The Greater Des Moines Partnership touted its successes of the past year and laid out its goals and priorities for the year to come during its annual dinner celebration Thursday evening, saying the need to continue to focus on those things will continue to push the region forward and focus on results, not just action.

The event also marked the changing of the guard as the Partnership announced that David Stark, chief of government affairs and philanthropy at UnityPoint Health, will become the chairman of the Partnership’s board, taking the reins from MIke McCoy, CEO of NCMIC, who served as the 2023 board chair.

The Partnership held its annual celebration at the Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center in downtown Des Moines. It featured former NFL quarterback Alex Smith as the keynote speaker. Look for additional coverage from the evening in upcoming issues of the Business Record and at www.businessrecord.com.

The Business Record met with Stark, McCoy and Partnership President and CEO TIffany Tauscheck ahead of Thursday’s celebration to learn more about the organization’s successes in 2023 and how it plans to continue that momentum into the new year.

2023 successes

The Partnership released a list of accomplishments under 10 different categories, including economic development, talent attraction and retention, and placemaking among them.

But McCoy said possibly the Partnership’s biggest success of the past year was something that it didn’t see coming when they started the year: the transition in leadership from Jay Byers to Tauscheck as president and CEO.

“I think to really appreciate this you have to go back five, eight, 10 years to leadership, Partnership boards who were smart enough to know that at some point we’re going to need a ready now candidate to fill Jay’s shoes whenever he decided to retire or move on,” McCoy said. “Because they were smart enough to do that, because they found a leader like Tiffany and were able to groom Tiffany over time, Jay felt very comfortable with the transition and opportunity to go to Simpson College, and knew the Partnership would be in good  hands.”

McCoy said there were internal discussions about options, such as doing a national search compared to considering an internal candidate.  A national search would cost at least $100,000 and the process would be a distraction to the Partnership team and its mission, and that the end result was going to be the same, he said.

“We were so confident that it was a unanimous decision when it came to nominating and approving TIffany to the role of CEO,” McCoy said.

He said the planning by prior boards created a scenario where the  most qualified candidate was already on the Partnership team and ready to take over.

McCoy said that transition alone was a big accomplishment, but that thanks to the quality of the Partnership team, every goal identified at the end of 2022 was accomplished in 2023.

Another major achievement wasn’t part of those original goals, and that was the 11-county listening tour that Tauscheck and others embarked on after she began in her new role in July, he said.

“She and her team had over 300 conversations in a period of a few  months that would involve business leaders, government leaders, people in all of our 11 counties,” McCoy said. “So the two biggest things perhaps that we did all year were never even contemplated at the end of 2022.”

McCoy also cited the Des Moines Airport Improvement project and the passage of a bond issue last fall to help fund that project as another top success of 2023.

Other successes that Partnership identified in 2023 include:

• 31 business relocation or expansion projects.
• More than $2 billion in capital investment
• 332 industry and entrepreneurial meetings
• The launch of the DSM RFI Ready program that identifies 19 sites in the region that are ready for development
• The “Do Something Greater” talent and economic development marketing campaign drew more than 291,000 web users and 27 million impressions.
• Hosted the Future World of Work Summit with more than 100 people attending.
• Launched the updated Career Center with job posting through the region.
• The DSM Intern Connection summer event series hosted more than 300 college students representing more than 50 colleges and 70 employers.
• Ground being broken on the Des Moines International Airport improvement project and the Scott Avenue site of the ICON Water Trails project.
• Supported 51 businesses through Scale DSM and Spark DSM programs along with other services and training.
• Hosted nearly 300 people at the Inclusion Summit.
• Hosted 177 people on the DMDC advocacy trip to Washington D.C.

Strategic priorities for 2024 

• Expand internship and leadership development programs
• Enhance quality of life and the vibrancy of the community through placemaking projects to strengthen placemaking as a tool for talent attraction and retention.
• Conduct a Global DSM Talent Study to update a plan with intentional steps that can be taken to attract and retain talent from around the world.
• Support activation of the Capital Crossroads roadmap
• Amplify storytelling of what Central Iowa has to offer, strengthen relationships with regional partners, and host a Regionalism Summit to convene leaders from across the 11-county area the Partnership serves.

Stark said the goals are “nicely interlinked” to build on the momentum that is underway in Central Iowa.

“You’ll be hearing about placemaking activities in Grinnell, in Marshalltown, in Knoxville, along with Urbandale, Ankeny and Des Moines, and being very intentional about what that does for quality of life and economic development to attract businesses here and to attract people here,” he said.

Stark said there are two “f’s” for 2024: “Focus and finish. We’ll continue to focus on those important pieces and we’re going to continue to finish those most important pieces. The airport is a great example. Getting new businesses to locate here. Capital Crossroads and continue to finish that work, and a very intentional bias on outcomes on how we drive that in 2024.”

Although the Partnership has seen success, it needs to stay focused on getting those results, “and not just activity,” Tauscheck said.

She said the 11-county listening tour was “imperative” in helping to develop the Partnership’s strategic priorities for 2024.

“That essentially informed our plan,” she said. “My vision was and still is one Partnership, which means internally, externally we’re all working together towards those highlighted goals. That focus and finish is right on and is in direct alignment with that one Partnership vision. We have to have focus and we have to finish the job.”