Thriving local economies start with strong identities.

Learn how Salinas, California leveraged its community’s assets to transform its trajectory.

Read the brief.

How Salinas leveraged its strongest asset to kickstart the “agtech” revolution

In 2012, Salinas, California, a small, rural community suffered a considerable economic blow when the city lost a major corporate employer, resulting in 1,000 lay offs. The city responded by developing a strategy leveraging its strong agriculture sector, creating new onroads to higher paying jobs and innovation in the process.

OUR APPROACH

1

Assemble an ecosystem of partners to help tell the story and catalyze success

Following the launch of Salinas agtech strategy, our team helped develop a series of partnerships to bring the vision to life. Early partners included Taylor Farms, a supporter of the city’s first ever agtech incubator and co-working space, Forbes Media, instrumental to the city’s annual agtech conference, and CoderDojo, offering local young people with educational opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math.

Develop a place brand around community assets and vision

Following a community needs assessment and SWOT analysis revealing the potential to complement agriculture with emerging technologies like robotics, big data and SaaS, we developed Salinas’ ag-tech story and brand, developing an online website, presentation, and other communication materials to share with key partners and the community.

2

Craft and amplify the story - locally and nationally

We promoted the city’s agtech trajectory to national press, with the story headlining front pages of international media including The Financial Times and subsequent stories in The Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and NPR.

4

Define community benefits upfront and create a data dashboard to showcase results

Early on in the process, our team engaged community members, business owners, and other partners to define what success would look like. As part of the strategy’s digital footprint, we worked with the evaluation team to update data, including new jobs created, revenue into community services, youth engaged and trained, and much more.

3

Outcomes

  • Catalyzed AgTech industry in Salinas, with the sector attracting $1.5 billion across 160 deals in investment

  • Placed 100 stories in local and major news outlets including PBS, Financial Times, NPR, and more.

  • Trained 600 K-12 students in Salinas through Coder Dojo, a coding and entrepreneurship summer bootcamp.

  • Attracted hundreds of California and international startups to the Thrive Agtech Incubator in downtown Salinas

  • Organized the Forbes AgTech Summit, bringing 750 investors, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and community leaders over three days to downtown Salinas each year.