The El Paso, Juárez and Las Cruces economic development region covers a broad territory – 3 cities, 2 countries, over 2.7 million inhabitants and constitutes the largest bilingual binational workforce in the Western Hemisphere. Given our location on the border, the press had converted our greatest asset into a constant negative news stream. Ask anyone about our region and they either had a negative safety concern or an outdated image of what West Texas and the border were all about. Others simply could not find us on the map at all. We ourselves didn’t know the assets that existed right in our own community – many industry sectors were simply unaware of possible suppliers or partners right next door.

Inspired by the growing buzz in the region, we set out on a year-long deep dive into all facets of our community and economy. We interviewed well over 100 people, from economic development leaders to local business owners, government officials, university researchers, heads of finance like the Dallas Fed, international think tanks like The Hunt Institute, leaders in workforce development, young innovators and creatives. Most importantly, we studied recent entrants into our economy and tried to capture “why us.”

What we realized is that borders are inherently creative places. They are where new opportunities are developed in the magical alchemy that arises from the mixing of cultures, economies and people. We already had a unique story to tell, we just had not owned it.

We had so many burgeoning industries to highlight. From our growing aerospace sector, to healthcare research and manufacturing to the cutting edge nature of our manufacturing industry whose image had not been refreshed in people’s minds. We also had a budding startup sector as well as companies seeking out our region, thanks to the tremendous research and development efforts from our leading universities.

All of these industries were influenced by the unique opportunities that our geographic location, culture and people created. We set out to take control of our narrative—to own what was special about our region and begin to broadcast it to the world.