REDDI
Comprehensive Economic
Development Strategy
(CEDS)

2008 Update

The 2008 edition of the REDDI Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)
returns to several of the goals established in previous years.  During late 2006 and 2007 REDDI
made the decision to defer work on some of those goals and allocate resources to an immediate
opportunity to help position the region for leadership in the manufacture of renewable energy
systems and components.  This effort grew out of REDDI’s cluster-based approach.  It
expanded on REDDI’s existing focus on biofuels and support for manufacturing within the
region, and included the established goal of assessing the regions innovation capacity.  The
results of this intensive focus include the creation of an industry partnership in renewable
energy, significant collaboration with the South Central Workforce Investment Board and the
Manufacturer’s Association of Southcentral Pennsylvania, the completion of an extensive study
on the renewable energy industry, the potential for component and system manufacturing within
the region, and the region’s capacity for innovation in new products and processes.  

While this strategic shift had clear value for the region, it deferred some of the projects that
REDDI had identified in previous CEDS.  These priorities are restated here. Over the course of
the next year, REDDI will be transitioning its CEDS from a paper-based document that is also
posted on the web, to an interactive web-based document that can also be printed.  This may
sound like semantics, but it represents a profound shift in the nature of the document and the
planning process.  The web-based approach is more interactive and more graphic.  Some of
those graphics have been included in the 2008 CEDS.  Writing and organizational styles tend to
be different as well.  Topics on the web are somewhat more self-contained, with hyperlinks to
background and related material.  This approach tends to make ongoing editing much easier, so
a web-based plan can be updated much easier.  It does however provide some challenges in the
production of a paper-based document.  REDDI will be addressing these challenges over the
coming year.  The web version of the REDDI CEDS is expected to be operational by the end of
2008.  

The 2008 edition of the CEDS also incorporates some new approaches to data analysis.  This
edition begins to introduce some Geographic Information Systems (GIS) functionality into the
planning process.  The maps and geospatial analyses included in this edition of the CEDS are a
preview of what the new system will be able to do for the region.  

The analysis section also includes new approaches in the assessment of labor force
characteristics.  In keeping with the shift to a web-based approach, REDDI has utilized the
reporting features available on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (PAL&I)
website to assemble workforce analyses for each of the partner counties.  REDDI has compiled
this information into a regional report and over the coming year, will work with the Department’
s Center for Workforce Information and Analysis to create a customized regional report for the
REDDI website that pulls the latest information directly from PAL&I’s database.  

This version of the CEDS also utilized Labor & Industry data to produce a preliminary industry
cluster analysis for the region.  While not a full-fledged cluster analysis, this document
nonetheless includes brief summaries of the region’s industry clusters, based on the state’s
cluster definitions.  This represents a departure form the old industry sector analysis in previous
CEDS documents.  In order to ease the transition, the previous analyses for industry sectors and
labor force characteristics have been retained in this edition of the CEDS document.

The 2008 CEDS also introduces revisions to the vision and goals statement to expand the
previous focus on biofuels to include the broad range of renewable energy technologies
addressed by the industry partnership.  It also addresses an emerging focus on developing
systems to help the region transition to the global, postindustrial economy.  We also return to the
development of an evaluation framework that gives REDDI a portfolio approach to projects
within the region.  Succinctly stated, the vision for REDDI is to continue to act as a catalyst for
economic expansion and prosperity within the eight-county region by focusing effort and
resources on strategic, innovative projects with regional impact.  Under the proposed evaluation
system, REDDI will assess projects in terms of their geographic impact and their innovation
impact to determine which projects are likely to have the greatest strategic impact on the
region.  

In translating the goals and objectives into an action plan, the 2008 CEDS presents REDDI’s
agenda in three parts.  The first section addresses REDDI’s commitment to research and
development of promising technologies within the region.  The second part focuses on REDDI’s
regional business development efforts.  Both of these are new to the CEDS.  The third
component is more familiar, and it details REDDI partner projects throughout the region.  While
these projects demonstrate REDDI’s commitment to projects initiated and undertaken by its
partners, the first two sections demonstrate REDDI’s unique contributions to the region as a
maturing organization.  

REDDI looks forward to undertaking the agenda outlaid in this document for 2008.  This edition
of the CEDS proposes a number of ambitious projects that will help shape the regional economy
and influence the way the region plans for its future.  Through a strategic focus and smart
investments, REDDI and its partners are helping to build a competitive and innovative regional
economy that can sustain development over the long term.