New year, new you? If you’re planning your 2024 professional development goals, check out our guide to certifications, conferences and other professional development for economic developers, chamber of commerce and talent attraction professionals.
Certifications & Credentials
Ready for some alphabet soup? This is the kind that can give your career a jump.
BREC & BREP
These certifications are administered by Business Retention & Expansion International. The BRE Coordinator is an entry-level certification that requires a fundamentals course and maintenance requirements.
The BRE Professional certification is the higher level certification of the two. Applicants must first have an active BREC certification and meet specific requirements before applying for the BREP.
CAE
The Certified Association Executive credential, administered by the Center for Association Leadership (ASAE), requires an exam plus ongoing recertification requirements once the candidate has completed a variety of prerequisites. It may be a good fit for chamber professionals.
CCE
The internationally-recognized Certified Chamber Executive certification is administered by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) and assesses four core components of chamber knowledge: management; planning and development; membership, communications, and revenue; and operations. The stringent process includes reference checks, essays, a presentation and an exam plus ongoing maintenance requirements.
Certificate in Chamber Management
This premier chamber industry program from ACCE highlights the full gamut of related knowledge through a variety of courses focusing on different aspects of chamber work.
CECD
Perhaps the most recognized certification in the ED field, the Certified Economic Developer designation from the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) requires 4+ years of experience, an exam and ongoing recertification requirements.
EDFP
The Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP) Certification Program, run by IEDC, is a four-course training series to help translate development opportunities into results for communities, including business credit and real estate finance analysis techniques, loan packaging procedures, negotiating and problem-solving skills and deal structuring techniques. Certification candidates complete four courses, pass an exam and participate in project-based learning.
IEDC’S Entrepreneurship Certification
Show your commitment to entrepreneurship and understanding of how it benefits a community with this credential from IEDC. Curriculum centers on creating thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems.
IOM
The Institute for Organization Management, a U.S. Chamber program, is made up of four week-long sessions and includes courses on topics like advocacy, media training, membership, finance, legal issues, human resources, and more to cover all facets of running a nonprofit.
PCED
This program requires three, four-day training sessions to study comprehensive, applied approaches to community and economic development, designed to help participants identify community assets and respond to economic and quality of life issues.
State Association Certifications
Your state may offer its own state ED certification to serve as professional development for economic developers. For example, in Tennessee it’s the Tennessee Certified Economic Developer (TCED), including several required courses, a capstone project and ongoing maintenance requirements.
Graduate Certificates
Several major universities across the country offer relevant graduate certificates. These help take your knowledge to the next level without the commitment of a full graduate program:
Conferences
There’s nothing like some in-person networking and learning in a cool city:
Winter
Women’s Economic Development Network
The two-day Learn & Lead 2024 from Creative Economic Development Consulting includes programming on crisis communication, sustainability in economic development, fundraising best practices and more.
Charlotte, Feb. 22-23
Spring
Site Selectors Guild Annual Conference
This conference facilitates knowledge sharing and networking between Guild’s site selector members and economic developers and investment promotion professionals from around the world.
Nashville, April 3-5
City Nation Place Americas
This place marketing conference brings destination marketers and economic development folks together to focus on working in tandem to attract talent, tourism and investment.
Houston, May 14-15
Summer
Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives Annual Conference
This is the premier chamber conference, and ACCE’s annual event covers a variety of programming. This year the theme is ‘evolve’ and how chambers can transform and innovate communities.
Dallas, July 16-19
ACCE also offers other smaller conferences and involvement opportunities throughout the year, including the March Membership & Revenue Conference in Nashville.
Fall
International Economic Development Council Annual Conference
The biggest economic development conference of the year, IEDC’s annual event covers a broad range of relevant industry topics.
Denver, Sept. 15-18
IEDC also offers other conferences and involvement opportunities throughout the year.
Young, Smart & Local
This three-day conference is the first in our industry to focus on community talent attraction – designed to inform and engage leaders from higher education, business, government, economic development and community organizations on best practices around talent growth, retention and attraction.
Philadelphia, Fall TBA
Economix
ECONOMIX, convened by Consultant Connect, brings economic development professionals together to help enhance work in their respective communities. This conference includes a focus on discussion with top site consultants as well as lots of sessions and networking.
Location TBA, Late 2024
Bonus Ideas 💡💡
The National Association of Development Organizations, a membership association that includes economic development practitioners, hosts several relevant conferences throughout the year.
Research events your relevant state and regional associations host — the Southern and MidAmerica Economic Development Councils are two to keep an eye on.
Newsletters, Podcasts & Webinars
Sometimes you just want to watch, read or listen to something on your own time at no cost. Some options for this style of ongoing professional development for economic developers and other folks in the industry include:
Newsletters
- Camoin Associates’ Navigator economic development newsletter
- EDO Marketplace maintains a huge content library you can keep up with via their newsletters, plus the most robust directory of ED service providers around
- Lightcast’s regular labor market insights
- Let’s Talk Talent, Livability’s monthly talent attraction and retention newsletter
- Area Development’s Insider and This Week newsletters
- WFM on MWF, a thrice weekly roundup of workforce development headlines
Podcasts
We may be biased, but you should check out our Inside America’s Best Cities podcast exploring some of America’s hidden gems and the people behind the scenes of communities.
For others we like, check out our Top 5 Economic Development Podcasts You Should Listen To.
Webinars
These groups regularly host solid webinar content:
. . . What did we miss? Know of an awesome professional development resource that would complete this guide? Let us know.
