Heading into the long weekend, here is a quick and easy read: a word cloud summarizing the past year of Smart Incentives blog posts. I am delighted to see “community” as one of the top words – after economic, development and incentives, of course. One of our main objectives is to make sure incentives are deployed thoughtfully to achieve community-wide economic goals. Sustainability, business, investments and performance also make the top ten. These are all core themes I will return to this year. 

It’s also a reminder that we should focus more attention on data, accountability, and transparency, as these are fundamental to effective incentive use.  Look for more blog posts on these topics in the coming months!