Heidi Otway: Okay, great. Thank you. Jennifer. Welcome to the Fluent in Floridian podcast. It's so good to see you in person here in our studio.

Jennifer Conoley: I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

Heidi Otway: Yeah. You have been doing so many remarkable things, but of course, before we get into all the wonderful things you're doing in economic development, let's go back to the beginning, right? This is Fluent in Floridian. You're a native Floridian. Tell us about your upbringing here in Northwest Florida.

Jennifer Conoley: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a proud Floridian. My parents located here from Alabama all because my dad became an electrician, and he moved here to get a good paying job at a paper mill in Port St. Joe, Florida.

Heidi Otway: Yeah, we know about the paper mills.

Jennifer Conoley: Tiny little, tiny little spot. So that's where I had the great fortune of growing up. It was a wonderful small town feel, and just had a lot of great experiences there. After I graduated from high school, I actually went to University of West Florida in Pensacola for a year. Wanted to stay with a small classroom and everything, but then decided to follow all of my friends to Florida State University, and that brought me to Tallahassee. So I've never lived outside of the state of Florida except to visit my parents for a summer. Now they live in Alabama, and yeah, I can't imagine myself living anywhere but this great state.

Heidi Otway: I'm with you. I'm a Florida girl through and through. I'm glad you referenced Florida State coming here because that's the first time I met you. You were an intern back when Salter Mitchell PR was Hurley Communications Group almost 22 years ago. I'll never forget that. And you were a rock star. And now you're running things in the economic development space. So tell me, when you left Hurley Communications Group, how did your career progress to get you to where you are in the space of economic development?

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah, well, so let me step back a little bit and say, when I was at University of West Florida, thinking about transitioning to FSU, I had no idea what I wanted to be. So I took a chance and said, I'm a really good writer, so I'm going to apply to the public relations program at FSU, which was, at the time, very competitive to get into. And I got accepted. And so that was green light. And then whenever I was in Tallahassee and all of our professors said, you have to get an internship. And there were several coveted internships, and Hurley Communications Group was one of those. And so I worked my way to meeting the right people, including yourself, and trying to just have a chance. And you all accepted me into that. And that experience really gave me a great foundation for allowing me to just navigate myself and career path, and where I was meant to be taken since then.

‍Heidi Otway: Well, thank you for sharing that. April isn't here today, but she is so proud of you and all that you've done, and she always talks about rock star former interns, and you're at the top of her list all the time. Top five, you're there-

‍Jennifer Conoley: Oh, that's awesome.

‍Heidi Otway:... all the time. So yeah, so you had your internship with us, and then tell me what happened after that, and how you transitioned from, you thought you wanted to be in communications, and to some degree you are in communications, so talk about how you navigated out of college into your career in economic development.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah. So another internship I was fortunate to have during my time at FSU was with the Able Trust. And the Able Trust was one of our clients when I was also interning at the firm. So I was able to move into a paid professional role at the Able Trust after I graduated. And that was just such great experience as well, working statewide for people with disabilities. It was really empowering. But at that point in my life, my high school sweetheart moved to Panama City after he graduated from FSU and finally decided to propose to me. And so we weighed the pros and cons of where we would live, and Panama City won, which is where he was. And so I took a chance and moved on to Panama City, and that's now where I've been for the past 18 years. But getting my start in Panama City, I didn't have really a network like I had built in Tallahassee. So I applied for a lot of different jobs, but finally landed a job at a social service nonprofit working with children birth to age five as their first ever community relations specialist, which included doing a lot of their public relations activities of course. And the interim director at the time, Dr. Ed Wright, who had a great history of being a Florida State University, Panama City dean, and all sorts of other accolades, he was an interim director and he took a chance on me. He said, "I saw potential and I wanted you on the team." And then he transitioned out, and the organization hired someone new. But that's really what got my footing in Panama City. He did something which is so incredible from a leadership perspective that I try to do in my own career, which is he brought together all of the top communications professionals in the Panama City area, invited them to a lunch just to meet me.

‍Heidi Otway: Wow. That is so remarkable.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes. And I still keep in touch with every single one of those ladies today. And that really propelled me to be able to do more and more things, I believe, with my career starting off in Panama City.

‍Heidi Otway: You had a network supporting you right at the start.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes. It's so hard to do that on your own.

‍Heidi Otway: It is.

Jennifer Conoley: Especially as a 20-something year old, fresh-faced, and wanting to do a lot. So that connection really was just phenomenal for me.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah, I can imagine. Even in my career, I tell everyone, I did not get here by myself. I had a lot of people supporting me. So I'm sure you had that same experience with those ladies supporting you along the way.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah. So then fast-forward a little bit more, I had outgrown my role at that organization, but the same gentleman, Dr. Ed Wright, was then the interim director for the Bay County Economic Development Alliance. And he reached out to me and said, "Hey, we're going to hire a director of marketing and communications. I really think you should look at applying." And I said, "I have no idea what economic development is." And he said, "You'll be fine, trust me." And so sure enough, in the interim role yet again, he recruited me over to the Bay County EDA.

And that is really where my start in learning all about what it takes to be competitive in economic development and recruit companies to our communities. That's where I got my start. And he is the one who made sure that I really took time to research if he gave me any sort of press release to write, like on an upcoming tax exemption that was going to be going on the city ballot. He said, "I need you to research it." He said, "I'm not going to spoon-feed you research and figure out why we need to ask our voters to vote this back in." And that is really the mindset I've used in my career as I've been a self-taught economic developer.

‍Heidi Otway: Wow. Wow. So what else did you do to teach yourself about economic development? And for those who are listening, I'm going to assume you know what it means, but we have an expert here who can tell you more context about economic development in the state of Florida.

‍Jennifer Conoley:  Yeah. Well, in short, really, economic development is all about growing high-skill, high-wage jobs in your community, and diversifying our industry sectors. So that if we're rocked by a hurricane or an oil spill that affects maybe your tourism industry, we've got other industry sectors that our economy can be stabilized by. And so that's what it's about, about community building. And who doesn't want to work and live in a community that's thriving. So yeah, that's really the basis of it. So I had the opportunity to learn from some great leaders when I was serving my time at the Bay County EDA. And then when I had the opportunity to transition to a role with our electric-owned utility, at the time, Gulf Power, which was then owned by Southern Company, I got to broaden my horizons even more.

That's where the regionalism piece came in for me, and the statewide perspective. Because at the time we had the president of Gulf Power, Stan Connolly not related to me. Our last names are different. And we had to say that often.

‍Heidi Otway: All the time.

‍Jennifer Conoley: But Stan really was a leader throughout the whole state of Florida, even though the Gulf Power territory was just Northwest Florida, and wanted to get involved, and wanted our voices to be heard. And so I just learned all I could from those types of leaders, and just dug in deep and found that's where my passion was. Because when you go back to my childhood and growing up in Port St. Joe, I was there when the paper mill closed there. And so that affected hundreds of families. Mine obviously included. And once the paper mill closed, there was no other industry for these men and women to go to. Not in that community directly.

And then certainly as people try to find jobs nearby that became oversaturated. And so I felt the effects directly of what it means for a company to shutter like that. And so once I then put those dots together that economic developers are out there to, maybe you can't keep a company from closing down, but maybe you can find these other industries that can be there in support of it, so that we have places for our people to work, if that is to happen. So that direct connection is really what fuels me every day to do the role that I am so privileged to do.

‍Heidi Otway: Wow. So then you moved from that position. How did you transition from Gulf Power to where you are now?

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah. So it's all about timing. And I feel so much in my journey throughout my career it has been all about timing and the people that God's placed in my path at the right time. And that's really what happened with the Florida's Great Northwest job that opened up. It was in late 2019, and it was just my time. The former CEO announced her resignation, and I had many people call and say, "Jennifer, you need to at least apply for this job." So the organization did a nationwide search. And so I competed against some other heavy hitters, but I was very thrilled that they put their faith in me to lead the organization. So the transition was not delightful because I started March 23rd of 2020.

‍Heidi Otway: Oh my goodness. When everything shut down.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes. Yes. Literally everything had shut down.

‍Heidi Otway: That day.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes.

‍Heidi Otway: That day. Oh my goodness.

‍Jennifer Conoley: So my saving grace too, was I had already been doing a similar role in Northwest Florida. I knew many of the people, so I had lots of support.

‍Heidi Otway: And you knew the region.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Exactly. So we got through it. We worked together. I had a great team at Florida's Great Northwest that kept powering through, and we got through the tough time. And we were able to do some unique things too online. We started our, it's not necessarily a podcast, but it's a video series, we call it, called Broadcasting Northwest Florida. And that got a lot of attention, especially as people had nothing else to do.

‍Heidi Otway: Right. 

‍Jennifer Conoley: So we were able to take that and move with it. And so now we finally, four years later, have gotten our feet very wet, and we have our foundation strong, and now we just, our momentum is nothing but up.

‍Heidi Otway: That's amazing. So tell me about some of the industries that are in Northwest Florida, like your core industries.

‍Jennifer Conoley: And so just for anyone who might not know what I'm talking about when I keep saying Northwest Florida. We are the panhandle, as people traditionally call it. We're trying to elevate ourselves through our business brand to show that we're more than beaches, and we've got a lot of innovation happening. So my region covers Escambia County all the way to Wakulla County up to the state line.

‍Heidi Otway: I didn't know about Wakulla County. I looked at the map and I said, "Wait a minute. Real? What?"

‍Jennifer Conoley:  Yes.

‍Heidi Otway: Tell me about that.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Well, one of the game-changing source of funding that we have for coastal Northwest Florida is Triumph Gulf Coast. And that's really what sets our region apart. So I'll talk about all the investment that's going into that with our industry sectors, but that is a result of the BP oil spill.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah, I remember that.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Over and above the environmental restoration dollars that were awarded to the state. This is to help us diversify our economy in the eight counties on the coast that were most disproportionately affected by the oil spill. And so that's Escambia to Wakulla. So last year we made the strategic move to add Wakulla County, from our 12 county footprint, add them as our 13th county, a Baker's Dozen.

‍Heidi Otway: That's amazing. I love Wakulla County.

‍Jennifer Conoley: So that we all are working together on that same line. Because Florida's Great Northwest is the marketing arm for this money, and it's $1.5 billion in total. .

‍Heidi Otway: I was going to ask you, 1.5 billion.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes. And now I think close to 700 million, give or take some, have been awarded, to this point, by the Triumph board. And so we're continuing to find opportunities for investment with these dollars. Because it's tremendous, it aligns exactly with our target industry sectors. So going back to your question about what industries are in the region, what we focus on most, and it's all in alignment with the state of Florida's. The of Florida has a broad set of target industry sectors. And we use, through data, we know what we can compete for in Northwest Florida. So aviation, aerospace, and defense is probably what we spend the bulk of our time recruiting.

‍Heidi Otway: Because you have a lot of military bases there.

Jennifer Conoley: We do. We have six.

‍Heidi Otway: Six.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Six military bases. All with an aviation focus. And 3000 men and women are separating from those bases every year. And their average age is 38. So talk about workforce as a challenge across this whole country. Talk about a hidden talent pipeline. And we've always been working to try to connect them to the opportunities in the commercial space, but we're working to even drill down further to where we can understand what their occupations have been in the military. It doesn't easily translate just yet to the commercial sector. So we're trying to do more around connecting them with the opportunities in the commercial sector so we can keep those people here.

‍Heidi Otway: Exactly.

‍Jennifer Conoley:  And that helps us recruit companies to the area.

‍Heidi Otway: Is there an educational component? Because in our work in economic development with different groups, they actually would work, partner with the community colleges to create these special programs to teach skills for the employers there.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes.

‍Heidi Otway: Are you all doing that as well?

Jennifer Conoley: Yeah, absolutely. Our educational pipeline in the region is just phenomenal. So you've got universities, our state colleges, our technical centers, our school districts, they're all in alignment to show that pipeline from K-12, all the way through to certification or degree program. So there's some instances where we can help them be able to translate... Actually while they're still in the military, be able to get those certifications maybe for an airframe and mechanic program or power plant, A and P license that they can get that while they're in the military, so they can easily go to work once they're exiting.

‍Heidi Otway: Wow.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah.

‍Heidi Otway: And then they don't have to pay for it because the military covers that, right?

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. There's a lot of interesting things that we can do there. Yeah. And I can't say enough about our career source network either. They're integral part of making these connections happen for workforce development. So there are specialists there.

‍Heidi Otway: Can I just tell you, I love the brand Florida's Great Northwest. It is just so powerful and just so direct. It's like, wow, I want to be a part of that.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.

‍Heidi Otway: Wow.

‍Jennifer Conoley: So a little bit about the branding. So we actually, we are still a relatively young organization. We were stood up in the year 2000 by three private sector companies, Gulf Power, PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, and the St. Joe Company. At the time, St. Joe was the largest landowner owner in the state of Florida. But they're still a major player in our region specifically. But they wanted to have an organization to be the marketing arm for our region. And so we had some nicknames in the past. Panhandle. I know that's a reference a lot of people still use, and I use it too, but Northwest Florida gives us a little better air about ourselves. And then there's the Redneck Riviera.

‍Heidi Otway: Oh, I've heard that.

‍Jennifer Conoley: So we want to showcase ourselves as we truly are, which is more than our beaches.

‍Heidi Otway: Exactly.

‍Jennifer Conoley: And we're a business location too.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah. What initiatives or programs that you're working on that you're most excited about right now?

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah. So really when we think about Florida's Great Northwest, we focus on marketing, advocacy, and collaboration. I call ourselves a professional matchmaker. So we are out there, we are doing some great things with proactive lead generation and using AI to identify companies.

‍Heidi Otway: Really?

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes. And so we are finding companies with expansion potential, crafting a data-driven marketing message, and saying, "Give Northwest Florida consideration if you need to expand or relocate your business." And so once we have that information from the company and we talk with them, then we disseminate that lead to all of our 13 counties, and give them a chance to compete for it. So we use a phrase called co-opetition.

‍Heidi Otway: Co-opetition. I like that.

‍Jennifer Conoley: So we need to cooperate when it makes sense. Northwest Florida, being a big brand, and making sure that we're working together to tell our story, but competing when necessary. So we've got a few companies right now that are very focused on Northwest Florida. Hundreds of jobs. One county is looking at a 500 job creation project. The company seems to be moving forward with that in aviation aerospace. And so exciting to me, I've got some of our rural counties, Gulf, Franklin and Wakulla County, in particular, that also have active prospects that Florida's Great Northwest is working with them on to bring to the table. So that really makes me excited. At the end of the day, my goal is to help each one of our 13 counties have some sort of company locate in their region, and creating those high quality jobs.

‍Heidi Otway: Jobs. Yeah. High paying. So your AI data-driven approach to recruitment just totally negates the question I was going to ask, which is, if someone is listening to this podcast and they're interested in learning more about Florida's Great Northwest, and all the opportunities that are available, how do they get in touch with you? What's their first best step? Because they may already be in your [inaudible 00:21:57] AI driven [inaudible 00:21:58]

‍Jennifer Conoley:They may. If you get an email or something from us, just know that our process is working. But seriously, it's all about relationships. So floridasgreatnorthwest.com. We're all over. Got a great website, all over social. And I'm always happy to connect with people one-on-one. I truly believe... We're in the relationship business.

‍Heidi Otway: That's right.

‍Jennifer Conoley: And so that's what it's all about, making connections that... You never know the seed you plant today or 22 years ago, where it can lead you. Like today, it's a full circle moment for me. This has just been phenomenal.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah. I'm remarkably proud of you, and I'm trying not to cry because I'm like, "Oh my God, look what Jennifer is doing. This is so amazing." So as we wrap up this conversation, I want to find out, I know you got a family, you're active in your community, so when you're not attracting businesses and helping those expand in the region, what do you do in your spare time?

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yeah. Well, I have a beautiful family, and two young boys, so you can find me at baseball, soccer field or football field at the moment.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah. Yeah.

‍Jennifer Conoley: So they keep us very busy. And just like to serve in our community. I have the exciting privilege of serving on the Collegiate School of Florida State University, Panama City's Board. It's a new charter school they've set up in Panama City. And doing some work in our church and just trying to stay involved. Yeah.

‍Heidi Otway: Well, you're also active at the state level.

‍Jennifer Conoley: I am, yes. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up, because I get to serve right now as vice chair of Select Florida. That is our foreign direct investment, international marketing arm that's promoting Florida across the world. And so it's been really great to be able to work alongside our state team and Florida Secretary of Commerce, Alex Kelly. He is doing tremendous work for our state.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah. We're trying to get him on our podcast.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Yes. Well, maybe I can help with that a little bit.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah, thank you.

Jennifer Conoley: Yeah, so it's great because Florida is so big and diverse. I like to say we're five states in one.

‍Heidi Otway: Yeah, I agree.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Northwest Florida is one of those states. And so it's really important to see the thread that brings us together at the end of the day and connect all those dots, and make sure no one's left out. Our rural communities don't need to be left out. Our large communities don't need to be. It's all about inclusion for everyone. So we got to keep Florida great.

‍Heidi Otway: Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for all that you do. I'm so proud of the woman, leader, CEO that you've become. So thank you for being on the Fluent in Floridian podcast. Thank you so much.

‍Jennifer Conoley: Such a privilege. Thank you, Heidi.

‍Heidi Otway: Great.