2024 Year-in-Review

As the Partnership prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year, it’s important to outline its progress. Since its inception, the Partnership has driven $3.5 billion in capital investment, adding 14,255 jobs. With $9.7 billion capital investment and 11,567 jobs in the prospective pipeline, the Partnership is propelling the 10-county south-central Kansas region forward and helping lay the foundation for future generations.

In 2025, the Partnership’s vision remains to build a stronger, more inclusive economy that extends beyond the region and onto the global stage. The Partnership is committed to pioneering economic development strategies, preparing the workforce of the future and leveraging key assets to support transformational growth and livability.

Below is an overview of the Partnership’s 2024 accomplishments within its three strategic priorities: Jobs, Talent and Quality of Place.

JOBS

The Partnership leverages economic development opportunities and supports the creation of jobs through business retention and expansion, company attraction and entrepreneurship cultivation.

Key Takeaways:

• Industry Diversification: Played a pivotal role in expanding and diversifying the region’s economy by attracting and supporting growth in advanced manufacturing, aviation, defense, energy production, healthcare, marketing and space.
• Global Engagement: Achieved a record-breaking presence at the Farnborough International Airshow, hosting more than 100 meetings and leading the largest Kansas delegation in Partnership history. The team’s Air Capital of the World reception attracted more than 460 aerospace leaders, cabinet-level dignitaries and VIP guests, representing a 77% increase since the event’s inception.
• Regional Excellence: Represented the Wichita region at more than a dozen prestigious national and international trade shows, including the Farnborough International Airshow, Hannover Messe, MRO Americas, NBBA-BACE and Space Symposium.

Talent

The Partnership is working alongside regional businesses and strategic partners to attract, retain and engage the workforce of the future.

Key Takeaways:

• Talent Talks: Engaged more than 380 attendees from 97 regional businesses spanning 13 industries through four dynamic Talent Talks, building on the success of three Talent Workshops held in 2023.
• Future Ready: Co-hosted the “FutureReady Experience: Healthcare,” inspiring 200 Wichita middle school students to explore a diverse range of careers in healthcare through hands-on activities and immersive learning.
• Connectivity: Celebrated the launch of daily direct flights between Wichita and Washington, D.C., while continuing efforts to secure additional direct flight options for the region.
• Choose Wichita: Welcomed more than 125 participants to the Choose Wichita Summit, an event featuring impactful discussions and resources to attract talent and their families to Wichita. Choose Wichita experienced a 522% increase in website traffic from 2023 to 2024.

Quality of Place

The Partnership, in collaboration with Downtown Wichita, continues cultivating a distinctive quality of place that attracts and retains talent, encourages tourism and fosters economic growth.

Key Takeaways:

• Business Growth: Welcomed more than 20 new businesses to downtown Wichita.
• Development: Selected Sasaki, a global urban planning and design firm, as the project partner for Project Downtown 2035: The Downtown Wichita Action Plan. The updated plan will provide a 10-year roadmap for the continued revitalization and transformation of the city’s core.
• Healthcare Corridor: Celebrated the groundbreaking of the Wichita Biomedical Campus ℠, a transformative project anchoring downtown’s burgeoning healthcare corridor. This project has spurred additional biomedical growth and redevelopment projects, including additional housing, office, and mixed-use developments.
• Marketing: Launched several new strategic marketing initiatives, including the Downtown Wichita Window Wonderland holiday window-decorating contest and Drop-In With Downtown events.

Investor Relations

The Partnership’s Investor Relations team is actively advancing the strategic plan through its capital campaign in collaboration with the Resource Development Group. In the fall of 2024, a feasibility study was conducted to assess investor perceptions and evaluate alignment with future strategies. The findings indicate that the proposed strategies are closely aligned with market needs, with strong indications that the Partnership is well-positioned to secure increased funding from both new and existing investors, enabling the full implementation of the plan. RDG has identified compelling evidence that all the necessary components are in place for the Partnership and the region to make significant progress and achieve even greater success. With a positive feasibility study, a capital campaign was launched in October 2024 and will extend through Q2 of 2025.

Key Takeaways:

• Investor Engagement: Developed a new investment matrix to enhance investor engagement.
• Expanded Capacity: Identified two market-tested funding goals to support diversifying the economy, workforce and talent development, expanded regional marketing strategies, investments in quality of place and livability, and transformational initiatives.
• Campaign Progress: Secured 24 commitments as of December 31, 2024, totaling nearly 30% of the bold investment goal.
• Executive Briefings: Hosted six briefings over two weeks, meeting with nearly 50% of the Partnership's investor base.
• Base-broadening: Additional Executive Briefings and one-on-one meetings will be held in Q1 and Q2 for companies not yet engaged in the Partnership.
• Invitation to Engage: The Partnership Executive Committee invites non-investors to connect with the team and discover how they can play a pivotal role in driving economic growth and development in the region.

For additional information on the updated investment matrix or to learn more about how your investment will support the program of work, please contact Becca Newman.