Business Investment & Attraction (BI&A)

Building Investment-Ready Communities

Attracting investment is about far more than marketing. Communities that successfully attract and retain investment understand that investors are looking for more than available land, incentives, or promotional materials. They are looking for communities that are prepared, responsive, competitive, and ready to support long-term business success.

Business Investment & Attraction (BI&A) is a core course designed for economic development practitioners responsible for attracting new business investment, supporting business expansion, and strengthening community investment readiness. The course provides a practical framework for understanding what investors and site selectors look for, how investment decisions are made, and how communities can position themselves to compete effectively in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Participants will learn how to assess Community Investment Readiness (CIR), identify and target investment opportunities, develop compelling value propositions, build investor-focused marketing strategies, navigate site selection processes, and manage investment opportunities through the full investment lifecycle. The course also explores emerging trends influencing investment decisions, including workforce availability, reshoring and nearshoring, ESG considerations, Indigenous economic participation, resilience, and the growing role of technology and data in investment attraction.

Whether your community is beginning its investment attraction journey or looking to strengthen an existing program, BI&A provides practical tools, strategies, and resources to help communities move from promotion to preparation and from opportunity to investment success.

This is a core course within our Community Economic Development Certificate Program.

Registration

*The online version of this course is currently being updated. We will enable registration as soon as it is completed.

Is your community investment ready?

Take EDA's online Mini CIR Assessment Tool here.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Explain the purpose of Business Investment & Attraction and its relationship to other economic development strategies.
Assess a community's investment readiness using key indicators such as sites, infrastructure, workforce, and approval processes.
Apply current trends, including reshoring, trade diversification, ESG, and workforce as an investment filter, to strengthen and position a community’s value proposition.
Identify target sectors and investors that fit a community's assets, capacity, and long term goals.
Develop a basic BI&A strategy that aligns with community analysis and existing business base.
Describe how the site selection process works from the investor's perspective.
Prepare essential investment ready materials, including community profiles, site information, and value propositions.

Prepare essential investment ready materials, including community profiles, site information, and value propositions.
Build and communicate regulatory certainty as a value proposition element, coordinating across planning, infrastructure, and permitting, to ensure what is marketed matches what investors will experience.
Explain how to integrate BI&A with BR&E so attraction efforts support, rather than undermine, existing businesses.
Manage an investment pipeline using a CRM-based approach, building consistent relationships with site selectors and investors over multi-year timelines through appropriate channels and partnerships.
Develop simple metrics and reporting approaches to track BI&A performance and inform adjustments over time.
Describe how investment readiness and reputation affect a community's resilience and recovery after disruptions.

Delivery Option & Cost

Individual

Online, self-directed learning. Available 24-7.

$195 Members $295 Non-Members

Group

Hybrid- Online:

Self-directed, augmented with live instructor sessions

$325 Members $435 Non-Members

In person:

Group session in your community. One day instructor-led online workshop.

$2950 Members $3450 Non-Members