2025 Emerging: Regionalism Outlook: Dean Thompson

Thompson’s 2025 Projection:

After a formation year for LORE in 2024, 2025 will serve as an action year for local regionalism efforts.

Do you see 2024 as being a catalyst year for regionalism talks in the greater Springfield area?
I think a tipping point in focusing more regionally would be in 2022, the northwest Arkansas trip that the (Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce) had. That’s really what propelled the discussion of regionalism. For LORE and for regionalism, we do see 2024 as a pivotal year because we are forming our strategy right now. In 2025, it would be more of an action year. We’re really still in that formation part where LORE as an organization has come together; the CEOs are conversing about how to make the greatest impact in the community. It just takes a little bit of time to put together.

What can we expect from LORE in 2025?
The big items haven’t changed – quality of life for your workforce and then also our image. Coming into ’25, what I think you can expect is sometime in the first quarter an announcement of, more specifically, what is going to be the first initiative that we take on. Then website rollout, and then also going out into the region for more strategic discussions with different stakeholders … to find out what’s impacting them from being successful. And then deciding after those conversations, what are some of the areas that LORE could potentially help. From day one, it’s always been don’t reinvent the wheel. If somebody’s working on it, then maybe there’s something more to do to help with that. But if nobody’s working on it and it needs to be addressed, then that’s something that LORE may consider leading.

The full list of CEOs who are involved has not yet been released. Is that something you anticipate in the first quarter, as well?
That’s the intent. The support, the commitment, the interest has not wavered any over the last six months. In fact, people keep asking me about it. You have a group of CEOs that have said, “We want to make sure this is done right. We need to take time to do that.” The intent is, yes, to come out first quarter of next year and discuss who those initial board members are, investors that’ll be part of incorporating it, and then there’s several others that have already showed interest.

LORE is patterned after a similar organization, the Northwest Arkansas Council, which has been in place for decades. Do you see our regionalism efforts progressing similarly? How will we differ from regionalism efforts in northwest Arkansas?
One of the first things is perspective, in that they have been doing it I believe around 30 years and they evolved over time. The Northwest Arkansas Council that we see today was not what was started in the beginning. There’s things that, in our area, that already exist that probably didn’t exist in the Northwest Arkansas Council area. A lot of the counties and cities have invested in economic development and professionals to do that. LORE does not need to be taking that on because you already have that need met. However, what LORE can do is help with efforts that maybe cross geographic boundaries. Let’s just take one topic that keeps coming up: attainable housing. It’s an example of how LORE can help cross jurisdictional boundaries within the region. There’s multiple cities within our 10-county footprint that have done some sort of housing study. There’s even private companies that have done that. But there’s no organization that is reaching out and pulling people as a convener to bring them to the table. And the key part of that is, LORE is not Springfield; LORE is not Branson. LORE is businesses – CEOs that have business interests throughout the region. It’s just a little bit different when CEOs are reaching out to communities and asking these types of questions versus an organization that may be tied to a geographic location.