Connection Point: Pitching the Dallas Region

Mike Rosa, Senior Vice President, Economic Development

The Dallas Regional Chamber team regularly hosts and travels to meet corporate executives and location consultants, inviting companies to locate or expand in the Dallas Region. We’ve been busy in 2019. Forty-five projects have visited the DRC, and we will complete 15 mission trips and recruitment events; both counts are higher than in previous years, including wins such as Uber’s corporate office (Dallas), McLaren’s North American headquarters (Coppell), Chime Solutions’ regional office (Dallas), and European Wax Center’s corporate headquarters (Plano).

We have time to prepare and dive deep into details about our region when spending an hour, a day, or even longer during visits with corporate recruitment project teams. Sometimes, though, marketing opportunities are fleeting, in passing, or just an initial phone call or email that we hope turns into something more. We’re also ready with “elevator speeches” or “quick pitches” that we trust to pique or confirm interest in our region. Here are a dozen of my favorite and proven DFW talking points that might be useful to you when you are out and about, and discover an opportunity to market our region:

  • With 7.5 million people, DFW is the most-populated affordable metro area in the U.S.
  • DFW’s $535 billion regional economy would rank among the top 25 economies in the world.
  • Dallas-Fort Worth has 26 percent of the state’s population, yet it produces 32 percent of Texas’ economic output; we are highly skilled and productive here.
  • 238,000 tech jobs are in DFW; more than Houston and far more than Austin or San Antonio; we have the seventh-largest high-tech workforce in the U.S.
  • Among affordable U.S. regions, DFW offers companies the largest high-tech labor force in the nation.
  • The Dallas Region has added 34,607 high-tech jobs in the last five years, more than any other Texas metro, and is at the forward edge of innovative sectors such as gaming and autonomous vehicles.
  • DFW’s economy is an 83 percent match to the overall U.S. economic sector profile; meaning our economy is healthy and diverse.
  • The university, college, and K-12 systems in Dallas-Fort Worth produced more graduates, by far, than any other Texas metro, and are working together with the business community to better prepare our future workforce.
  • DFW has a cooperative, forward-looking leadership at the business, civic, community, and regional levels.
  • The Dallas Region is planning and investing in infrastructure – air, highway, rail, utilities, and telecommunications – to support future growth.
  • Dallas-Fort Worth’s significant real estate and development community enables strong corporate, job, residential, and population growth.