At a Georgetown City Council and Scott county fiscal court workshop, Andy Johnson, chief policy officer and regional engagement director for Commerce Lexington, updated local leaders on the regional competitiveness plan and the organization’s talent-attraction campaign.

Johnson said the plan aims “to increase jobs, good paying jobs in the region, and … to attract and retain the talent that we need to support those industries,” and presented early digital performance metrics from the campaign launched this fall.

The campaign, Johnson said, launched its digital ads on Oct. 1 and ran through January in the first phase. Commerce Lexington reported more than 1,000,000 unique impressions, about 3,500,000 total impressions, roughly 20,000 site visits to the campaign site and more than 78,000 engagements; more than 300 users clicked from the campaign to posted job listings on Indeed, Johnson said. The regional talent site is described as a 30-page “live, work, play” resource and includes a regional map, a cost-of-living calculator and a jobs board.

Jack Connor, representing Scott County United, and Mike Hockensmith, president of Scott County United, described how the regional marketing work complements local economic development efforts and site marketing. Connor said that on a per-capita funding formula both the city and county “did $25,000 each” previously and that Scott County United contributed $10,000 toward the county’s funding level; he asked leaders to consider continuing that level of support for 2025.

Johnson outlined the plan’s next steps: expanded county-specific pages, a phase 2 “community quiz” that will match prospective residents to communities in the nine-county region, continued paid social campaigns targeting alumni and past visitors, and a new metrics dashboard to show regional progress to site selectors. The plan will also continue outreach to national site selectors and industry targets and increase focus on foreign direct investment, Johnson said.

Speakers and local officials asked about housing and workforce strategy. Johnson and other presenters cited the Kentucky Housing Corporation gap analysis: Scott County’s current housing gap was reported as about 3,600 units, Fayette County’s gap about 22,000 units, and the nine-county region’s gap about 37,400 units, figures Johnson said were drawn from the corporation’s online analysis tool.

Commerce Lexington described the plan’s policy work as advocacy in Frankfort and Washington, D.C., to secure infrastructure and housing funding and to support programs such as the Kentucky Product Development Initiative, which the presentation credited with helping make more job sites shovel-ready.

Lori Saunders, representing the tourism commission, emphasized that tourism and quality-of-life marketing are part of the region’s economic pitch and said the tourism office will link to the regional resources on its site and can share photography and video assets.

No votes or formal funding decisions were taken at the workshop. Presenters asked council and fiscal court members to consider renewing local government investments at prior per-capita levels and to identify local projects to prioritize for regional advocacy.

The presenters said they will return with additional data and a metrics dashboard, and will continue to refine county pages and the talent-quiz prototype.