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6 <br /> Steve Brantley, Orange County Director of Economic Development, made the following <br /> PowerPoint presentation: <br /> Economic Development Report <br /> November 17, 2016 <br /> Assembly of Governments Meeting <br /> Agricultural Economic Development <br /> • Orange County Food Council working to build a local food system that ensures: <br /> o Health <br /> o Sustainable agriculture <br /> o Access for all local residents <br /> • Piedmont Food & Agriculture Processing Center (PFAP) <br /> o Continues to incubate new food processing businesses <br /> o Now offers expansion potential at the County's newly renovated "Cedar Grove <br /> Park & Community Center" <br /> • New Initiatives - Efforts underway to have the County: <br /> o Potentially lease the 400-acre "Breeze Farm"agriculture training facility <br /> o Create a public-private partnership to facilitate a higher level of effectiveness <br /> 19th Annual Orange County Agriculture Summit - February 27th 2017 <br /> Orange County Visitors Bureau <br /> • N. C. Department of Agriculture collaboration to develop a new smart media App <br /> (called North Carolina Farms) highlighting Orange County's: <br /> o Fresh food markets <br /> o Farm tours <br /> o "Pick your Own" produce farms <br /> • Launched the "All Are Welcome" LGBT friendly campaign <br /> (Won Platinum award from Destination Management Association of N. C.) <br /> • During the year: <br /> o Served 12,000 walk-in visitors <br /> o Distributed over 50,000 visitors guides and maps <br /> • Tourism services provided to the Towns included: <br /> o Hillsborough Handmade Puppet Parade <br /> o Carrboro's Music Festival <br /> o Chapel Hill's Festival <br /> • Launching North American Travel Journalists Association conference to bring 100 <br /> national travel writers to the County spring 2017 <br /> Small Business Promotion <br /> • LAUNCH Chapel Hill <br /> o Lease was renewed for 3 more years <br /> o Will double in size to add more co-working space <br /> o Assisted 63 entrepreneurial start-up firms since 2013; <br /> o Currently hosting the 6th cohort <br /> o 23 full-time and 55 part-time jobs were supported by 7 LAUNCH firms in 2016 <br /> • Orange County Economic Development's new web-based searchable database listing <br /> all identified Orange County firms. <br />