Early History
In 1956 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors formed an advisory group on economic development called the Industrial Development Commission. This group existed until 1964 when the Virginia General Assembly acted to create the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. Acting on concerns about population increases and funding of county services, the Board of Supervisors in the late 1970s tasked the FCEDA with its mission to create a business retention and attraction campaign that formed the basis of the EDA’s current programs and purpose.
In his book "Internet Alley: High Technology in Tysons Corner, 1945-2005," (The MIT Press, 2008), Paul E. Ceruzzi summarizes two critical events in the history of Fairfax County economic development: the production of the "Noman Cole Report" and the first salvo in what would become an international advertising strategy executed by the Economic Development Authority.
Ceruzzi explains that in 1976 the newly elected chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Jack Herrity, commissioned a Blue Ribbon Panel for the purpose of examining the county’s existing ordinances and policies related to industrial development and growth. The panel, named for its chairman, Noman Cole, produced a report entitled the "Committee to Study the Means of Encouraging Industrial Development in Fairfax County."
The Board of Supervisors charged the Economic Development Authority with developing a business attraction and retention program. Earle Williams, one of the contributors to the report, joined the FCEDA Commission around this time and argued for a large increase in the authority’s marketing budget. As part of the marketing strategy, the authority bought a two-page ad in The Wall Street Journal, the cost of which was beyond anything that group had ever done, as Ceruzzi notes,. These early forays into advertising were preludes to what would become a robust global advertising effort that would establish Fairfax County as a "brand" unto itself.
The combined impact of pro-growth policies and the attraction and retention campaign (led by the FCEDA advertising program) would prompt Time magazine columnist Justin Fox in 2007 to call Fairfax County "one of the great economic success stories of our time".
Read more about this topic: Fairfax County Economic Development Authority
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