This October, Douglas County took center stage during the Metro Denver Site Selection Week — hosting targeted industry conversations, an invite-only Douglas County Day, an exclusive luncheon at Liberty Campus, a Lockheed Martin facility tour, and participating in the Site Selector Feedback Dinner where national site selection consultants and corporate advisors shared candid insights about Denver’s competitiveness. The week reinforced Douglas County’s strengths in aerospace, talent, quality of life and public safety — and gave local leaders direct access to the people who influence corporate location decisions.

What Leaders Said

Ellie Reynolds, President & CEO of the Douglas County EDC, highlighted Douglas County’s appeal for aerospace employers and workforce: “Colorado and Douglas County are a destination for the aerospace workforce. We know that companies choose to locate and expand in places where their employees choose to live,” she told The Denver Gazette, noting local strengths like top schools, parks/open space and public safety.

The Douglas County Board of Commissioners publicly thanked the EDC for its role in planning and executing Douglas County’s participation in Site Selection Week — signaling county leadership’s support for the region’s business attraction efforts.

Meanwhile, national site selectors and industry advisors at the feedback dinner delivered a mix of praise and constructive critique — affirming Denver’s attractiveness while flagging issues that matter to corporate decision-makers (infrastructure readiness, workforce match, site availability and permitting predictability). Those takeaways were elevated in post-event reporting and the feedback dinner conversation.

Douglas County Day: events & takeaway moments

Douglas County Day was built around relationship-building and high-touch, local storytelling:

• Invite-only luncheon at Liberty Campus (Centennial): an opportunity to showcase county assets directly to site selectors. The EDC’s curation let attendees hear from local economic development leadership and key employers.
• Industry panel & Lockheed Martin tour: Douglas County-led panels emphasized collaboration across aerospace companies and workforce retention strategies; Lockheed representatives noted their focus on employment retention in the region — a theme that underlined local commitment to keeping and growing aerospace jobs.

These touchpoints — an intimate luncheon plus a facility tour — provided exactly the kind of hands-on experience site selectors value when vetting metro areas for future projects.

Site Selector Feedback Dinner: candid input for action

The Site Selector Feedback Dinner remains one of the most valuable events during Site Selection Week because it creates a confidential space for national consultants to speak plainly about decision criteria. Attendees at the Denver dinner heard:

• Affirmations that counties like Douglas County rank highly for lifestyle, talent and industry clustering.
• Power and utility readiness, site and land availability, and streamlining permitting and incentive conversations are the practical, early-stage requirements to be considered. Douglas County leaders — from the EDC to county commissioners and private sector partners — left with prioritized feedback they can turn into near-term action items.

Why this matters for Douglas County

Site Selection Week isn’t just a conference — it’s a marketing and intelligence operation. By hosting Douglas County Day, convening panels, facilitating site tours and engaging at the Feedback Dinner, Douglas County:

• Put local assets directly in front of the people who advise corporations on where to invest.
• Reinforced the county’s aerospace narrative with on-the-ground examples (employers, workforce and quality-of-life factors).
• Collected unvarnished input from site selectors that will help sharpen the county’s pitch, address chokepoints (infrastructure, site readiness), and better align incentives and timelines to what consultants want to see.