Fairfax County Economic Development Authority - Research and Conferences

Research and Conferences

According to the FCEDA website, the authority conducts research and stages conferences under the moniker Work/Life to “better understand broad workplace trends that impact businesses in Fairfax County and across the country.”

In September 2007, FCEDA commissioned Ipsos, an independent research firm, to undertake a national poll on creativity in the workplace. The poll found that that, while an overwhelming majority of American workers believe they are instinctively creative, fewer than two in three think they are tapping their creative capacities on the job. The results of the national survey were reported on by such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Washington Post. The poll results were published in advance of the 2007 National Conference on the Creative Economy, a conference presented by the FCEDA.

In October 2008, the FCEDA commissioned a new survey through Ipsos that examined American workers' opinions of technology in the workplace. The survey found that an overwhelming majority of U.S. workers place a high value on technology in the workplace, so much so that almost 40 percent of employees across the labor force would consider changing jobs to work for an organization that is more committed to providing access to and training in the latest technology. Results of the survey were covered by the Associated Press, the Washington Post and the Fox Business Network.

In May 2009, the FCEDA partnered with Ipsos once again. This time, FCEDA chose to examine issues facing communities that, like Fairfax County, after a long period of suburbanization and increased density, are in transition to a more urban environment. The survey revealed that "living or working in the suburbs might not be all that it’s cracked up to be." Of the one in three (32%) Americans who reportedly live in a suburban environment, a majority (51%) wishes their community had more of a wide variety of offerings. The results of survey were released ahead of the FCEDA conference: “The New Urban Economic Model: The Transformation of Fairfax County" and was picked up by the Washington Business Journal, WTOP and WMAL radio. The conference featured keynote addresses by Urban Land Institute Senior Resident Fellow (and former Indianapolis mayor) William Hudnut and Brookings Institution urban policy scholar Anthony Downs.

In Sept. 2012, the FCEDA presented a symposium titled America’s Aging Workforce, which featured talks from industry and government leaders from the Washington, D.C., area and beyond on a variety of topics related to issues and opportunities presented by demographic shifts in the U.S. workforce. According to FCEDA CEO Gerald Gordon, the number of workers 65 and over will increase 75 percent to 70 million in the next 18 years.

Also presented at the conference were results from a survey looking at how younger and older workers view those demographic shifts. Despite the changing demographics, the research found that different generations value each others' contributions, according to Forbes. Presenters at the conference included John Berry, director of the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM); John W. Martin, president and CEO of the Southeaster Institute of Research (SIR), co-founder of the Boomer Project and author of Boomer Consumer; Danny Felty, M.D., a healthy-aging expert at HCA Virginia Health System and executives from Fairfax County companies Capital One, Volkswagen Group of America and Balfour Beatty.