About
The purpose of Strategic Sonoma is to bring the community together around a shared vision for Sonoma County, identify and prioritize Sonoma County’s economic development issues and opportunities, and reevaluate the county’s clusters of opportunity. Strategic Sonoma will focus the county’s economic development efforts into areas that provide the greatest opportunity for the County.
Sonoma County has engaged Avalanche Consulting to complete the strategy.
Process
The planning process will begin with a data and benchmarking analysis of the region. The process will include extensive in-depth stakeholder engagement including 20+ interviews, 8 focus groups, and meetings with a 30-member Stakeholder Group. The Stakeholder Group consists of public, private, education, and nonprofit leaders from across Sonoma County. Overall, Strategic Sonoma will engage with over 100 business and community leaders.
Strategic Sonoma will also include a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. Later in the process, we will evaluate clusters of opportunity for the community – types of businesses that that have the best potential to thrive in Sonoma County and provide residents with career opportunities. We will finish up the strategy by creating an Action Plan, which will include recommendations based on our findings that will help the county continue to prosper.
Strategic Sonoma began in June 2017 and is scheduled for completion in February 2018
Outcomes
Strategic Sonoma will result in a five year economic action plan that details concrete solutions to some of our region's most pressing problems around workforce, economic resilience, innovation and entrepreneurship, and economic inclusion for all Sonoma County's residents. The plan will be presented at the State of the County event in February 2018, and implementation will begin shortly thereafter.
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