The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership is hoping to secure 18 economic development projects this year - the same goal it had in 2009 but failed to reach, said President and CEO John Sampson.

A project is defined by NIRP as a business lead in which a client company or consultant divulges the terms, conditions and site selection search criteria. That information is then passed along to local economic development organizations (LEDOs) to pursue.

In 2009, the three-year-old NIRP was six shy of its project goal, and none of the 12 has yet to lead to a business location in the partnership's 10-county area.

"Am I disappointed?" said Sampson. "Yeah, I'm disappointed about 2009. We didn't get on base, but we got swings. It's all about times at bat. If you don't get to bat, you're not going to swing, and you're not going to get on base."

Put another way, Sampson said, getting a swing is akin to getting northeast Indiana on the short list of possible locations for a business.

Sampson is pleased that the partnership is making headway in getting on the short list, and that the participating counties are working together more efficiently to court business opportunities.

"I would have never guessed in three years' time that we would have come together as well as we have," he said. "I cannot do this without the LEDOs. I can't do this alone. We have got to be invested in this marriage every day."

Participating counties in the partnership are Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley.

He said members of the partnership continue to work to make the region more desirable for business, including ensuring site-ready locations, creating or improving business retention and expansion programs, and developing entrepreneur programs or business incubators.

In the search to drum up business for northeast Indiana in 2010, NIRP also is planning two foreign trade missions and two sales trips in tandem with state officials. The locations of the foreign travel haven't been decided. The joint sales trips will take NIRP officials to Texas and New York.

What's making things difficult these days is the economy. Sampson said companies now take six to nine months to make decisions on projects; the period was once 60 to 120 days. Companies are also much more leery about investing large sums of capital in projects.

"That is simply the reality of the economy we're living in," he said. "The world is on hold right now."