Covid Task Force

COVID-19 Regional Business Task Force

EDC organizes regional task force to bring people together…

The EDC, in partnership with Fueling Our Future, organized the Taskforce in March of 2020 to increase communication and efficiencies during the COVID pandemic. The efforts of the task force create stronger connections and faster responses to resources supporting long-term business sustainability.

Leadership from more than 50 organizations have spent time each month discussing how individually and collectively we are working to support our business community through the challenges of COVID-19.

Survey Tool Enhances Regional Response during COVID

With the EDC’s Qualtrics survey software, the Covid-19 Business Taskforce deployed two surveys to get a snapshot of the business climate at crucial points: the effect on businesses at the start of the pandemic and second, whether business needs were met after several economic relief aid programs had been deployed.

We received more than 1,000 responses combined from two surveys. We partnered with other organizations to reach out and support businesses with critical issues and communicated key assistance programs that could help businesses.

Weekly Taskforce calls created a forum to understand overall business impact (not just primary sector) broadening our data. An additional tool allowed the group to easily analyze the results. Finally, we collaborated with national efforts to align survey questions contributing to national survey results.

The group also shared specifics on the impacts to certain industry sectors and strategized ways to assist companies in overcoming their challenges. We’ve helped to communicate key federal, local and private industry resources and policies available to our companies.

Keep it going…

The Regional COVID task force has proven to be another creative strategy to address regional needs during this pandemic and can become very beneficial long term. Our organization plans to keep the Business Taskforce going for as long as it benefits the region.

“If we’ve all experienced value in these meetings during this crisis, I’m certain we will gain new insights; strengthen existing relationships and build new ones and provide a better overall set of resources for our business community by continuing,” said Joe Raso, GFMEDC President and CEO.