The Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, which is focused on economic diversification, is developing strategies and initiatives to strengthen the region’s competitiveness that will be unveiled in the next two months.
The LVGEA held its annual State of Economic Development event Thursday at the Las Vegas Aces headquarters in Henderson where it outlined its vision for Southern Nevada’s economic future while unveiling new insights, partnerships and tools.
The LVGEA said the sold-out event underscores how 2026 is poised to be a transformational year for the organization as it continues advancing strategies that diversify Southern Nevada’s economy, attract new industries and foster long-term regional prosperity.
Danielle Casey, president and CEO of the LVGEA, took over her role in late August. She previously served as president and CEO of the Albuquerque Regional Economic Alliance. She told the Business Press the organization is “hot and heavy” in strategy work so it can clearly define what success looks like and what tactics they’re going to deploy over the next three years to advance industry growth in the areas everyone agrees should be a top priority.
“The strategy is not unveiled yet,” Casey said. “We are about two thirds of the way through the strategy development. We have brought on a firm that is an economic development advisory practice and global site selection consultancy to help us. The reason that’s important is, they are looking at all of the data on our market and trends and opportunities for us through the lens of professionals who advise companies where to locate. They are looking at our market and telling us what we should be good at, what we are good at, where the advantages are and where we can improve based on experiences of putting companies in our region, or trying to put companies in our region that didn’t work out.”
Casey said there’s already a lot of great data and research from firms in the market already and a year ago there was a target industry analysis done. The consultant is cross checking and validating that with the new realities of federal policy that can affect economic conditions.
Casey said they will go before the LVGEA board in April on where the strategy should go and unveil that publicly in May. A year ago, there were nine to 10 targeted industries that could apply to the region.
“The goal is to get a better understanding of the top three opportunities that we need to lean into very hard but also be aware of the obstacles that might keep those from moving forward,” Casey said.
Some of the competitive strengths for the community are: proximity to California, the ability to access key decision-makers quickly, a collaborative business culture and a 24/7 adaptable workforce.
The constraints that come up repeatedly include: land availability, water and power capacity, workforce pipeline gaps (particularly in skilled trades and higher-education attainment) and infrastructure that doesn’t move at the speed of business.
“Is the workforce adequately aligned, or are there programs that need to be supported to make it more competitive in a certain industry?,” Casey said. “Maybe we’re not promoting the quality of life aspect adequately to people who want to relocate here.”
The strategy means working with local chambers and other partners, so no efforts are duplicated, Casey said. The organization is also looking at whether they have enough resources to achieve results.
“We have to be cognizant that we are half funded by the governor’s office of economic development,” Casey said.
There’s already been success and more is coming, she said.
In 2025, 20 companies were assisted by the LVGEA creating nearly 1,200 in jobs with $230 million in capital investment and generating about one-quarter of a billion dollars in economic impact. In 2026, there’s an expectation that foreign trade zone operators are going to double, which is an indicator of foreign investment.
Casey noted that there’s not enough acknowledgment of how much diversification has taken place over the last decade.
“I don’t think the LVGEA or others get enough credit,” Casey said. “Over the past decade, there are 198,000 new jobs in the region achieved through diversification. There’s education and health care and trade, transportation and utilities and 32,000 jobs in professional and business services. That’s a good sign that diversification has been happening, and that needs to be recognized. One of the things our strategy will do is put a number on what level of diversification we think is adequate. I think it would be obtuse to think we would say we’re going to be a dominant manufacturing market and that gaming and hospitality would be dwarfed by that. That’s not only impossible, but it would be a disservice to what makes us great. We need to figure out how to complement our strong industries and what makes Southern Nevada and Las Vegas a unique global destination and build off the tremendous assets that have been built over the years. Yes, they do not get enough credit for the diversification over the last decade.”
Casey said the LVGEA hasn’t been wrong about targeting any of the industries being discussed from biolife sciences, health care, biotech, sports and experiences, clean technology, transportation and logistics and advanced manufacturing.
As for why economic diversification is so important for Southern Nevada, Casey said any market overly dependent on any one industry — and if that one industry undergoes a massive shakeup for change, using the Rust Belt as an example, — that impacts the local economy.
“Diversicaition allows you to have a more balanced industry make-up so you are bringing in that new investments,” Casey said. “LVGEA focuses primarily on base industries — so any industry that exports more than 50 percent of all of its sales outside of Nevada. That means we are bringing in net new wealth to our market into local payroll and resources that are spent in restaurant and retail stores. We want to do that in an intentional way that builds long-term career pathways and opportunities in a wide variety of sectors so people have different opportunities of where they want to take their careers. A lot of markets struggle with this; not just us. More diversity keeps our locals at home.”
That lends itself to a community that, hopefully, has more people wanting to relocate to Las Vegas because there are other career pathways, Casey said.
Las Vegas has a higher than normal unemployment rate, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you are working as a community, if you are reskilling people for a new career path, Casey said. That is an opportunity for an employer because when you have a massively low unemployment rate coming into the market they can be skeptical if there isn’t an available workforce.
The outside public has perceptions about Las Vegas that need to be addressed, Casey said. People outside of the market are convinced “the edge of the world falls off when you leave the Strip.” Those people have no frame of reference that this is a “deep and diverse community with lots of wonderful neighborhoods and activities outside of the Strip. That’s a piece of work we need to do, but it also creates an amazing opportunity in technology and innovation. We would not have the quality of life assets we have if we were not a global destination hub to bring in and support the number of types of visitors we have.”
In discussing what she’s learned moving to Las Vegas, Casey said she thought there was more Class A office space spread around the entire region than there is. That is something that needs to be thought about. There’s also opportunities in university partnerships that are yet to be discovered and developed, she noted.
“They were very clear about the role and something I learned during the interview process is that it’s a big small market and everybody is very connected from a business community standpoint,” Casey said.
