Greater Spokane takes pitch online

One of Greater Spokane Inc.’s latest marketing tools made its debut on YouTube last month.

The five-minute, newscast-style “Acceleration Report” features a joke-cracking host and Greater Spokane President and CEO Rich Hadley and new board Chairman Wayne Williams discussing local business recruitment issues. Shown at Greater Spokane’s recent annual meeting, the video is the first of what Williams hopes will be monthly features pitching Greater Spokane messages.

Aimed at policymakers and investors as well as average people, it could later address work force development, recruiting, public policy and economic development, said Williams, president and CEO of the Liberty Lake-based telecommunications company Telect Inc.

Communication is “the biggest gap that we have,” Williams said.

“We can’t predict when people are just going to be going, ‘I wonder about that town Spokane,’ ” he said.

The clip opens with Telect employee Jason Pegg seated at a desk with an illuminated globe graphic twirling behind him.

“Tonight, economic development: How has ED impacted your life?” Pegg asks. “Also, work force development: one small letter away from being a weapon of mass destruction.” (That’s WD, as opposed to WMD.)

The productions are meant to be quick to produce and easy to understand, Williams said. The first had a crew of three: Pegg, Hadley and Williams. It had more than 300 views by Monday afternoon.

“You’re trying to create an atmosphere through video that is natural and transparent,” Williams said. The next installment should be posted this week on www.youtube.com, he said.

The reports could be distributed automatically through several channels, including YouTube iTunes videocasting. Telect, which has posted promotional videos on YouTube for months, initially will foot the bill, Williams said.

Greater Spokane also premiered a video last month that zooms between locations of regional developments in Google Earth style – an approach meant to show Spokane is bigger than downtown, Williams said. It’s online at www.greaterspokane.org. Greater Spokane Inc. was formed when the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Spokane Area Economic Development Council merged.

And for people not familiar with YouTube?

“If you have any trouble, look around your house,” Pegg says in the video. “Find the nearest 7-year-old and have them walk you through it.”