Roane Alliance Places in TN’s Top 10 Best Economic Development Web Sites
Thursday September 24, 2009
Kingston, TN -- The Roane Alliance was recognized at a statewide conference recently for having one of the state's best economic development web sites.
The 2009 LinkTenn Award was given to only 10 economic development organizations across the state and the other organizations so honored included several much larger organizations, such as the greater Memphis Chamber and the Chattanooga Area Chamber. The beginning field of web sites analyzed by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development staff included more than 400 web sites from all over the state.
"This is not just for fancy graphics," Assistant Commission ECD Commissioner Mark Drury said in announcing the awards. Drury said the award was for up-to-date, effective, accurate, as well as user-friendly sites. Among the criteria for the award were: search engine rankings; availability of downloadable documents and data; effective branding; ease of navigation; interactivity with users; valuable use of maps and overall appearance.
"I am honored to receive this statewide recognition for the Alliance," said Leslie Henderson, President/CEO of The Roane Alliance. "We have known for some time that much of industrial recruitment nowadays is done through the web and that communities without an effective web site are not even in the ballgame.
"Keeping up a good effective web presence takes a lot of staff time as well as a lot of financial commitment, so it is gratifying to receive state-wide recognition for all that hard work and financial investment," Henderson said.
This was the first time the state has given this award and none of the communities had been told this was going to be announced. The awards were given out at the Governor's Annual Economic and Community Development Conference in Nashville at the opening ECD Commissioner's luncheon on Monday, September 14.
The Knoxville Oak Ridge Innovation Valley - a regional economic development initiative in which Roane County is a partner - topped the list with a 2009 LinkTenn award for Outstanding Achievement and another award winner was another regional partnership that Roane County is a part of - the East Tennessee Economic Development Agency.
The Roane Alliance is Roane County's economic development organization and consists of both public and private organizations, including the Roane County Chamber of Commerce, the Roane County Industrial Development Board and the Roane County Visitors Bureau. The Roane Alliance's web site is: www.roanealliance.org
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