New Frederick Street Map Now Available

An attractive new Frederick street map is now available to residents and visitors at City Hall and will soon be available at C Burr Artz Library, Chamber of Commerce, Tourism Council, Downtown Frederick Partnership and other business locations throughout the City. The map, produced by the City of Frederick Department of Economic Development in conjunction with Target Marketing, provides easy to reference information about City, County and Downtown streets and destinations.

"The response to business advertising on this new map was outstanding", said Richard Grififn, Director of Economic Development. "We are delighted to provide travelers a means of accessing our community as well as a vehicle for Frederick businesses to advertise." The cost of producing the maps was underwritten by business marketing and advertising. Business card style 'ads' are arranged categorically on both sides of the map to highlight local businesses. In addition to promoting the regional amenitites, a directory of important phone numbers and community information is provided.

An easy to navigate, searchable online version of the map will be available from the City website beginning in March. Each participating business will be listed by name & business category, with the actual location pinpointed on the online map; each business's home page will be linked to the map's home page, multiplying business exposure potential many times.

Cotton Smith with Target Marketing, which produces similar maps across the country stated, " Working with the Frederick business community and the city to produce this map was a terrific experience - together we have provided a usable map product for the community which also provides unique exposure for advertising businesses."

For questions about how to obtain a copy of the map, access to the on-line version, or advertising on future maps, please contact Donna Goff, Economic Development Specialist with the City of Frederick Department of Eocnomic Development at 301-600-6360 or dgoff@cityoffrederick.com.

Training for Frederick County Business Owners

The Frederick County Sheriff's Office will be sponsoring an informational session for Frederick County business owners and their human resource staff to assist them in complying with current federal employment laws. A representative from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be in attendance to provide a plain-language explanation in the proper preparation of the I-9 Form, its acceptable documents and other relevant information. Also discussed will be the ICE Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers program, IMAGE, which is a voluntary program of best business practices that help to ensure a legal workforce. There will be a short question and answer session following the briefing.

The session will be held on Thursday, February 24th from 6-8pm in the main conference room of the Frederick County Law Enforcement Center, located at 110 Airport Drive East, Frederick. Due to limited seating, the Sheriffs Office is asking businesses to RSVP with the number attending to Capt. Tim Clarke at 301-600-3643 by Monday, February 21st. If the class fills and there is a need for additional sessions, the Sheriff's Office will compile a list of those businesses to be contacted for the next available session.

Frederick Keynotes Speaker Series featuring Steve Denning - RESCHEDULED to February 10

Due to inclement weather, tonight's Frederick Keynotes event (Thursday January 27th), featuring award-winning author and leadership speaker Steve Denning, has been rescheduled for Thursday February 10th, 7:00-9:00pm at the Cultural Arts Center in Downtown Frederick.

Existing registration will be honored for the new date. If you have not yet registered, but would like to attend the event, visit the online calendar at http://www.businessinfrederick.com/ to register.

For more information, contact the City of Frederick's Department of Eocnomic Development at 301-600-6360.

Frederick Keynotes Speaker Series Hosts Leadership Guru Steve Denning

The City of Frederick Department of Economic Development, in partnership with the Frederick Arts Council and 270inc Magazine, is hosting the next Frederick Keynotes business speaker event on Thursday, January 27th, 7:00pm - 9:00pm at the Cultural Arts Center in Downtown Frederick, 15 West Patrick Street. The event features award-winning author and leadership speaker Steve Denning. The focus of his presentation will be "Reinventing the Workplace in the 21st Century" based on his newly published book, "The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace in the 21st Century."

Admission is $10 and can be purchased in advance at www.businessinfrederick.com/calendar_of_events/ or by calling 301-600-6360. The admission fee supports The City of Frederick Economic Development Fund, a component fund of The Community Foundation of Frederick County.
Following the presentation, there will be a book signing and Denning's latest publication will be available for purchase.

"Steve Denning is the Warren Buffet of business communication," stated Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick.  "He sees things others don't and is able to explain them so the rest of us can understand."

We are pleased to be able to offer top-notch speakers like Steve Denning in Frederick's community and business leaders," states Richard Griffin, Director of Economic Development. "Our goal is simply to expend the know how and capacity of Frederick business to compete and succeed."

Frederick Keynotes is the region's premiere business speaker series and is a program of The City of Frederick Department of Economic Development in partnership with 270inc Magazine.
For more information, contact 301-600-6360.

Welcome to the DED Blog!

Welcome to the first edition of the DED blog! As we foray into the world of social media, we will use our blog to communicate with citizens and businesses on important economic development issues like job growth, development projects, and new business openings. Like any blog, our goal is to engage in a healthy conversation about these issues. Your thoughts are important to us, so share them by email at economicdevelopment@cityoffrederick.com.

Now, we have a question for you - how well do you know DED? Do you know our mission and our goals? Let's take a minute to learn more about your advocate in City Hall.

Our formal mission is "...to increase economic opportunity for Frederick residents through job creation, revitalization and reinvestment." At the foundation of that mission is the core belief that quality jobs with family-supporting wages, located close to home, are a critical component of the quality of life for the residents of our city.

DED is focused on this mission every single day - fostering new business creation through entrepreneurship and small business start-up support; retaining and growing our existing businesses; and recruiting new companies to Frederick.

There are other components to our mission that further the goals of job creation - encouraging and supporting revitalization and reinvestment in areas such as Downtown Frederick, East Frederick and the Golden Mile; and advocating for infrastructure investments to support private-sector investment (water/sewer, road, Frederick Municipal Airport, and more).

DED is the voice of business in City Hall - advocating for a predictable and business-supportive environment. We look forward to communicating this message in new ways in the new year. In addition to our blog, we are now on Facebook ("Frederick DED").

Happy New Year - we wish each of you much joy and success in 2011!