At yesterday’s Loudoun Economic Development Commission (EDC) meeting, as reported by Hannah Hager, most discussion revolved around the opportunity for Loudoun to really “pop”, coming out of the economic slump. This mainly comes from Loudoun’s unique opportunity at the moment to set its own destination (in terms of property types and styles) for undeveloped land in the primary commercial districts (nearly 90 million sq. ft.). “Close in” jurisdictions like Arlington and Fairfax don’t have any more “new” real estate to develop in zoned business districts; they’re faced mostly with more expensive and constrained redevelopment.  Add to this the pending Loudoun Metrorail, a new Rt. 50 Dulles South Hospital, a potential GMU campus and Kincora Loudoun Baseball stadium, and a perfect storm seems to be developing for sustained “offline” economic recovery.

In terms of Loudoun Internet/online real estate (i.e. websites) – this is still pretty much undiscovered country, for Loudoun businesses. It’s like 1892, right before the Oklahoma Land Rush, after the worst American economic depression to date; domain-squatters and online website marketers have already set their stakes, professional “shingles” hung out on the Internet are simple and uninspired, the gap between local and urban media technical sophistication is widening quickly, and 1990’s era communications or membership fiefdoms doggedly persist among government entities and associations. Sure some bright spots exist, like a few high-tech companies with significant online presence; but the taxable, in-county revenues driven by these anomalies seem slim, compared to the potential.

The opportunity for Loudoun to really “pop” on the Internet, with significant and coordinated impact to the local economy, is also part of the EDC discussion, though more subtly. Yesterday’s meeting included the next iteration of “Just 3 Things”; a bit of self-education for the DED/EDC community regarding Internet presence and awareness (driven by the new EDC Social Media Subcommittee). These included “Googling” oneself, participating in an online community, and checking out Loudounpedia, a Wiki product of the Loudoun libraries inclusive of public input. Also, as Hannah also mentions, the EDC breakfast budget is getting reclaimed in the name of DED website and search engine optimization (SEO) improvements.

Stay tuned for a lot more information, advice and improvement among the Loudoun Internet land-owners and online social media communities; it’s an absolutely essential facet of our overall County economic recovery.