a trusted development partner.

For each actively marketed site, this is what should be on the shelf before the RFI arrives:

• [ ] Phase I ESA — completed, dated, shelf life known
• [ ] Wetland delineation + JD status
• [ ] Geotech borings or documented soils profile
• [ ] Boundary survey and current title work
• [ ] Site control documented: fee / option / LOI / none — stated plainly
• [ ] Zoning status and entitlement calendar, including hearing cadence
• [ ] Electric: available capacity at the point of delivery, in MW, in writing, signed
• [ ] Electric: upgrade path, cost, and queue position if applicable
• [ ] Gas: line size, pressure, available volume, in writing
• [ ] Water/sewer: capacity, distance to the property line, extension cost with a validity date
• [ ] Telecom: providers, fiber path, redundancy — actual, not aspirational
• [ ] Transportation: access improvements needed, cost, jurisdiction, and who approves
• [ ] Labor draw analysis for target occupations, with wage data
• [ ] Training partner MOU with named program capacity and cohort timing
• [ ] Incentive framework: what's statutory, what's discretionary, who approves, on what calendar
• [ ] A written "known gaps" memo for each site — the things you'd have to say "no" to, each one already carrying a cost and a timeline