The Frisco EDC activities are critical to the future of Frisco, but it is not an interesting meeting for a visitor to attend since the majority of the meeting is conducted in closed session under section 551.086, “Deliberation regarding commercial or financial information that the Board has received from a business prospect and to deliberate the offer of other incentives to a business prospect”. The meetings typically start and 6:00 PM and last until 9:00 PM.

The following are the more interesting items discussed in open session:

• We discussed a study of the feasibility of using as existing building as an expo hall. Approval of the study was tabled as we needed clarification on some of the data. The decision will ultimately rest with the city council.
• We also talked about results of the bids on our Frisco EDC study. This is intended to be a community and business assessment, including an analysis of our targeted clusters. They will also make recommendations on current marketing, attraction, agreement processes and retention/expansion efforts.
• Finally we reviewed a study of Frisco visitors by “Destination Analysts” conducted for the Frisco Convention Visitors Bureau. Keep in mind that the purpose of the Frisco EDC is the promotion and development of new and expanded business enterprises to provide and encourage employment in Frisco. This was not specifically a Frisco EDC study.

The topic was “Workforce Readiness” and we had representatives from Texas Woman’s University to lead our discussion. We also had Dr. Wes Cunningham from our Frisco ISD Career & Technical Education (CTE) Center present. It was clear to me that Frisco ISD, especially with the opening of our CTE Center, is at the forefront of the “Workforce Readiness” effort.