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POSITIVELY CLEVELAND TO ANNOUNCE EXPANDED FOCUS
ON THE WEB
Group aims to shape region’s image
Bioscience directory live
CEO sees possibility to have impact greater than just luring visitors By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
Next Monday, May 14, roulette wheels will start spinning at the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland. In the fall of 2013, the new Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center will open its doors. In response, Positively Cleveland,
the local convention and visitors bureau, is transforming itself by focusing not only on bringing conventioneers and tourists to Northeast Ohio, but also on bolstering the economic impact of the region’s hospitality business. At Positively Cleveland’s annual meeting, set for this Wednesday, May 9, president and CEO David
Gilbert, who has led for the group for 16 months, will unveil a five-year strategic plan for the organization. Instead of just promoting the city to meeting planners and advertising tourist attractions such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in television markets outside the region, Mr. Gilbert said Positively Cleveland intends to play a greater
role in shaping “how Cleveland looks, acts and feels as a travel destination.” “We’re finally there, in terms of running with a new vision of the organization,” Mr. Gilbert said in an interview with Crain’s editorial board. “I honestly believe it is vastly different than how the organization was run prior.” He also will discuss plans for the See FOCUS Page 7
Bureau may host events a la sports commission
See SPORTS Page 7
BrandMuscle will move 150 to downtown 1100 Superior digs will offer room to add staff By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
By JOEL HAMMOND jmhammond@crain.com
As Positively Cleveland, the region’s convention and visitors bureau, lays out this Wednesday a detailed map for its future, it will look to the recent past of its downtown neighbor — the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission — as a potential guide. Positively Cleveland president and CEO David Gilbert — who in January 2011 assumed that role in addition to the same duties at the sports commission — said in a recent meeting with Crain’s editorial board that Positively Cleveland would explore owning and operating some of its own meetings and conferences. In creating its own events, Positively Cleveland would follow the lead of the sports commission, which in 2006 staged the first Continental Cup, an annual international youth
Crain’s first Bioscience Directory of Northeast Ohio companies, produced with the help of BioOhio, provides information about companies that are helping lead the state in a profound economic transformation. You can find the directory at www.CrainsCleveland.com/section/bioscience.
MARK STAHL PHOTOGRAPHY
Under-18 boys from the Internationals Soccer Club (blue), a team from Ohio, and Liberia FC (red) compete in the 2011 Continental Cup.
One of Northeast Ohio’s fastestgrowing software companies is moving to downtown Cleveland. BrandMuscle Inc. of Beachwood is in the process of finalizing a lease to take 40,000 square feet at 1100 Superior Ave., which is on the southwest corner of Superior and East 12th Street. The company Alexander today employs more than 150 people at its headquarters on Park East Drive in Beachwood. It plans to move all of them downtown before the end of 2012, said BrandMuscle CEO Phil Alexander. They’ll have a lot more leg room at 1100 Superior, formerly known as the Diamond Building. The new space on the building’s fourth and fifth floors is 5,000 square feet bigger See MOVE Page 6
Early signs of economic inclusion group’s ‘action steps’ show promise By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
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The Northeast Ohio construction industry soon may take a big step forward in the long-running effort to increase the presence of minorities and women at building sites.
After more than a year of work, the Commission on Economic Inclusion is preparing to release a study that will recommend as many as 10 “action steps” to bring more women and minorities onto area construction sites as both workers and as subcontractors. The study
includes a plan for what are called community benefits agreements, or CBAs, that set hiring requirements and offer developers incentives if goals are met. The inclusion commission’s April e-newsletter said the study’s findings “have been presented to, and
affirmed by, leaders of all segments involved in the construction arena: public and private sectors, project owners, construction companies, unions, economic inclusion organizations, training programs and others.” Joe Roman, president and CEO
of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, parent organization of the inclusion commission, was reluctant to disclose details of the study until it had been discussed with his group’s leadership. He said last Thursday, May 3, he hoped to be See INCLUSION Page 18
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SPECIAL SECTION
HIGHER EDUCATION Colleges’ add-on fees under more scrutiny as costs to attend continue to rise ■ Page 13 PLUS: GROWING VETERAN ENROLLMENT ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2012 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 33, No. 19