SourceLink Nebraska

Jenny Nixon Author

10/07/2024 Added

2 Plays

Description

Scott Asmus and Cathy Lang talk about SourceLink Nebraska, a way to connect small businesses with resources available in Nebraska. Recorded 12/15/2021.

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[00:00:00.000]of Columbus, I think. And Julie's been talking about, and I'm going to butcher what this thing
[00:00:07.220]is called, but I think it's called like a wide area network, a LoRaWAN. And it's supposed to
[00:00:13.560]help with connectivity of all of the ag tech and then being able to load the data and have the
[00:00:22.280]data available to the landowner. It might be something, as I learn a little bit more about it,
[00:00:27.720]I'll share it with you guys, because it might be something that Rural Rendezvous would be interested
[00:00:32.660]in having a presentation on. Jenny, should I be in touch with you on that? Yes. Okay, I'll do,
[00:00:38.440]I'll explore into that a little bit and get back to you. That would be awesome. That sounds very
[00:00:43.760]intriguing. Yeah, it is very intriguing. And like I said, I know nothing. So my description is
[00:00:51.200]probably awful, but I will make a note to get a hold of Julie and see how that might work.
[00:00:56.560]Mm-hmm. She's a lovely person. And
[00:01:01.160]I will, let me see what I can do on that. Okay, cool. Well, welcome, everybody. We had a request
[00:01:12.100]from someone who's actually not on here to have a deeper dive into our wonderful new tool. And
[00:01:20.280]actually, MBDC, we had a little group meeting, our little network meeting in the Alliance,
[00:01:26.540]and the folks from Shadron and Scott's Bluff, and oh my gosh, they were talking about SourceLink,
[00:01:32.040]and they really are so excited. And so we got a little taste of it. But we've invited today
[00:01:38.760]Kathy Lang and Scott Osmus to really help us dive into what SourceLink is and does,
[00:01:45.220]and get your questions ready. I'm going to turn it over to Kathy. Here we go.
[00:01:49.920]Great. Jenny, thank you. And thank you, everybody at Rural Rendezvous for inviting us to be here
[00:01:55.520]today.
[00:01:56.220]Gosh, I sure wish we were in person someday, right? I also want to do just a quick shout out
[00:02:02.320]because one of our former team members, Jamie Bright, is on the call. And we just were delighted
[00:02:09.640]to have Jamie on board with us for the last year as Scott and the team built out SourceLink and got
[00:02:18.780]it ready for launch. So hi, Jamie. Good to see you. Just real quick, just a little bit about
[00:02:24.760]what's happening at MBDC.
[00:02:25.900]And then I'm turning it over to Scott. So I just want to take a couple of minutes.
[00:02:28.880]We continue to work and focus on the five programs of service that we offer, either direct to clients
[00:02:36.940]or to the ecosystem. I'm just going to talk about them really quickly. I know that a lot of you know
[00:02:42.160]those programs well, but we've really, we now talk about MBDC as a platform upon which we build
[00:02:51.960]direct-to-business services that support
[00:02:55.580]our statewide effort. The first program, which is our most long-term historic program,
[00:03:03.680]is the Small Business Development Center program. And this is where you know our consultants well
[00:03:10.180]across the state of Nebraska, where we believe our best fit in the ecosystem is the confidential,
[00:03:18.600]one-on-one, consultative services at no charge to business owners that are starting and
[00:03:25.260]growing. And our specialty in that area is certainly helping with business plans and
[00:03:34.500]helping with the financial projections and financial analysis of the business, either as
[00:03:41.280]a startup or as a business that wants to grow. And then helping that business owner within the
[00:03:48.540]network, because there are lots of resources that are provided to the businesses other than
[00:03:53.760]through commercial lenders.
[00:03:55.040]And we help package those opportunities for those business owners. And I got to tell you,
[00:04:01.800]and I know you guys know this, it's been stunning over the last 18 months through this
[00:04:06.380]pandemic is the activity that we are still experiencing with individuals who are wanting
[00:04:14.120]to start or grow their small business. And so you just, you look at the tenacity of our
[00:04:20.040]entrepreneurs and business owners. And, you know, it's, I love the stories we tell
[00:04:24.980]everybody.
[00:04:25.020]We tell every month in our newsletter and on our website, because these are the most amazing,
[00:04:28.840]wonderful people across our state. And they are the ones that grow our communities. And I know
[00:04:33.820]you guys know that. The other program is our government contracting program. And this is where
[00:04:39.320]we help probably a more mature business think about adding government contracting as a revenue
[00:04:48.620]stream to their business. And we've got government, successful government contracts in all
[00:04:54.960]across Nebraska. And it's amazing, as we say, the government buys everything. And so we're always
[00:05:03.340]just really honored to help those businesses navigate the wonderful world of government
[00:05:09.780]contracting. And so I hope you guys always refer businesses to us who are interested in exploring
[00:05:16.880]that. The other area is innovation. This is a program that has gone through extraordinary metamorphosis
[00:05:24.900]over the last three years. Our program manager, Josh Nicolcati, and now his partner in crime,
[00:05:31.560]Sarah Bennett out of Kearney, have really been pushing this program across the state
[00:05:36.720]beyond the metro. Back in the day, this program was pretty focused in Lincoln and Omaha.
[00:05:43.420]And when Josh took over about three years ago now, he has just absolutely changed it up.
[00:05:49.540]The other thing about this program is while we have a very focused piece in innovation,
[00:05:54.840]which is helping businesses get those SBIR grants for innovation, we're also, I think,
[00:06:03.300]have become a good partner in the ecosystem of innovation. And so while our program might be
[00:06:11.920]relatively narrow, the other thing we're trying to do is how do we support everyone else that is
[00:06:18.080]doing work in innovation? So those are our three programs direct to business services. The other two programs
[00:06:24.780]Scott's going to talk about, SourceLink, so I only have one more to talk about, and that's NU Connections.
[00:06:29.460]When I came to MBDC in 2016, after having been able to serve as the Director of Economic
[00:06:39.000]Development for the state for two and a half years, I was astounded at the resources that are available
[00:06:46.860]at the university. And I will admit to you folks who are my colleagues within the university that
[00:06:54.720]even though I was at DED for two and a half years, there were so many of the programs that I was
[00:06:58.780]learning about that I would think, oh, I wish I had known that when I was at DED. So it has just
[00:07:06.280]been an amazing opportunity to be exposed to all the work that the university does that really is
[00:07:13.720]an assist to economic development in Nebraska. And about three years ago, I learned about a program
[00:07:20.680]offered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic
[00:07:24.660]Development Administration, called the University Center. And when I learned about what this
[00:07:29.960]University Center could be, I thought, oh my God, we need to get one of those at the University of
[00:07:35.440]Nebraska. And so we pulled a team together and we prepared our grant application. We were successful.
[00:07:40.820]Three years ago, we received the grant to create a University Center at the University of Nebraska.
[00:07:46.960]And a University Center is intended to be a place where the university and its strength and acumen engage,
[00:07:54.600]as directly as possible, with the business community.
[00:07:57.180]Sometimes University Centers are hyper-focused in an area like manufacturing or something.
[00:08:02.640]And sometimes they're very broad.
[00:08:04.380]We went for one of those very broad programs because we had never had one before.
[00:08:08.500]And we decided to start sort of a mile wide and an inch deep and link all four campuses together in this effort.
[00:08:18.520]And the whole point of NU Connections is to create a place where someone can come
[00:08:24.540]to the university and it's this little bitty front door where they can actually get in
[00:08:30.460]and find someone, a person at every single campus, who can help them navigate to find a resource
[00:08:36.780]that could be helpful for them. And we are campus agnostic. So if someone knows, let's say,
[00:08:42.580]Michael Dixon at the Med Center and they know he's in NU Connections and they come to him
[00:08:47.320]and the problem could ultimately be solved by someone at UNK, Michael, along with Sarah, will help
[00:08:54.480]make that connection. So we want to make connections all across the university. I would say that
[00:09:01.360]it's been great to have the program. I think we really need to think about what it looks like
[00:09:07.400]when the grant is over with. But I do think it has helped to sort of crack the nut on when someone
[00:09:15.560]stands at the doors of the university and wants to figure out how do I get in there
[00:09:20.140]and find someone who might be able to help me. So that's our other program. That's
[00:09:24.420]our other service to the ecosystem. And we're busy and we are working with clients all across
[00:09:31.520]the state and we are working with all of you. And we thank you for the partnership and the
[00:09:38.300]collaboration. And of course, always the referrals. The most important work we do every day is
[00:09:46.680]the hours that we spend with our clients. And if we don't spend hours with clients,
[00:09:50.620]we are not doing our job. So thank you for any...
[00:09:54.360]Any and all referrals you make to us, because without those referrals, we would have a lot
[00:09:59.200]fewer clients. So thank you, Jenny. And with that, I'm going to give it over to Scott.
[00:10:04.480]Thanks, Kathy. Thank you, Jenny and Rural Rendezvous Group. Appreciate the invite.
[00:10:10.980]Very excited to show off the work Jamie and I did over the past year. There's a lot of hours
[00:10:18.440]mapping the ecosystem. And I don't want to speak for Jamie, but I was rather surprised
[00:10:24.300]pleasantly surprised about how many resources are across the state of Nebraska. We've identified
[00:10:30.260]and mapped over 500 individual organizations that provide some sort of service to businesses
[00:10:37.780]or entrepreneurs. Also, we've mapped 890 resources that go along with those resource partners. So
[00:10:46.280]we do have them mapped. We know where they're at. And you know what? Every day I find something new.
[00:10:51.880]I do have a meeting set up.
[00:10:54.240]With an organization that works with people with disabilities. They're going to help me identify
[00:10:59.840]organizations across the state that provide services to individuals with disabilities. So
[00:11:05.900]there's even more to come down the road. So thank you so much. I'm going to give you a tour here of
[00:11:11.440]the website. Jenny, will I be able to share my screen? Yes.
[00:11:24.180]All right. So welcome to our homepage. This is SourceLakeNebraska.com. And with this tour,
[00:11:31.820]what I'm going to do, because the top navigation bar here, it does have access to all our tools.
[00:11:37.380]I'm going to show you some specific tools that you can use in your everyday work. And then I'm
[00:11:43.200]going to go onto our homepage here and show you some more specifics of some bells and whistles
[00:11:47.660]we've added to the site as well. So, and I think that when we, to transition into this
[00:11:54.120]I want to talk about the business resources first. So many of you have met with me in the past and
[00:12:00.520]we've talked about the resources and adding your individual profiles to the resource navigator.
[00:12:05.680]This is where those 890 resources can be located. Now we don't have them all activated yet and it's
[00:12:12.140]because we're still working with partners for that engagement piece. Our motto is find the
[00:12:17.840]right resource at the right time. So there is that need to continue developing those relationships
[00:12:24.060]so there is that constant communication. Now within the resource navigator, you can search
[00:12:29.960]for resources a variety of ways. You can take the long route and see the long extensive list
[00:12:36.760]or you can narrow it down. You can narrow it down to the zip code, particular distance around
[00:12:43.160]that zip code. So it does search up to a hundred mile radius of the particular zip code that you
[00:12:49.180]enter. Also the area of assistance. I ran some statistics.
[00:12:54.000]Recently just to see what our first month or so looked like regarding searches and our most
[00:12:59.780]search service so far is business planning that I'm seeing across the state. So that's,
[00:13:06.300]that's one of the areas that people are searching from everybody's profiles on here,
[00:13:12.420]depending on boxes that were checked and what services provided we'll make them searchable
[00:13:18.320]now to narrow it down into specific needs. Those are subcategories of those areas of assistance. So
[00:13:23.940]somebody would have to search for an area of assistance to get down to a specific need.
[00:13:28.440]And also we can search for resources dedicated to particular underserved communities as well.
[00:13:36.360]Now I'm going to go into a profile that's here on the first page. I'll pick Arapahoe
[00:13:45.540]Economic Development. So with these profiles, these are intended to provide that information
[00:13:53.880]that's accessible. When we talk about a source like Nebraska, we talk about accessibility and
[00:13:58.920]transparency. So the information is very specific to that service that that organization provides.
[00:14:05.520]We have a small description that starts out the profile so somebody can begin to learn,
[00:14:12.000]but also a more expansive description of what that particular resource does.
[00:14:17.940]Depending on the boxes that were checked on the profile development, the services provided
[00:14:23.820]will be shown regardless of the type of search somebody does.
[00:14:27.420]If they go into a profile, they will see all the other additional services that that particular organization provides.
[00:14:35.960]Also, there's primary contact information, address, phone number, maybe where the website is located, a nice map.
[00:14:47.040]If you want to pull up the map and see where they're located on the map, you can do that as well.
[00:14:50.920]Also, social media that's available.
[00:14:53.760]Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all available options as well.
[00:15:00.400]So, if an entrepreneur or business owner or resource partner wants to know more about the organization,
[00:15:05.700]they can learn through their social media and connect through social media as well.
[00:15:08.540]The tool part of this and what's really nice about these profiles is there is a referral component built in.
[00:15:16.940]So, if you're an entrepreneur, you're a business owner and you want to connect with the particular organization that you're looking at,
[00:15:23.700]it's as simple as clicking this link here, "Connect me with the organization."
[00:15:28.200]You fill out the name, last name, email, and what you need.
[00:15:32.380]And that message will be sent to the organization's main contact, what we call the referral contact.
[00:15:40.020]So, the entrepreneur or business owner can refer themselves.
[00:15:45.020]Or if you're working with somebody and you're utilizing the tool, you can send a message directly to that organization from that profile.
[00:15:53.640]Which is a really nice tool to have there for them.
[00:15:57.540]So, whether you're working with them directly or over the phone or maybe the entrepreneur or business owner are working in their free time, they can access the resources 24 hours a day.
[00:16:09.780]The other tool that is something that we're getting a lot of positive feedback about as well is the events calendar.
[00:16:20.460]So, my team.
[00:16:23.580]We have Alan that's working on a team and then recently we just selected a new network navigator.
[00:16:30.620]And then while Jamie was helping me build this and getting it ready for launch, she was uploading quite a few events from across the state.
[00:16:38.360]So we look at events that different partner organizations are putting on.
[00:16:44.160]We add them to the to the events calendar. However, organizations can submit their own events as well to us.
[00:16:51.900]So right here.
[00:16:53.520]At the top, it's right there. So if you have an event that you would like to submit and make visible to the entire entire state that has a topic within economic development, business development, feel free to to submit your event.
[00:17:09.880]It'll it'll submit to us on the back end. We can look at it and my team will approve it and it'll show up as on on our events calendar.
[00:17:17.900]It takes very minimal time to fill it out, especially if you have your event information in front of you.
[00:17:23.460]So just adding a title description, the date and time you can upload an image if you'd like an image there for your event.
[00:17:30.780]You can select a category. So when somebody is searching for a particular topic within the filters, which I'll back back out of and show you.
[00:17:39.920]That's very important to put in there and also the venue. There's a lot of virtual events right now. So we have a virtual option.
[00:17:46.200]So if you're putting on a virtual event, you can put it in there. And then the organizer is entered in there. So whether
[00:17:53.400]Maybe you're the Center for Rural Affairs, maybe you're Nebraska Extension, the organizers name can be put on there too. Also,
[00:18:01.960]Oftentimes events have registrations, you're able to have the event website on there. So somebody can go right into that event and register right from our listing.
[00:18:16.040]Also event costs, you know, they range. Some are free. I would say a majority of what we've been putting in have been free, but
[00:18:23.340]there are some events that cost because of, you know, different training. So the cost can be entered in there as well. So as soon as that's entered in, you submit your event, shows up on the back end, my team is notified, and we're able to go in and review it and approve it for the platform.
[00:18:42.420]And I'm going to back out of here real quick as well.
[00:18:46.340]As I was mentioning earlier, there are filters. So you can
[00:18:53.280]search events according to a particular filter option, you know, whether it be a particular event category, which will continue to develop as well as certain interests arise.
[00:19:04.600]I added one the other day called a resource partner professional development one. So maybe there's a professional development activity in the state of Nebraska put on virtually in western Nebraska and you'd like to invite folks from the eastern part of the state, this would be an excellent place to place it.
[00:19:23.220]So you can go across venues, maybe the organizer, time, day, city, all that good stuff to look at events. I gave a presentation at the net force conference and one of the questions is, can I see what events are in my community and I said absolutely.
[00:19:38.220]You can search, you'll be able to see what city they're in, and you can you can see where those events are occurring.
[00:19:47.220]So I'm going to go back to the homepage.
[00:19:53.160]And I did add to the source link Nebraska website. Now, within the website and you probably noticed this when I pulled up the events the sidebar, there's ways to access the resource navigator from there.
[00:20:05.160]So there, we wanted to make sure that there were different access points, no matter where you were in the website, easy use something we've received quite a bit of feedback about as well as positive that it's it's easy to use and the language
[00:20:17.160]on it is easy to understand so we wanted to make some more of these resources front facing.
[00:20:23.100]If you are looking for a resource. You can go right here on the front page, business resources and click into the resource navigator. Also, right here, we have the option to do an action plan.
[00:20:35.100]Sometimes entrepreneurs and business owners want a little bit more in depth help looking for resources or maybe not exactly sure if those are the right resources, they fill out some minimum minimal information for us in submitted and based on what
[00:20:53.040]they provide us for information, we can put together an action plan of resources for that individual. And then we notify each resource partner that this person was referred to them so they that resource partner can choose to reach out or, you know, what we want to do is encourage that entrepreneur business owner to reach out as well but they have that but also it's also for transparency within the ecosystem so if they do have this action plan in hand and they're working with one of the referred
[00:21:22.980]resource partners, the other resource partners can also see who they're working with so when we think about wraparound services I come from the behavioral health field that's that's something that you hear a lot is wraparound services, and that you know
[00:21:35.700]with our ecosystem and have creating that connection wrapping around somebody helping them get to where they need and break down some barriers so you may be working with an entrepreneur as well and this would be an excellent place to send them to complete a personal
[00:21:52.920]action plan for them.
[00:21:58.060]Also on the front page, we wanted to make sure that resource partners have the tools that they need. Now, we've identified a lot of resources across the state.
[00:22:08.360]So right now joining the network is few and far between, but it can happen. So, if there is a particular resource partner that's not already on here or resource they can join the network from the source link Nebraska page.
[00:22:22.860]So I'll fill out the profile information and I'll submit and then my team will review that profile and work with that resource partner to have their profile visible and up and running.
[00:22:35.860]And what I from what I've gotten from feedback from other resource partners this takes very minimal time for them as well. Maybe 10 minutes to complete one, just depending on how much information they want to provide.
[00:22:50.800]Now, we wanted to add a resource
[00:22:52.800]link toolkit. Now this wasn't our idea. It actually West Virginia. They just launched as a source link affiliate as well. And something that I thought was really neat that they did is they put information out there that was accessible to their resource
[00:23:07.800]partners because when we think about the theme source like Nebraska. And we've always said this we want this to be a tool for everyone. Well, I didn't want to create barriers for our resource partners to get the information that they need I want that information
[00:23:22.740]to be at their fingertips as well so we put Jamie and I we built a resource partner toolkit for information that's provided so for instance we we provided right here is source like Nebraska approved program overview.
[00:23:37.740]It's language about what the source like Nebraska platform is what it is for maybe press releases, maybe that you want to speak about something with, with your interaction with source like Nebraska or maybe you have a newsletter
[00:23:52.680]better, you want to talk about your involvement with source like Nebraska so there's some program language in there so you know how to talk discuss the program.
[00:24:01.680]Also, handouts. We like to go to conferences we go to meetings and because this is a statewide platform, how do we get that those materials to everybody a lot easier well we'll put it on our website.
[00:24:15.680]So, we do have an entrepreneur and business owner fact sheet, English and Spanish version.
[00:24:22.620]One thing we want to do is engage the Spanish speaking community and make sure resources available as well.
[00:24:29.620]So that's available. We have our links to our social media accounts, both the English accounts and the Spanish speaking accounts so we do have accounts, social media accounts dedicated to Spanish language and Alan does a wonderful job, putting that
[00:24:47.620]together he worked on that over the past couple weeks so we're going to continue to build that aspect.
[00:24:52.560]As well.
[00:24:53.560]Another thing that we wanted to do because I do often get this question is, how do we integrate social source link Nebraska into what we do every day.
[00:25:01.560]I said you know what would be great is if our resource partners, if they would link to source like Nebraska from their web pages. So you know oftentimes it's a it's a great way to help serve the clients that you serve every day and having that tool
[00:25:17.560]available. So, West Virginia what they did is they created a logo.
[00:25:22.500]For their resource partners that are available on the platform. So we decided you know what we're going to copy to, we're going to create a logo so we created a horizontal and a vertical version of the source like Nebraska logo that says official resource partner.
[00:25:37.500]So if you wanted to put that on your web page or maybe you have a printout that you want to, you know, give out to everybody. You can put that on there.
[00:25:48.500]It's a great way to continually engage.
[00:25:52.440]Our community. So, because one thing that SourceLink has talked to us quite a bit about is, even though the program is launched, we've talked a lot about it, it's going to be an ongoing effort to keep it top of mind, and being able to understand that
[00:26:10.440]there's always entrepreneurs and business owners looking for resources that may not have heard of our one stop shop. So, the more we can get that, that logo out there, people talking about it, using it.
[00:26:22.380]We can help them connect them with your organizations.
[00:26:30.380]One thing that's unique to SourceLink Nebraska and I don't believe any of our affiliate programs around the country have done this.
[00:26:42.380]We decided to create dedicated resource navigators for topics of particular interest in Nebraska.
[00:26:52.320]This is what we've identified so far, innovation, the makerspaces.
[00:26:58.360]There's a lot of makerspaces in the libraries across the state of Nebraska.
[00:27:02.360]We wanted a navigator where you could search for those makerspaces easily without having to go through every resource.
[00:27:09.400]on the navigator, agriculture, childcare, veterans, disaster recovery, resources for
[00:27:15.640]Spanish speakers. They're all on there. I'm going to click into the makerspaces one because we did
[00:27:21.800]that. We set this one up a little bit more unique because we thought, you know, what would be really
[00:27:28.600]neat with this is because of how many makerspaces are in the state of Nebraska. Let's do the first
[00:27:33.600]visual to be a map. So, for instance, out in Sydney, at the Sydney Public Library, there's a
[00:27:39.940]makerspace. So, somebody can access the Sydney Public Library profile from this map and read
[00:27:48.240]about it. You can see the other services that could support an entrepreneur or business owner.
[00:27:54.060]Now, you're not stuck with the map view. You can put it into list view as well by clicking the
[00:28:00.200]button, and you can go through that way, but we thought it would be
[00:28:03.540]kind of cool to have that. So, we're going to go through that.
[00:28:03.580]Kind of neat to do a map view for that particular resource. So, something new we've added recently
[00:28:10.560]was the disaster recovery resources to the page. So, organizations that work in the area of disaster
[00:28:18.960]recovery in some way, shape, or form, they're listed on here. We've tagged them. We know where
[00:28:24.580]they're at. So, that's one nice aspect for searching for resources. Now, for the learning
[00:28:33.520]experience for entrepreneurs and business owners, we wanted to have business guides available. Now,
[00:28:39.020]these business guides are not intended to be comprehensive in the sense of,
[00:28:43.400]you read this, you're going to know exactly how to start a business. That wasn't the idea. The
[00:28:48.260]idea was to give a basic idea, because ultimately, we want them connecting with all of you.
[00:28:53.080]So, we wanted somebody to be informed enough to understand what maybe a process would look like
[00:28:59.040]going through that, whether it be a startup, growth, or capital.
[00:29:03.460]Also, what we did is we wanted to integrate Enlighten into the business guides, and this
[00:29:09.900]was something that was developed here at NBDC.
[00:29:12.420]It's a video library of training videos, essentially, to help entrepreneurs and business
[00:29:19.160]owners with various topics, and it fits great with our theme, because these are not just
[00:29:24.500]NBDC programs.
[00:29:25.860]These are partner programs as well, providing trainings on the platform, so it can be accessed.
[00:29:33.400]Now this would be the only one where somebody would have to sign up to have access to it,
[00:29:40.160]but generally speaking, with our website, there isn't any registrations or anything
[00:29:47.120]like that to get around.
[00:29:54.520]Also one piece that we want to continue to develop, and I can see from Google Analytics
[00:30:00.540]that this is one of the more popular functions of the website.
[00:30:03.340]It is the stories.
[00:30:04.660]Let's tell the story.
[00:30:06.780]Let's tell our stories in the ecosystem of what's going on.
[00:30:09.960]So Jamie and I, we decided, you know what, we need to tell the story of those businesses
[00:30:14.720]and those entrepreneurs, but we also need to tell the story of resource partners.
[00:30:19.900]Resource partners are doing great things every single day, and what better place to put it
[00:30:25.000]at that one-stop shop.
[00:30:26.380]So we want our resource partners to have more than just a profile.
[00:30:33.280]We want you to tell your story, we want you to tell your successes, because it helps with
[00:30:38.400]the connection within the ecosystem.
[00:30:40.520]It helps to inform those entrepreneurs and business owners that, you know what, sometimes
[00:30:44.820]it's tough, but it can be done, and this is how it can be done.
[00:30:48.300]So we also want to highlight those entrepreneurs that have done it the right way, that have
[00:30:53.160]endured and built our economy in Nebraska, stayed here in Nebraska, and built the community.
[00:30:58.540]So we want to celebrate them as well.
[00:31:00.380]So these stories are something that...
[00:31:03.220]It's a very important aspect to the website, and we're going to continue to develop and
[00:31:08.280]work with all of you to submit stories, let us know what's going on, what you're doing.
[00:31:16.540]Whether it be your program or a particular person within your program, you'd like to
[00:31:21.980]highlight the great work that they're doing, let's put it on here.
[00:31:25.300]Let us know, and we'll work with you to get a story.
[00:31:30.320]So those are the major aspects.
[00:31:33.160]I just want to say thanks for sharing this, Scott, Katherine, and Jamie.
[00:31:49.100]I'm so excited.
[00:31:50.660]I will be getting SourceLink up on our Mobius website under our community links ASAP.
[00:31:57.420]I think this is just invaluable, especially for people that just need to kind of go through
[00:32:03.100]what you have offered here under your resource guide.
[00:32:07.340]And the stories I think are so important for them to realize their dreams too.
[00:32:12.880]So thank you.
[00:32:13.880]I am super excited to go through this.
[00:32:15.940]So thank you guys.
[00:32:17.940]Well thank you for your feedback and I love hearing the energy it just, it makes us feel
[00:32:21.960]great because you know ultimately in the end, that's what we want to do we want to serve,
[00:32:27.000]and it's fun because now we really have that infrastructure behind all
[00:32:33.040]the great work that all of you do. We want that infrastructure we want it there we want
[00:32:36.980]it identifiable and get people to the right resource at the right time.
[00:32:42.400]So I do have a quick question when I go up there and I get your logo. Do we then put
[00:32:46.900]the link that Jenny shared with us, or does your logo actually link for people just to
[00:32:52.500]click on that. No, so it doesn't link to anything it's, it's an image for you so what I would
[00:32:59.000]recommend is you link them directly to SourceLinkNebraska.com.
[00:33:02.980]That way they can, you know, you can, you can work with your website to do that however you want to do it.
[00:33:10.460]That sounds great I just didn't know if your, if your logo had the connection or, you know, to be able to do that so that's not a problem I appreciate it.
[00:33:19.100]And if you recommend that we build that in I can work on doing that as well.
[00:33:23.180]Well, as of right now it's not. I think it's just fine for them to have the link right underneath it so thank you. All right, thank you.
[00:33:32.920]You know, from the time we first started talking about this and Jamie was asking us through Western Nebraska Development Network as well as the Rural Rendezvous about, do we want to be listed on this thing and, and my first, my first reaction was, okay, another thing that we have to keep updated because there are so many spaces and, and sites and resources that we, we want to provide but they have to be up to date or they are of no use.
[00:34:02.860]So, this is really the classic example of how to do this right because someone has to be overseeing all of this all the time. And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:34:32.800]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:35:02.760]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:35:02.780]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:35:32.760]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:36:02.740]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:36:32.720]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:37:02.700]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:37:32.680]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:38:02.660]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:38:32.640]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:39:02.620]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:39:32.600]And so to have a statewide platform as you're calling it, that we can actually depend on that being the right information so usually my first conversation with a business or a potential businesses, you know, to figure out where they are in this whole process.
[00:40:02.580]So Scott I'm just thinking about your massive job of keeping this updated like like Deb was talking about and I wonder, is there a time where we will ever get a note as a resource provider from source link that says, just check on your connections you still doing the same
[00:40:22.340]things, got the right emails, whatever that kind of thing.
[00:40:24.400]Yes, I do have a process in place for that for notification. There is, there is kind of a difference with it because some organizations.
[00:40:32.560]have one contact but multiple profiles so in a way I have to do it by hand, when we do it that way.
[00:40:40.140]So, I do plan on doing it quarterly.
[00:40:44.200]I starting in January because I want to clean start with everything and you know we just launched the platform so there have been eyes on it.
[00:40:53.000]So we will continue to engage partners that way as well.
[00:40:56.840]But it's through doing meetings like this I know I've attended meetings and I hear things, oh,
[00:41:02.540]so and so has a has a new position here and here and then I'm able to reach out and have things
[00:41:09.540]modified as needed as well. So I will not give you the sunshine and rainbows
[00:41:15.680]answer because it will be a challenge. It won't be perfect because there are a lot of resources,
[00:41:22.420]but that's I think the strength we have as an ecosystem as long as we're engaged as an
[00:41:27.100]ecosystem with the platform. We can all work together to make sure that we know
[00:41:32.520]information is up to date. Now, Kathy might appreciate this. I just had a note from
[00:41:39.380]DED that I have to do the painful recertification process for EDCC this year,
[00:41:48.260]which is the Economic Development Certified Community Program. I'm just going to put on
[00:41:54.720]a lot of those categories. I'm on SourceLink because I think that's going to cover many,
[00:42:02.500]many more of the required or at least the assumed and supposedly helpful things that a development
[00:42:11.320]corporation can do for the business community at large. So this is a huge tool for us to do our
[00:42:18.120]jobs. Those of us on the call today that are full-time economic developers, this will be
[00:42:23.800]a great help to us. One thing I was wondering, Scott, if you are kind of doing some
[00:42:32.480]Google analytics on this, is there a way for us to know perhaps how many times we've been
[00:42:40.080]searched or clicked on or whatever through you? I'm so glad you asked that question. I just tested
[00:42:46.880]it with NBDC last week. So for our leadership meeting, I pulled together, because we can do
[00:42:53.800]reports on the back end with the SourceLink tool. So I pulled out all our NBDC programs individually
[00:43:02.460]to each profile. And holy cow, there were so many views of each individual profile. It was
[00:43:09.200]amazing to see. So yes, the answer is yes. If you have a profile, I can look at that and see
[00:43:15.400]how many views were to that particular profile. Well, for those real geeky people, I think that
[00:43:23.280]would be wonderful, fun information to have. Whether that means anything or not, I don't know.
[00:43:29.180]But again, it's just one of those things that you can share
[00:43:32.440]with your board or your funding sources that say, here's one way that we're getting this
[00:43:37.080]information out there. Because every single day, somebody says, well, what is it that you do all
[00:43:43.140]day sitting in that office over there? So I think that the more we're able to say, well, here's
[00:43:49.000]proof that people are utilizing us, whether they're coming in my front door and making a
[00:43:53.400]phone call to me or not. Absolutely. So yeah,
[00:43:56.660]if you ever want that information, just reach out to me with what you want. And I can do that
[00:44:02.420]one thing to do on your end too, is if maybe if an entrepreneur or business owner shows up and
[00:44:07.660]reaches out and if you ask those questions, Hey, how'd you know about us? If they say
[00:44:12.060]sourcing Nebraska, let us know. I would like to know that because it's like you said, you see
[00:44:16.620]those numbers of the views, but did that result in them approaching you? Do we have specific,
[00:44:22.580]can we make a specific connection? Maybe not, but we'll start to get an idea of that awareness.
[00:44:27.160]Maybe it's that awareness that we, we can highlight. Hey, Scott,
[00:44:32.400]can I ask a follow-on question to that? And I think we've talked about this,
[00:44:36.800]the importance of using source link to make referrals. So Deb, someone comes in and visits
[00:44:45.320]with you, you're helping them find a resource. Now let's just pretend you're not familiar with
[00:44:51.400]the resource because you're familiar with all of them, but you then use source link to say,
[00:44:55.940]oh, here, you should contact this person at one of the resources. You can actually
[00:45:02.380]use source link to make that referral. And we can then track that within source link. If you
[00:45:09.020]then just simply send a separate email or call them, we'd only track that anecdotally,
[00:45:15.360]but the system can track that as well. Right, Scott? Am I right?
[00:45:20.060]Yeah. So what we would see is it wouldn't, it wouldn't track that it came from you,
[00:45:25.700]but what it would track is the organization that you reached out to. We can see that that
[00:45:32.360]was connected. However, in that message section, that would be an excellent place for you to write,
[00:45:37.240]you know, I'm working with so-and-so, I'm with this organization. I wanted to connect them with
[00:45:43.980]you because they need this, this, and this. So, so we can make, we can see that referrals are
[00:45:51.580]being made to organizations around the state. Now, however, if somebody reaches out to us
[00:45:58.240]directly and we create one of those action plans, I can actually see
[00:46:02.340]that I referred, you know, this particular individual to these five resources. So
[00:46:08.840]we can get, have that kind of data as well. I also think that, and this was one of the reasons
[00:46:18.920]to go with something like SourceLink that's been around for probably coming on 15 years
[00:46:24.800]and has a national exposure is hopefully, and Scott is doing this by networking with the other networks,
[00:46:32.460]we're going to learn how they've used SourceLink. We're going to offer ideas on how we're using
[00:46:38.140]SourceLink with the idea that SourceLink keeps building a better and better platform going
[00:46:43.600]forward that is responsive to how we are trying to support the ecosystems across the country.
[00:46:50.700]Any other
[00:47:02.300]questions?
[00:47:02.800]I think we're all really excited about just turning this tool into all kinds of great things.
[00:47:19.200]Oh, thank you. However, I did, when Gary gave his presentation the other day, I did see a spike out
[00:47:26.040]in the Shatterin area for searches. I can actually see, I was able to pull up a report that showed
[00:47:32.280]the searches were coming from in the state. So it was kind of neat because Gary let me know that
[00:47:37.240]he had talked about it. And I went in there and I saw that and I was like, oh, the most searched
[00:47:40.280]area in the state was out in Shatterin, Nebraska. That's pretty cool. So.
[00:47:43.280]See, just even that comment is good for me to have, to be able to share with my board and just,
[00:47:50.780]you know, other folks that are interested in that. Because I think that's how we as a state
[00:47:56.940]or as your customers, if you want to call us that, help you
[00:48:02.260]keep it at the top of mind and make sure that the funding stays in place to continue to do it.
[00:48:09.520]Absolutely.
[00:48:10.420]Thank you so much, everybody. I appreciate your support. This could not be done without
[00:48:19.620]everybody. It just couldn't. It's been, although there's been a lot of work put behind it,
[00:48:26.360]it was a lot easier because of the responsiveness from our resource partners and your
[00:48:32.240]willingness to collaborate to build this. So like I said, please keep communicating with me. If
[00:48:39.540]there's something you have an idea, something we can make it better, let's talk about it.
[00:48:45.240]We'll see what we can do to maybe meet in the middle or get that done.
[00:48:49.440]Scott, the one thing that occurs to me, I was looking at your events list and I really love
[00:48:57.920]that. And I think maybe if you're on the next,
[00:49:02.220]rural Nebraska RPN network meeting that we
[00:49:07.420]remind our extensions, educators, as they create events
[00:49:12.160]that they need to get those in there. Because I just think
[00:49:17.440]it's one of those things that maybe we haven't thought about it yet. And we're just getting ready to do something
[00:49:22.220]in Columbus in April. And I'm thinking, oh, we need to have that one on there. So that'd be awesome.
[00:49:26.540]Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Just let us know. And sometimes events change
[00:49:32.200]and then you just reach out to us and say, hey, this event, time change, venue changed.
[00:49:37.000]We'll fix it in the WordPress.
[00:49:41.560]I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. I'm Kayla Imus. I am the small business
[00:49:51.140]public relations outreach coordinator for the city of Scottsbluff. Star will be my mentor.
[00:49:57.660]And she isn't able to make the meeting today. So I just wanted to say hi to everybody
[00:50:02.180]so you can get a familiar face with the name. Welcome, Kayla.
[00:50:07.680]And also, if anybody wants to have a one-on-one meeting or if you have a particular group you
[00:50:16.000]meet with and they would like a tour of the website, I'd be thrilled to be able to do that.
[00:50:20.600]I'm calling this my roadshow right now, but it's going to develop. I want to go into the communities.
[00:50:26.160]I want to come out west. I want to talk to people in person about this. So I have big aspirations this
[00:50:32.160]year about spreading the awareness.
[00:50:33.420]That is exciting. And I am thinking, Chelsea, maybe we could do that for our WND
[00:50:42.820]as one of our future meetings. I think that would be exciting for us.
[00:50:50.080]I might put Rebecca on the spot here and have her introduce herself. I ran into Rebecca down at the leadership conference in McCush.
[00:51:02.140]I invited her to be a part of our little rural rendezvous group.
[00:51:08.620]Rebecca, maybe if you want to say something, you can say something. If not, no, I'm going to shoot you for this later.
[00:51:14.780]No problem. Thanks so much, Mike. My name is Rebecca Walkup.
[00:51:19.160]I just moved to Curtis and I'm working with the city and economic development here in Curtis.
[00:51:26.420]Looking forward to that.
[00:51:32.120]I think Shattern offered to host WNDN the next time, so we will get that date to you, Scott.
[00:51:40.500]That would be awesome. Be an excuse to come out west.
[00:51:43.820]I love the Shattern area. I love it out there.
[00:51:47.220]So I'm going to go ahead and create a list of next year's meeting times.
[00:51:56.560]And we are meeting monthly instead of every two weeks.
[00:51:59.440]And I think I know Shattern is going to be there.
[00:52:02.100]Sean has reached out and asked if you want him to still bring back those graphic information pieces that he had this last time.
[00:52:11.040]He's ready to do that. If so, I'm going to go ahead and book him in in January.
[00:52:15.520]And if Kayla and Rebecca, if you're not on the listserv, if you'll let me know, I can certainly get you on the listserv.
[00:52:23.680]So we welcome everybody here. So I'm so happy to see new folks. This is exciting.
[00:52:32.080]And a great way to end our year. Anything else for the good of the cause?
[00:52:37.560]So, Jenny, do we have like a certain time of the month that we're meeting?
[00:52:42.360]Like, is it the first Wednesday or was that decided?
[00:52:46.180]I think it was. And I'm trying to remember which one it was.
[00:52:52.900]Yeah. And I was I was late last time. So I missed that part of the conversation. So I apologize.
[00:53:02.060]You're our leader. How can you not know? Yeah.
[00:53:04.840]What? No, no, no, no. You're the leader.
[00:53:08.620]I think we decided toward the middle of the month or something would be best.
[00:53:16.420]So do you want to do a second or third Wednesdays?
[00:53:19.560]Yeah, that was my recollection is that we had been doing second and fourth for every other.
[00:53:24.760]So I think we just picked like in the middle, second or third.
[00:53:27.980]And I guess it doesn't matter to me just so long as it's consistent.
[00:53:32.040]So is everybody okay with like the second Wednesday of the month to stick with that?
[00:53:41.200]Let's do that then, Jenny, if you don't mind.
[00:53:45.780]Let's go with that and we'll plan accordingly.
[00:53:49.020]Excellent.
[00:53:50.020]Well, this has been a lot of fun and a great way to end our last rural rendezvous of the year.
[00:53:57.600]I wish you all very, very excellent time.
[00:54:02.020]Relaxing time with family and friends.
[00:54:05.240]Let's all enjoy.
[00:54:07.020]Merry Christmas, everybody.
[00:54:09.820]Merry Christmas.
[00:54:10.960]Merry Christmas.
[00:54:11.940]Bye.
[00:54:13.020]See you all in 2022.
[00:54:15.100]- 22.
[00:54:15.940]Thank you.

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