Thursday, June 11th, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Chamber professionals need the right tools to compete for business and talent in today's economic landscape. In this 30-minute webinar, staff from the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness will cover two essential resources that chambers can use to market their region. Tyler Baines will share the latest trends in economic development incentives: what's gaining traction and what's fading from practice. Alec Romero will then introduce C2ER's Cost of Living Index, showing how chambers can use affordability data to tell a compelling, data-backed story about their region. Attendees will leave ready to apply both tools in their communities.
Alec Romero
Research Analyst/COLI Project Manager
Alec Romero graduated from the University of Redlands with a B.S. in Economics and Decision Making. At CREC, Alec manages the Cost of Living Index, a volunteer-based data product, and supports various economic development projects through utilizing his Python programming, data science, data visualization, and writing skills. Such projects have included industry cluster reports, CEDS, the GoVirginia Talent Pipeline Initiative, semiconductor assessments, and national counts of all available credentials in the US.
Overall, Alec’s experience has shown him the importance of data-driven research and the value of community engagement for economic and policy development. A few of his interests include social policy, workforce development, and data science.
Tyler Baines
Program Manager
Tyler Baines graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) with degrees in history and government with an additional certificate in the foundations of business. Afterwards he spent a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA organizing and mobilizing low-income communities for the City of Dallas Planning and Urban Design Department. He recently returned to UT Austin to pursue a Master’s in Public Affairs.
As a COLI Project Manager/Senior Research Analyst, Tyler helps to manage the State Incentives Database and the Cost of Living Index. Utilizing his writing and data visualization skills, he has produced written reports on topics like SSBCI and supply chain disruptions. He also is currently helping to develop a matrix that will identify alignment between CEDS and state strategic plans. Overall, his experiences have taught him the innate interconnectedness between community engagement and data application in the policy development process. Some of his interests are in social policy, workforce development, and data analytics.
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