Pastides to be honored at regional competitiveness event

Listen to this article

The schedule for this month’s Midlands Regional Competitiveness Week, an initiative of regional project management nonprofit EngenuitySC ,will include the presentation of the organization’s Vision Award to Harris Pastides, former University of South Carolina president.

Pastides will receive the award during Jan. 27’s release of the 2019-20202 Midlands Regional Competitiveness Report. In its sixth year, the report culls federal data to determine how the six-county Midlands region stacks up against areas of similar size and makeup in categories measuring economic competitiveness.

Last year’s competitiveness report ranked the Columbia area third among 10 Southeastern cities in entrepreneurial and business environment, an improvement of six spots from its ninth-place ranking in that category in 2017. The area’s ranking in four other categories — talent, innovative capacity, industry clusters and livability — dropped or remained the same.

Rankings based on 2019 data will be unveiled at the Central Energy event venue at BullStreet. Registration is required to attend.

The presentation of the report will highlight a week of events beginning Jan. 24. Activities will include the Cayce Stroll on State and a keynote speech by Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes Media LLC, at the McNair Entrepreneurship Showcase.

Event details are available online at engenuitysc.com.

“Our 2020 Competitiveness Week lineup includes a diverse array of entrepreneurs, businesses, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions — a perfect reflection of everything it takes to make the Columbia region a place businesses, individuals and families want to call home,” Meghan Hickman, executive director of EngenuitySC, said in a news release. “We are honored to draw attention to so many exciting individual and collaborative efforts.”