Small Business & Economic Development Strategies During & After COVID-19

Please join us for a free webinar program & interactive chat session about ways local governments can support small businesses in their community as they deal with impacts from COVID-19 related closures and orders. The session will focus on both small campaigns, such as gift card promotion programs and curbside restrictions, to larger long-term impacts on economic development as a whole. Examples of creative solutions from local governments of all sizes will be shared.

The presenters include Assaf Frances of Zencity, an experienced local government innovator working with 130+ cities in the Zencity network, and Emily Edmonds of ELGL, who works with local governments around the US.

Assaf Frances is the Director of Urban Policy for Zencity. He manages the consulting and in-depth research projects that support Zencity’s AI-powered platform. Assaf also oversees the Zencity Community of Champions and leads knowledge sharing of best practices between Zencity’s users. Prior to his work with Zencity, Assaf served as a Project Manager on the Tel Aviv Innovation Team in the Mayor’s Office, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. He holds an MSc. in Urban Regeneration from the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, London.

Emily Edmonds is the Membership and Programs Director at ELGL. She spent her previous fifteen-year career in local government and nonprofit work across the East Coast, focusing primarily on regional and local governments, building relationships between rural and urban communities and advocating for policies that support underserved rural populations. She holds a BA from Western Carolina University in Social Policy and an MPA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she completed her graduate thesis on modern approaches to rural economic development. In her consulting career, she specialized in grant writing and administration, food systems assessment and planning, cross-sector engagement, and project and program management. Emily is an Appalachian native from Western North Carolina and loves geeking out with fellow ELGL members about data, engagement, process innovation, and what to wear with ELGL socks.