The weather on our first try turned out to be frightful with ice covered roads that necessitated postponing the Cheatham County Prosperity Summit. After what seemed to be a Herculean task of finding a date that worked, we found May 28th — a date that I expect to be a perfect, warm spring day in beautiful Kingston Springs.
The Cheatham County Prosperity Summit is hosted by Cheatham County in conjunction with the National Association of Counties (NACo) and WealthWorks, with support from the Ford Foundation. Cheatham County was selected through a competitive application process to host the summit, which will introduce Cheatham County to the WealthWorks framework, help build strategies to strengthen regional relationships and identify ways to deepen and sustain economic development activities. The full-day event will convene business and community leaders from Cheatham County, national experts and NACo staff to discuss asset-based economic development and generate creative solutions to strengthen the local economy. Since Cheatham County recently completed a strategic tourism inventory and plan, tourism and small business development will be the main focus of the summit.
About Daryl Phillips, CEcD
I am a professional economic developer. I presently work for communities and companies in developing and implementing workforce and economic development solutions as CEO of Phillips Economic Development Solutions (Phi EDS).
Prior to September 2017, I was the economic development professional who served a community team of elected officials, business people, community leaders and dedicated stakeholders for economic development in Cheatham County, Tennessee (pop. 39,880) and its four towns. During my five-year tenure, I served the team as Cheatham County grew over 1,700 jobs, turned around population declines at the start of this decade into healthy population growth, increased tourism expenditures 20.3% and local tax revenue from tourism 25.4%, grew sales tax revenue 36%, focused on developing the local workforce and was recognized by SmartAsset as having the 9th highest Incoming Investment Index of all the 95 counties in Tennessee.
I am a member of International Economic Development Council, Southern Economic Development Council, Tennessee Economic Development Council and International Council of Shopping Centers.
I have earned the designation of Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) from International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP) certification from National Development Council and hold a Master of Business Administration from Tennessee Technological University.
