High-Skill Investors attended their fifth benchmarking City Visit to the Research Triangle Park Region of North Carolina in December, 2009. This trip was the third out-of-state visit (Austin 2008, Memphis 2007, Jacksonville 2006 & Orlando 2005). The LEDC's High-Skill/High-Wage Investor Group spent three days in meetings and touring with local representatives of the Chamber and Economic Development Organizations, industry and local leaders, as well as the medical community and high-skill/high-wage employers.
Trip highlights included a tours of IBM research labs, CISCO, SAS, Duke University, North Carolina State Centennial Campus, residential and mixed-use development, WakeMed, major redevelopment projects such as the American Tobacco Campus, and meetings with some of Raleigh/Durham's most creative individual.
Y Lakeland - Connect With Us
The LEDC officially launched www.ylakeland.com in 2007.
The goal of Y Lakeland is to connect college and high school students to Lakeland with information that is relevant to young people, whether that is finding information on an internship in our city or what is happening this weekend in Lakeland.
Our current intern is Lakeland native Josh Nederveld, a student at the University of Florida. He is a double major in Journalism and German. He combines his knowledge of pop culture and Lakeland with his extensive vocabulary to connect you to our city.
At Y Lakeland, the blog topics are many and varied. Some recent posts include previews about local events, like college movie nights at Lakeland’s Polk Theatre. Josh also writes news updates from Lakeland and around Polk County, like the Legoland deal and High-Speed Rail.
He is always on the lookout for new stores and restaurants opening around town—Evolution Records and Jimmy Johns downtown have both been featured recently. And he features pieces on the city of Lakeland itself, such as good biking spots and parks around town, which is just part of what makes living in Lakeland such an amazing experience.
Here are some of Josh’s recent posts that you might want to check out:
If you have children or friends in College or High-School have them check out our website at www.ylakeland.com . To receive Josh’s daily blogs you can save our website on your favorites or just do what most students do to stay connected, friend ylakeland on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
Y Lakeland launched an 8-week (June-July) Summer Leadership Program for interns and new hires starting in the Summer, 2008. Since its inception in 2008, this program has had 86 participants from 33 local companies.
Interns and new hires participated in eight half-day events including, but not limited to, opening team building event, local tours including Hollis Gardens, Polk Museum, Polk Theatre, Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture, attending a Flying Tigers Game, Cypress Gardens, wakeboarding, BBQ in a City Park, closing awards/testimonial lunch with sponsors, etc.
2008-2009 SLP Facts:
Participants: 86
Number of Companies: 33
Average Age: 25
Interns: 33
New Hires:53
From Lakeland: 25
Other Cities in Florida: 34
International: 4 (Russia, Germany, Honduras, Vietnam)