Having served more than eight years with the Legislative Information Office, Myles Kappelman is accustomed to working with a wide variety of people, from legislators to members of the public and even foreign visitors. Before working in state government, he taught English as a second language in Japan. An avid traveler, he’s been to 17 countries or territories, among them Kuwait, Iceland and Kosovo. Now, as the new economic development and marketing coordinator of the Indianola Development Association, Kappelman will use his skills to connect businesses with development opportunities.

What did you do while you were with the state of Iowa?

When I first worked at the LIO, we put out a weekly publication called Session Briefs. I had an idea in about 2002 that (the print version) was kind of old and outdated, and we started doing it online. We tripled our subscriptions, with less money.

I also did most of the international relations work, speaking to visitors about the legislative process, giving them tours of the Capitol. The Legislature allowed me to buy flags for each of the countries of the world. So on the table while we were talking, there would be a globe, an Iowa flag and a flag from the visiting country. The African visitors were especially impressed with that. One guy said to me, “I didn’t know anyone outside of Washington, D.C., knew what our flag looked like.” They were so wowed by that $3 flag.

What sort of skills do you feel will carry over well in your new position?

One of the objectives of the IDA is to increase commercial development in the city of Indianola, and you have to be able to put yourself in that business person’s shoes. And some of them may be international business people.

What are some of the immediate challenges the IDA faces?

One challenge is that Indianola right now does not have a lot of land that’s ready to be developed. We have to remedy that situation and help businesses negotiate with landowners that might be considering selling their property. Secondly, we have a marketing committee that’s working with a marketing firm to brand the city of Indianola. We need to get Indianola on people’s minds, and that’s what the marketing committee is going to do.

Are there particular industry niches that Indianola is targeting, or is it more broad-based?

We would be open to proposals by any company that would want to come here. We are not really looking for heavy industry or industry that would be polluting in any way. We have a light industrial park; a goal would be to fill that up with some high-tech, advanced manufacturing. Another area we would want to look at is establishing an office park, where you could have Web design firms, software firms. With Indianola having its own fiber network, Internet-based firms should find that appealing.

Will the Internet play a key role in marketing Indianola?

Yes. We’re going to redesign our Web site as part of our marketing campaign. We’re going to keep it as a unified effort in branding the city. So the Internet is going to be a big part of our marketing campaign. That’s how you initially hook people, but it’s still going to require face-to-face contacts with people to get them to relocate here.

What’s your background?

I graduated from Pleasantville High School. I started off at Des Moines Area Community College and after two years transferred to the University of Northern Iowa. I interned right after college with the state treasurer’s office for about a year. Then I moved to Japan to teach English for 3 1/2 years in the Japanese public school system. I had studied in Japan as an exchange student, and I knew that I wanted to go back. I met my wife, Kanan, there. After deciding to get married ¬¬- she’s from New York – we had to decide where to live. It took me three years to talk her into Iowa, and now she loves it.

What’s the best part of this job for you so far?

Frankly, I love following all the development plans happening in the metro area. I was in high school during the ’80s when there was the big exodus out of the state. Now it’s great to see a young and vibrant metro area emerging here. So economic development is a passion, and I’m finally doing what I’m most passionate about. So I’m doing my hobby, basically.