Course Project

Amazon is looking for a new headquarters. Incentive packages from all cities are roughly equal
so Amazon is looking for the city best suited to its needs. It knows no city will have everything
it desires, but in doing its due diligence wants to review the various aspects of city life of each
city in contention.

For this project, choose a city to pitch to Amazon. In doing so, you will need to create a
PowerPoint presentation (also called a deck; you will hear me refer to it as a deck) that you will
deliver as if you were making a presentation to Amazon’s Board of Directors. Your deck needs
to include ONE (1) slide on each of the following:

 Title slide
o Identify Amazon project and which city you selected
 Executive Summary
o This slide will summarize your presentation and will be completed last
o Assume an executive reads only the slide; in about five (5) bullet points, persuade
the executive why Amazon should choose your city
 City background
o What makes it unique?
o Use this as an opportunity to “hook” your reader into the city
 City economics
o What are the largest industries? What makes up the economic base?
o What about income levels? Poverty rate? Workforce?
o This slide is driven by local economy and demographics
 City politics:
o What is the political environment?
o Is it business friendly?
o Some examples of recent legislation/laws will be helpful here
 City culture:
o What is the feel of the city?
o What makes the city unique?
o Think about particular areas or neighborhoods (CBD, arts district, etc.)
 City environment:
o What’s the landscape? Environmental assets? Challenges?
o Think of this tangibly (i.e. body of water, climate, interstates, etc.)
 City planning:
o How is the city structured? In other words, where is CBD? Where is housing?
o Where would Amazon be located within the city? Why?
o This is where you show you know your city; a map here will be helpful
 Future outlook:
o What do you see for the city’s future?
 o What do the next 1-2 years look like? For example, maybe you see a developing
city continuing to develop
o What about the next 3-5 years? What can Amazon expect if they locate to your
city?
 Conclusion:
o Why should Amazon choose your city?
o Synthesize your pitch in the prior slides down to this takeaway
o Convey the key drivers of what makes your city the best choice for Amazon

From a format standpoint, you should seek to incorporate a visual on most slides. For example,
the city planning slide benefits from a map. City economics benefits from a graph or chart
illustrating demographic information. Remember your audience; an executive is not likely to
spend much time on an individual slide. You do not want your slides to be overly busy.
Pictures, graphs, and charts convey information quickly. Incorporate these into your deck.
Strive to keep color schemes and fonts crisp and consistent. For your deck to be taken seriously,
it must be appealing to the eye. Additionally, your presentation should be catchy and unique
since you are making a sales pitch.

You will notice that the key points of your presentation are covered (in near order) within your
textbook, The City. Use this resource! Furthermore, U.S. Census data will be useful as you pull
data. Make sure to cite these resources and any others you may use somewhere on the slide the
information appears (i.e. a call out below a chart or a footer at the bottom of the slide).