Southwestern Indiana leaders are polishing their pitch speeches in hopes of landing $42 million in Indiana Regional Cities funding.
Regional Cities is a program that will offer $84 million in state money — $42 million to each of two regions — to help fund projects that promote quality of place, economic development and talent attraction.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is spearheading the project.
Southwestern Indiana — a coalition representing Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties — is among seven regions around the state vying for the money.
As part of the selection process, each group will make formal presentations to the Regional Cities program's Strategic Review Committee next week.
Presentations will take place Tuesday and Wednesday at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Southwestern Indiana is scheduled for the final presentation slot, from 12:15-1:45 CDT Wednesday.
Each group will have 60 minutes to make its presentation, followed by a question/answer session with committee members, said Greg Wathen, president and chief executive officer of the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana.
Wathen and other economic development representatives met Thursday morning to go over details of next week's event.
Southwestern Indiana's proposal includes 12 projects for which it is seeking Regional Cities funding. Its presentation will focus on four of these projects, and will include a mix of live speakers and video clips.
"You can only do so much within a 60-minute time frame," Wathen said. "We're trying to paint a picture — a story of why this all is really important."
The Strategic Review Committee will make its selection recommendations to the IEDC's board of directors in December. IEDC Board Member John Thompson, of Thompson Distribution (Indianapolis), is the committee's chairman.
Other committee members include: Keira Amstutz, president and CEO of Indiana Humanities; Kathy Davis, president and owner of Davis Design Group; Larry Gigerich, managing director of Ginovus; Steve Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government; Gary Hobbs, senior development and project officer at BWi; Ryan Kitchell, chief financial officer at Indiana University Health; Chris LaMothe, CEO at Elevate Ventures; Mark Maasel, president of the Indiana Energy Association; Mitch Roob, executive vice president at KERAMIDA; and Paul Wheatley, president of The Wheatley Group.