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Strategy & Leadership Programs

Innovation Councils

Businesses and community leaders guide the work of Greater Iowa City, Inc. (Greater IC) through Innovation Councils.

Each council is intended to be a working group comprised of individuals who have experience and understanding to conduct outreach and develop the work. There are opportunities for CEO’s, directors, and other leaders who are given the time to tackle issues and partner with Greater IC staff to facilitate the programs.

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Executive Council

The Executive Council includes public and private investors that are responsible for the guidance and oversight of Greater IC’s functions and budget. They oversee local data and research to support long term initiatives that benefit the larger community and collaborate with the municipalities, county, and University of Iowa to support and sustain future area leaders. They also oversee the advocacy direction for Greater IC, including policy and legislative affairs as well as local advocacy that impacts our business community.
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Business Support Innovation Council

The Business Support Innovation Council offers business-led guidance to support local employers with special initiatives and professional development. This council is dedicated to the advancement of supporting particularly small, emerging, and locally owned companies.
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Economic Development Innovation Council

The Economic Development Innovation Council provides strategic direction on business attraction, business retention, business expansion, and investment strategies making the greater Iowa City area the choice for new companies and their executives.
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Community Development Innovation Council

The Community Development Innovation Council focuses on growing activity centers and commercial neighborhoods to support community-wide livability. The council provides opportunities for businesses to collaborate on public / private projects. It includes workforce solutions like transportation, childcare, and housing.

Our voice. Your business.

Greater Iowa City, Inc. advocates for economic growth policies on the local, state and federal levels.

We collaborate with the business community, local stakeholders, and regional partners to develop our yearly policy agenda to create a unified voice for the region. We are a non-partisan organization that does not endorse or donate to political candidates. We support First Amendment rights for all people and encourage elected officials, candidates, and citizens to be civil during discussions and debates on policy issues and when expressing political opinions. We are committed to leading by example.

The Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance and Greater Iowa City, Inc. annually recommend and support positions on key policy issues affecting our region and state’s economic growth. These recommendations are made with significant input from our combined 2,000 members, investors, partners, and community stakeholders.

Greater IC is focused on building productive public-private partnerships, and a key stakeholder in all our work are our local municipalities – Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty. As such, we are creating advocacy statements for each city to focus on specific, actionable ideas that align with our urban planning principles and address challenges faced by the business community. These advocacy statements are:

  1. Hyperlocal. Each municipality has specific opportunities as well as challenges, and we want our advocacy to be specific to each. However, our recommendations will all be informed by the same planning principles.
  2. Evolving. We will update these statements to reflect current issues. They are not a comprehensive list of our values, but rather specific goals we’d like to achieve in partnership with our cities.
  3. Informed by the local business community. Each statement was created in partnership with business leaders from that specific community and reflects issues they deemed most important.

The intent of these statements is to be clear about our priorities and create opportunities for productive discussions. We will make progress toward our goals by convening groups and facilitating conversation.

Leadership Programs

Executive Leadership Program (ELP)

We have teamed up with the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business to bring you this special leadership program!

 

Through four day-long sessions, participants experience an immersive deep-dive into today’s most pressing leadership challenges and learn tools to successfully lead and grow their business. Each session is facilitated by an engaging expert affiliated with the Tippie Leadership Collaborative.

ELP Class of 2023

Community Leadership Program (CLP)

Our premier leadership program was created in 1990 and was formed to foster informed, well-equipped invested leaders. Through the program’s life, more than 700 current and future leaders have gained insight into the issues, opportunities, strengths and challenges within our community. CLP is a year-long program, including 11 sessions. Applications open each spring.

CLP Class of 2023-2024

Board Leadership Program (BLP)

In partnership with Community Foundation of Johnson County and United Way of Johnson & Washington Counties, this education series prepares individuals to serve as board members confidently and effectively for local nonprofit organizations. Participants receive training, broaden their professional networks, and learn about opportunities in the greater Iowa City area.

Be the first to know when applications open for the leadership program you are interested in!