Mark Pritchett spent his formative years in Kentucky, but he was still surprised when he arrived in Louisville last week with a group of Sarasota business, government and civid leaders. “I remembered Louisville as sort of this industrial and blue-collar city,” he said, “but they are really advancing more into innovation, particularly around sectors like healthcare. It’s really amazing.”

Pritchett, Gulf Coast Community Foundation senior vice president of Community Investment, was just one of the leaders participating in this year’s intercity visit. Organized by the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County, past trips have included such locales as Asheville, N.C. and Nashville, Tenn. This year, the group headed to Louisville, Ky. to see how the city has handled waterfront connectivity, tech sector growth and any number of other issues.

Jim Kuhlman, Stonegate Bank executive vice president and EDC incoming chair, was struck by programs like Code Louisville, an effort to train people in programming languages. By both responding to a local workforce need and bringing in figures from tech giants to participate, it has led to boosts in the high-tech sector in a city rich with colleges. As economic leaders look for better ways to involve graduates from three Sarasota universities in the job market, Kuhlman said this Louisville effort might be an important model. “Sarasota needs to do something like that as well,” he said.

Pritchett noted incubators in the city like XLerateHealth have further established Louisville as an important city in healthcare. With Humana headquartered there, programs have encouraged startups in the health field by connecting them with the best available workforce. Pritchett saw parallels with Sarasota efforts, including CareerEdge Funders and Gulf Coast’s BIG!. He also got a feel for the sort of three- to five-year timeline needed to train a workforce here.

Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin felt there were lessons on a variety of areas, whether it’s continuity in leadership or better inter-organization collaboration. “We as a community have to do some strategic thinking and planning,” Barwin said, “but at the same time be nimble and respond to individuals with passions and insights.” 

Of course, some leaders noted that regardless of what lessons were found in Kentucky, the journey as a group provided a benefit in itself. Lisa Krause, executive vice president at FCCI Insurance Group and the incoming Chamber of Commerce chair, said having an informed group from a variety of interests and sectors visiting Louisville together led to an education in a variety of fields, something that should create a synergy in visions later on. “We had a great group of leaders from totally diverse backgrounds with focuses that were diverse as well,” she said, “but in an environment where we were all learning what we could take away to make Sarasota better. It helped us recognize everybody is committed to Sarasota and making it better, and that’s an essential part of this.”