The Miami-Dade Beacon Council has plans for initiatives and outreach missions in 2026 to drive economic development in the county by continuing to foster international relationships, marketing Miami and supporting small businesses. When it comes to initiatives, one of the council’s tasks is to sup port companies that are moving to Miami as well as those already here. “One big bucket of work is to run the attraction-retention of companies, and that’s how we support companies in landing here in Miami and companies that are here and staying here,” said Beacon Council President and CEO Rodrick Miller. “That’s very tactical. It might be things from helping them understand different incentives, providing market data, etc.” Mr. Miller added that the council had its “third best year ever last year,” with more than $1 billion in new investment in Miami in over 3,000 jobs. “We anticipate another year that’s going to be a strong year this year,” he said. “We had a lot of investment internationally from Spain, from Brazil, from all over the world really, and we anticipate that continuing.” He added that the international community is part of the reason there’s such a strong international showing, “but it’s also because [the council has] worked very diligently over the years to establish relationships in those markets.” “We’re consistently going to the markets where we see that there is high demand for the things that we’re good at, the sectors that we’re good at, and that there are quality companies coming out of that, and we anticipate that that’s going to continue,” Mr. Miller said. Another bucket of work, he said, is how the council markets Miami, which supports the first function. This encompasses how and where it tells Miami’s story, both in digital forms and missions. “The third area that we do is what we consider market competitiveness, or shaping the future,” he said. “How do we make the market fundamentally better? We’ve got some initiatives … in that area and some things that we’re going to start.” The Beacon Council has been focusing on what the talent pool means to companies. “On the initiative side of things, over the last year we’ve been spending a lot of time talking about talent,” Mr. Miller said. “Why have we been doing that? Well, the number-one driver of investment decisions by companies is their access to talent that has the capacity to do what it needs to do.” In addition, he said, $1 million was allocated out of the state legislature to lead an initiative called Talent Bridge Miami that connects employers, educators and talent. “We built the, I would say, prototype for a portal that supports companies in accessing data around what’s happening in the market as it relates to work,” Mr. Miller said. “This portal also serves as a connector between industry and training providers, because we know that these connections are vital, and this portal also provides insights on what’s happening in those sectors in terms of what skillsets are needed in the major challenges that companies are having, so talent’s going to continue to be a major focus for us going forward.” The council is also working toward providing more support for small and emerging enterprises, not only because Miami is a small business town but “to make sure [they] coordinate with [their] partners throughout the small business ecosystem so that those emerging enterprises have the support that they need.” He also said an education task force will probably be kicking off at the end of the second quarter “that will be focused on accessing data and putting together data and information so that there is clarity around what’s happening in our education system and it’s from an unbiased perspective.” “Markets are in transition, and Miami is one of those places that’s well-positioned to pivot to where the market’s going,” Mr. Miller said, “and we see our job at the Beacon Council as really trying to be insightful in terms of where the market is heading and helping pull together the elements of public, private and nonprofit support to us so that Miami can continue to be competitive and bring the best jobs and opportunities here.” The post Beacon Council’s Talent Bridge Miami leverages workforce appeared first on Miami Today. ...read more read less