Crain’s editorial: Brag a little

You might not be a fan of basketball, the NBA or the NBA All-Star Game. (Certainly, though, you can cheer on the Cavaliers after their remarkable and fun run so far.)

No matter how you feel about the league, though, you’d have to acknowledge it’s a remarkable marketing machine. And one that our region might learn from as we seek to grow our economy.

The pop-up events and marketing opportunities leading into the game on Sunday, Feb. 20, were notable for both their volume and creativity. If you were anywhere around downtown last week, you got a glimpse of a vibrant city that should be our goal year-round, not just when a big event comes to town.

A professional sports all-star game comes with a ready-made marketing formula. But the gusto that the NBA applies to its big midseason contest has a lesson for Northeast Ohio, where the Greater Cleveland Partnership is pursuing a strategic plan built around the “All-In” mantra that includes accelerating business confidence here as one of its priorities.

Baiju Shah, who became CEO of GCP last year, was in our office last week, and he talked in part about the importance of calling attention to growth companies in Northeast Ohio and the successes they’re having. Driving greater awareness of our victories — fast-growing, acquisitive technology companies such as MRI Software, a Solon-based provider of real estate software and services, and Park Place Technologies, a global data center and network optimization firm based in Mayfield Heights — is a key part of changing impressions about the region and what’s possible for businesses here.

We’re certainly not of the belief that better marketing is all we need. To meet GCP’s goal of making Cleveland an upper-tier Great Lakes city in terms of economic vitality, we need a focus on innovation, talent attraction/creation, infrastructure — the nuts and bolts of what makes an economy really hum.

On one of those key fronts — securing skilled talent — there was some encouraging news last week in a report from nonprofit advocacy organization Heartland Forward, which aims to “improve economic performance in the center of the United States by advocating for fact-based solutions to foster job creation, knowledge-based and inclusive growth and improved health outcomes.” Its data-rich report found that metro markets including Cleveland are benefiting from “a marked shift in the geography of talent over the past decade away from extreme concentration in coastal superstar cities and leading tech hubs.”

We’re a long way from displacing powerhouse U.S. cities. That’s not even the goal. Raising our competitive level against peer Midwestern cities is, though, and creating a stronger image for Cleveland is part of that. Doing more to promote opportunities here is important, even if it cuts against an ingrained Midwestern modesty. Brag a little. If we don’t tell our own story well, no one else will do it for us.