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Economy Watch
Saturday, September 30, 2006 Here are the articles on the economy I came across last week. Poverty rates rise in many suburbs The 'broken clock' economy Research finds innovation link Starting a Business Is the Best Way out of Poverty for Low-Income Women U.S. economy slips in global index Innovation can happen anywhere A grim economic pointer for the US Strategies: Profit growth is slowing U.S. Productivity and Economic Forecasts posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are a few interesting articles on incentives from last week. Indiana has clarified rules for offering tax incentives. Read more. Wisconsin's governor has announced a large proposal to promote renewable energy in his state. Read more. He has also come up with an innovative proposal to stimulate stem cell research. Read more. A new analysis from the state indicates that Florida will generate a hefty return from its $35 million investment in incentives to lure Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies to the state. Read more. posted by Ed | Wisconsin's inventor and entrepreneur clubs Wisconin is promoting the development of investors and entrepreneurs clubs across the state. You can learn more from this article. You can learn more about how the state is supporting these clubs from this site. posted by Ed | Oregon's innovation council sets a direction Oregon's Innovation Council has released its recommendation for accelerating innovation in that state. The Council recommends investing $40 million in emerging business clusters. Read more. posted by Ed | Cincinnati's new strategy starts Cincinnati is moving ahead with a new strategy initiative. A new public/private steering committee will guide the development of the new strategy effort, called GO Cincinnati. Read more. Next week, the Chamber and the Northern Kentucky Chamber will lead a delegation of 60 community and business leaders to Boston to study economic development strategies that have propelled that city. According to a news release from the mayor's office. a majority of GO Cincinnati leaders have committed to spending three days in Boston studying its success. Read more. posted by Ed | Expanding Asia ties Here are two stories of expanded linkages between the U.S. and Asia. Maryland is pushing a new trade and investment strategy. Read more. Meanwhile, Galesburg, IL is responding to increased port congestion in Chicago with an intermodal facility. Read more. posted by Ed | Virginia's new economic development strategy Under state law, Virginia's new governor is required to develop a statewide economic development strategy. Governor released his last week. The plan is built around nine broad goals, each with measureable metrics, such as: • Increasing the total amount of Defense Department related contracts for Virginia firms by 5%, or $1.15 billion. • Increasing the economic impact of tourism in Virginia from $16.5 billion to $18.5 billion annually. • Increasing exports of goods from the Commonwealth by 7% ($855 million). • Ensuring broadband access for every Virginia business. • Increasing procurement for small businesses to 40% of state purchases. • Decreasing government administration transaction time for businesses by 30%. You can read more about the release of the plan here. You can download a copy of the plan here. posted by Ed | Distributed, renewable energy sources We will be seeing more of these type of stories in the future, as communities move toward more distributed, renewable approaches to energy production. In Clinton County, IN, officals are exploring the conversion of hog waste into electrcity. Read more. Indiana is moving aggressively into renewable energy. The state is the site of BioTown USA in Reynolds, IN (about an hour north of Frankfort). Read more. posted by Ed | Wisconsin: Using IP as an incentive Wisconsin is using access to intellectual propoerty as an incentive for companies involved in stem cell research. Under an agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). WARF holds intellecutal property rights to some of the world's most promising stem cell lines. The foundation has agreed that companies conducting research in partnership with nonprofit and academic institutions in Wisconsin will receive a free research license under the stem cell patents held by WARF. This approach could become a model for other research universities -- in partnership with a state government -- will follow. (You need the state government to help recycle some of the benefits from reserarch based development back to the university.) Read more. posted by Ed | Maine's hometown economies Hometown Economies, a new television series currently airing Maine Public Broadcasting explores how six cities and towns in Maine have been working to define and implement new economic development strategies. You can view the series here. posted by Ed | Workforce report for SE Wisconsin Thursday, September 28, 2006 "Seeds of Workforce Change": a Regional Approach to Improving our Economic Landscape in Southwest & South Central Wisconsin" represents the beginning of a collaborative effort to align and strengthen economic and workforce development systems in the twelve counties in Southwest and South Central Wisconsin. The report was produced for the Workforce Development Boards of South Central and Southwest Wisconsin as part of Governor Doyle’s “Growing Regional Opportunities in Wisconsin” initiative. You can download a copy from this page. posted by Ed | Resource: “Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007" Wednesday, September 27, 2006 The World Economic Forum has released its latest rankings in the “Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007". You can download the report here. Business Week explores the implications of the delining U.S. position. Read more. posted by Ed | Resource: EntreWorks Insights Tuesday, September 26, 2006 Eric Pages of EntreWorks Consulting produces a good newsletter for those of you interested in entrepreneurial development. You can read past issues here. You can sign up for EntreWorks Insights on this page. posted by Ed | Louisiana's incubators Accrding to a report in the Greater baton Rouge Business Report, incubators are playing an important role in Louisiana's economic recovery. Read more. Charlie D'Agostino, Executive Director of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center, pioneered the concept in the state. He opened the Center on the LSU campus in 1988. Charlie is a soft-spoken, inspirational leader who has built one of the leading incubators in the country. posted by Ed | Measuring the entrepreneurial climate in Northeast Ohio Cleveland State University has released a report on the entrepreneurial climate in Northeast Ohio. You can read about the report from the press release here. You can download a copy of the report here. posted by Ed | Indiana manufacturing summit Civic leaders in Indiana held a manufacturing summit today. Here are the details. Read more. posted by Ed | Don't do this at home Regular EDPro readers know that in November Ohio voters will decide a ballot issue concerning statewide gambling. The Cleveland business community has been leading this effort to get casinos in Cleveland. Meanwhile, The Columbus Partnership, the Ohio State regents, Senator Voinovich, Governor Taft, and a number of newspapers have all come out in opposition. Needless to say, the campaign has generated controversy. The proponents of the gambling resolution -- the "Learn and Earn" committee -- have posted their arguments for the amendment (with a lot of smiling children) on their web site: www.ohiolearnandearn.com. At the same time, they did not also buy the URL www.ohiolearnandearn.org. So, the opponents of the resolution took the opportunity to put up their own clever site. Ohio Learn and Earn will be spending millions to support their effort. But they forgot to spend about $10 to reserve a URL. posted by Ed | Baton Rouge leaders head to NC Monday, September 25, 2006 In a smart move, the Baton Rouge Chamber has led a delegation of civic leaders to Research Triangle in North Carolina. You can read about the visit here. posted by Ed | Manufacturing skills for production workers In an important move, the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council has created the first certification program for production workers. President of the National Association of Manufacturers (and former Michigan governor) John Engler noted, "This is a breakthrough with great implications for the future of manufacturing in the United States." Read more. You can download the NAM's manufacturing skills gap report from this page. posted by Ed | NASVF annual conference Last week the annual conference of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds took place in Rochester. Here's an article that summarizes some of what took place. Read more. The local newspaper, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, did a good job promoting the conference with a multi-media piece here. posted by Ed | NC Treasurer pushes seed and venture capital The North Carolina Treasurer is leading an effort to expand early stage financing in North Carolina. Here's the interesting aspect of this announcment. Under North Carolina law, the Treasurer can invest up to 20% of the state's abandoned property fund (Escheats Fund) in seed and venture capital. Why don't other states follow suit? (For the curious, an escheat is a reversion of property to the state. In feudal times, when an owner died without legal heirs, the ownership of the property reverted to a superior feudal lord.) posted by Ed | Wisconsin governor proposes renewable energy plan Today, Wisconsin's governor announced an ambitious $450 milllion public-private plan to develop renewable energy. The investment strategy includes $80 million from the state, as well as a range of financial incentives for private investment. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, September 24, 2006 Here are some articles on the economy from last week. Economy gets traction as election issue The 'power' of rising productivity Vital Signs: Healthy Economy, with Soft Spots Fed does not alter interest rates Health care keeps jobs up Is Chrysler next? We must reconnect growth with rising living standards posted by Ed | Reworking Rochester The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has compiled an important series on the future of the Rochester economy. You can access the series from this page. The series includes a simple multimedia presentation of the main themes of the series. Unlike most newspaper series, the editorial board of the newspaper writes this one. That's important, because so much of regional economic development depends on the conversations civic leaders are having. In regions in decline, you typically hear regional conversations that focus on either wrong-headed ideas or on issues of personalities and blame. In other words, the conversations don't focus on transformative, yet pragmatic solutions. A newspaper can play a role in shifting these unproductive conversations to a positive direction. Forward this Rochester series to your local editors as an example of the role newspapers can play in framing new agendas. posted by Ed | Boosting Maryland's exports Export promotion does not factor in most economic development strategies. Unlike EDPros in Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, EDPros in the U.S. do not have a lot of experience with foreign market entry strategies. But EDPros that move toward export promotion can count on strong support from the Federal government. The U.S. Commercial Service provides a wide range of services for U.S. companies. Here's a good article on the development of exports by companies on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Read more. posted by Ed | High speed wireless in northern Michigan High speed wireless Internet service is coming to the northern regions of the Michigan's Lower Peninsula. The Michigan Broadband Development Authority will provide a $5.6 million loan to help build the infrastructure. Here's the view from Traverse City. Read more. posted by Ed | Florida's move into biotech Here's a review of Florida's recent moves into biotech. Read more. posted by Ed | The challenges facing Ohio The reality of Ohio's economic development picture is not pretty. Read more. You can read the first part of the Toledo Blade series here. Casinos -- the current focus on the Cleveland business comunity -- will not change this reality. Read more. posted by Ed | Choices for Cleveland and Ohio Casinos are a twenty year old economic development strategy that does not work very well. In rural areas close to metro regions, casinos can boost incomes. Rising Sun, Indiana next to Cincinnati is a good example. But urban casinos are a different story. Unless they have a clear target market outside the region, their impact is more negative than positive. They also generate damaging social costs. Read more. These issues are currently being discussed in Northeast Ohio, where I live. Today's Cleveland Plain Dealer does a good job in outlining the different perspectives on the isssues. Read more. Here's an outline of the issue. Opponents to the Cleveland business community include the The Columbus Partnership, the Ohio State University Board of Regents, The Akron Beacon Journal, The News Herald, Senator Voinovich, and Governor Taft. You can read more on Cleveland 2.0, a blog I set up to explore economic development alternatives for my hometown. Sadly, the casino issue is isolating Cleveland's business leadership within the state. It comes away looking self-absorbed, manipulative, greedy. As a result, the leadership is even less effective, in my view, in helping Ohio define a productive economic development strategy around issue that really matter: education, innovation, and collaboration. posted by Ed | WV looks at broadband deployment Saturday, September 23, 2006 Civic leaders gathered in West Virginia recently to discuss deployment of broadband in the state. Michael J. Copps, commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission, outlined the problem with some interesting statements: "The problem is that we do not have a strategy to get the broadband job done. We don't have a way to bring together the people in this room." "As far as I can tell, we're the only country on the face of God's green earth that doesn't have a broadband strategy." The U.S. ranks 16th in one survey and 21st in another in broadband deployment. Read more. posted by Ed | Increasing bank services in the inner city A new bank in Tampa will focus on helping minority businesses. The bank is designed to serve inner city markets that are often neglected by national banks and poorly served by payday lenders. Read more. Predatory lending is a large and growing problem in many inner city neighborhoods. The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that the problem drains $3.4 billion in income from these borrowers. Read more. These loans can generate annual percentage rates (APRs) of well over 300%. Learn more. You can learn more about payday lending here. posted by Ed | WI business leaders turning to early education Business leaders in Wisconsin are starting to line up behind the idea of early childhood education as an investment in economic development. Next week, they will be holding a summit to explore how businesses can take the lead in pushing for early education as an economic development strategy. Read more. posted by Ed | Albany explores implications of AMD Some months ago, the Capitol Region of New York caught the big one. Advanced Micro Devices agreed to build a computer chip manufacturing plant at the Luther Technology Campus near Albany. Now the local paper is exploring the implications of this announcement by examining the Austin story more closely. The newspaper has been running a series of articles and commentary: A city without limits for AMD Lessons for region in Austin tech boom CEO lauds Austin, workers in network Learn Austin's lessons AMD's long and winding road to Malta posted by Ed | South Carolina's Education and Economic Development Act South Carolina has made some important strides forward with the passage of the Education and Economic Development Act. Among other steps, the Act requires students to choose a nonbinding career path just before starting high school. Read more. You can learn more about the South Carolina approach from this page. posted by Ed | Indiana launches new rural strategy Indiana has launched a new strategy for its rural counties. Read more. Based on the Rural Indiana Strategy for Excellence: A 2020 Vision for the Indiana Countryside (RISE 2020), "Breaking the Boundaries" focuses on expanding entrepreneurial opportunities in rural areas and improving workforce development. My colleagues at Purdue, working with the Lt. Governor's office, developed the RISE 2020 process. You can learn more about RISE 2020 from the web site of the Purdue Center for Regional Development here. posted by Ed | Focusing on inner city retail opportunities Last week, the Institute for a Competitive Inner City held its annual conference in Atlanta. ICIC announced the formation of a retail task force to examine emerging opportunities in inner city retail markets. You can learn more about the summit here. Michael Porter's presentation is available on the ICIC web site here. Porter's presentation examines the emerging retail markets in the inner city. Porter's analysis suggests that inner city retail presents a $40 billion market opportunity. In other words, the demand for retail services exceeds the supply by $40 billion. You can read more about the ICIC inner city retail task force here. posted by Ed | Biotech transfer from universities The Milken Institute has produced a report that examines the flow of biotechnology technology transfer from universities. The report examines factors such as research published, patents issued, income received from licensing discoveries and startup companies formed. You can read more about it here. You can cdownload a copy here. posted by Ed | Resource: Fact sheet on incubators Here's a brief fact sheet on small business incubators from the Extension Office at the University of Nevada Reno. Download a copy. The National Business Incubator Association compiles a mother load of information on this strategy. Visit the web site. Some states, like Florida, Washington and Virginia, have their own business incubation associations. Communities hard hit by industrial restructuring are looking at new entrepreneurship options, and incubators provide a promising alternative. Here's an example from Marshall, Michigan, about midway between Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo. Read more. posted by Ed | Linking the university to the regional economy Friday, September 22, 2006 Here's an example of how a university is changing the way it is organized, in order to increase its impact on regional economic development. The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has filled three endowed chairs designed to strengthen this linkage. Read more. posted by Ed | University research and local economies Thursday, September 21, 2006 Economists at Arizona State University have been looking at the impact of university research on local economies. Here's the latest story on the issue. Read more. posted by Ed | NY business plan competition A group of New York economic development organizations are launching a new business plan competition with a $100,000 top prize. Read more. posted by Ed | Biofuels in Arkansas Biofuels offers a new frontier for many states. Here is the view from Arkansas. Read more. posted by Ed | Recruiting talent More evidence of the economic development conversation shifting from companies to people. This article comes to us from Minnesota. Read more. Like other trends in economic development, this one can get out of hand as well. Regional and local strategies need to balance brainpower, innovation and entrepreneurship networks, new habits of civic collaboration, effective branding, and the development of quality, connected places. There's no simple formula of A + B = C. We're dealing with complex, evolving systems. posted by Ed | Facing the facts on the ground One of the first rules of economic development is to face the facts on the ground. An executive in Alabama has done just that with a frank assessment of his state's economy. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Sunday, September 17, 2006 Here are articles on the economy from last week. What's Really Propping Up The Economy Treasury Secretary Remarks on International Economy The Wave of Next-Generation Innovators A strong China is in US economic interest: Paulson The Honeymoon Is Over--22 Million Workers Are Divorced From Their Jobs And Disengaged From Their Work Broad-based innovation strategy for Europe: Commission's 10 point programme IMF: China leading world economic upturn Paulson outlines rethink of US policy on China Paulson's China Challenge Shanghai searches for US talent posted by Ed | Incentives Watch Here are the articles on incentives I came across last week. The news at Ford sent Kentucky officals scrambling to prepare an incentive package. Read more. Louisiana officals are off to Asia to market three mega sites. Read more. The local paper in Utica, NY has completed a useful analysis of local incentives. Read more. posted by Ed | Reflections on Ford and the future of U.S. manufacturing Twenty+ years ago, I was part of a consulting team examining the differences between Ford and the Japanese auto makers. We had access. Ford owned a slice of Mazda, so we became the first U.S.-based consulting team to make a detailed competitive analysis of the production economics driving U.S. and Japanese automakers. Three of us headed off to Hiroshima, Japan to complete a detailed cost comparison between a Mazda GLC and a Ford Escort, roughly comparable cars. We learned a lot of lessons. We found many sources for the cost differences: both hourly and salaried productivity and compensation levels, as well as materials usage and significant product and process design differences. But here is the main point: Most of these differences, we concluded, fell within the power of management and labor to address. Hearing the news this week from Ford, I flashed back to memories of Hiroshima. At the time, I felt that Ford's management was simply not getting the big picture. (Indeed, one Ford manager left early to attend a University of Michigan football game.) Japanese auto companies were managed differently. They were flatter, more nimble, more collaborative, faster. Ford managers continued to see issues in terms of costs not learning. Japanese automakers saw management challenges as opportunities to learn -- to innovate -- with the result that costs would naturally decline as everyone learned more. Each challenge stood out as a new learning opportunity. The Japanese taught me that innovation is a team sport. I'm convinced we have a bright future for manufacturing in the U.S. But only if we understand that older forms of industrial organization -- old mental models of both management and labor -- get in the way of our innovation. Job security for our hourly or salaried workforces no longer comes from contracts. Today, job security only comes from up-to-date skills that are in demand. That requires a willingness and ability to learn quickly and continuously: to innovate. As this commentary from today's Rochester paper points out, we need to think differently to manage this transition. Read more.) posted by Ed | On playing the right game in Ohio Here's a useful special report from the Toledo Blade on how the rhetoric of economic development policies has not kept up with the imperative to innovate. Read more. posted by Ed | Resource: Report from the Bay Area Saturday, September 16, 2006 A friend out in Silicon Valley, Ted Kahn, pointed me to a useful report that I had missed. The Innovation Economy: Protecting the Talent Edge is the latest in a series of reports from the Bay Area Economic Forum. Ted points to the useful metrics that are outlined in the report. You can download the report here. The Bay Area report outlines the same challenges facing other regions:
The report underscores the core of regional competitiveness in today's global economy: the ability of civic leaders to move quickly to realign resources -- "reinvent the region" -- as economic circumstances change. This agility is grounded in thick, collaborative networks that enable people to learn quickly, spot opportunities, and move. Older industrial regions -- like those in the Midwest -- confront more rigid (at times dysfunctional) patterns of civic behavior that undercut the speed with which a region can adjust. In the years ahead, every region will face the talent shortages. The underlying drivers are the same: an underperforming primary and secondary school system; a Baby Boom retirement; an emerging global market for skills; and continuously higher skill standards required by knowledge-based businesses. The regions that learn how to collaborate more effectively will likely end up with faster rates of productivity growth...more prosperity. They will be the first to move beyond legacy education systems and innovate with new approaches to continuous, high quality learning. posted by Ed | Entrepreneurship articles Here's an interesting two article series on entrepreneurship from the busness school at the Univeristy of Arizona. The Two Faces of Entrepreneurship, Part 1: Replicative Entrepreneurs Serve Growing Population The Two Faces of Entrepreneurship, Part 2: Innovative Entrepreneurs Bring New Wealth to the Economy posted by Ed | The importance of proprietorship employment New research out of Massachusetts points to the importance of sole proprietors in the state's economy. Read more. The report "shows that small businesses and proprietorships make up a significant share of all net new employment and business enterprise formation in both Essex County and for Massachusetts during the 1994 to 2004 time period." It may open the door to new types of reporting and tracking proprietorship employment. You can download the report from this page. posted by Ed | Assessment of South Carolina's workforce system The Palmetto Insitute, a policy think tank in South Carolina, has published a report on the state's fragmented workforce system. The report focuses on the lack of coordination that often accompanies workforce systems across the country. You can read about the report here. You can download a copy here. To address these challenges, the Employment and Training Administration has launched the WIRED initiative. Learn more. posted by Ed | An overview of angel capital Friday, September 15, 2006 The Economist has a good over view article on the role of angel capital. Read more. If you are interested in learning more about the role of early stage capital, visit the Capital Formation Institute here. (EDPro is a partner with CFI.) CFI's Dan Loague produces a convenient and informative AudioBlog. The Angel Capital Association has a good set of materials on establishing an angel capital network here. Another useful resource: ActiveCapital. You can learn more about ActiveCapital here. posted by Ed | WV micro business support model Thursday, September 14, 2006 A new initiative in West Virginia will pilot an effort to support entrepreneurs among low income and minority residents of the state. If successful, promoters of the initiative hope to use it as a statewide model. Read more. posted by Ed | PA connects with Germany Another fascinating aspect to how economic development is shifting in our networked world. States and regions are developing their own trade agreements. Here's an example: Pennsylvania signed an agreement on alternaitve energy opportunities with a leading industrial state in Germany. William Norris, the famed entrepreneur behind Control Data, predicted this development in the early 1980s. Now, however, its becoming real. (Norris helped form the Midwest Technology Development Institute "MTDI" as a coalition of ten Midwestern states to expand technological cooperation among Midwest universities and industry in order to increase the availability of technology to industry, especially small businesses. MTDI was also created to achieve an equitable transfer of technology between the Midwest and foreign countries -- particularly Japan -- to create jobs and improve the economic welfare of the region.) In 1992, I was involved negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding between Massachusetts and Hong Kong. This agreement led to new opportunities for environmental control companies (principally waste water remediation) in Massachusetts. To propel our efforts we conducted the first video conference between Massachusetts and Hong Kong to demonstrate the technology of another Massachusetts company, PictureTel. Later, we launched the Greater China Business Network to encourage smaller New England technology companies to enter the Greater China market (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan). Opening global markets to smaller companies involves these types of intiatives. Building relationships. Sharing information. Creating networks. posted by Ed | New Mexico summit focuses on skills Along with Tennesee, New Mexico held its Governor's Summit on Economic Development this week. The theme: skilled workers. Three initiatives framed the discussion: a career clusters guidebook, the WorkKeys System and the career readiness certificate. Read more. You can download a copy of the New Mexico career clusters guidebook here. It comes from a helpful web site on careers and career pathways that New Mexico has put together. We need to be exploring this site as a model for other regions and states. Visit the site here. posted by Ed | Madison, WI looks for more a more collaborative path The Collaboration Council in Madison, WI has launched a new plan for better alignment in economic development. Read more. You can download a briefing paper on the new entity here. You can visit the Collaboration Council web site here. posted by Ed | Convergence of higher ed and ED We are starting to see a stronger convergence between education and economic development. Increasingly, we will see economic development incentives shifting from companies to people, as more policymakers recognize that the key to developing strong companies comes in developing brainpower. Here's an example. Tennessee Governor Bredesen would like to see free community college tuition for qualified students. Read more. The governor announced this initiative as part of a broader "Next Steps" development strategy. posted by Ed | Impact of universities on local economies WP Carey School of Business at Arizona State has produced some research on the impact of universities on local economies. Read more. posted by Ed | Ohio rebranding Ohio has come up with a new branding campaign. Read more. posted by Ed | Wireless network for downtown Pittsburgh Wednesday, September 13, 2006 Downtown Pittsburgh has gone live with a wireless network. Read more. For techno geeks, you can learn more here and here. posted by Ed | Resource: Documentary on microcredit Sometimes you find the most interesting web sites when you are looking for something else. I was on the PBS site looking for a documentary I had watched some time ago, and I came across this documentary on microcredit. View the site. The site has a useful set of references. Read more. posted by Ed | Web Watch: Great Lakes Manufacturing Council The Great Lakes Manufacturing Council has launched its web site. The newly formed Council is designed to increase the competitive advantage for manufacturing and preserve the prosperity of the Great Lakes region. Its efforts are concentrated on four focus areas: image, workforce, innovation and logistics. The Council operates with partners in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Ontario and Wisconsin. Visit the site. posted by Ed | PA investments in clean technologies The Treasurer of Pennsylvania has announced a new investment strategy to commit $90 million to the dfevelopment of "clean technologies" in the state. These technologies include renewal fuels. Read more. You can download a copy of the investment strategy from this page. I follow developments in these markets with a newsletter from Clean Edge. You can sign up on their site. posted by Ed | South Carolina's move toward a hydrogen economy Tuesday, September 12, 2006 There are a lot of obstacles to the evolution of a hydrogen economy. Learn more hereand here. Nevertheless, South Carolina, by leveraging federal research investments, is making a strong play to be a center of development for these technologies. Read more. posted by Ed | Emerging biotech cluster in South Florida A biotech cluster is emerging in South Florida with the location of two research anchors, Scripps and the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. Here's an overview. Read more. For more coverage on the emergence of biosciences in South Florida, you can go to this special section. posted by Ed | Japan-Midwest Association Conference Indiana is working to expand Japanese investment in the state through the Japan-Midwest Association Conference. Over 600 participants are scheduled to attend. Read more. posted by Ed | Evansville takes another step forward Evansville, IN is one of those unexpected places where a lot of good things are happening. The business leadership is strong and engaged. The leadership program, Leadership Evanville, guided by an irrepressible director, Lynn Miller Pease, is vibrant. The mayor, Jonathan Weinzapfel, is young, energetic, and willing to try new ideas. Now, Evansville has recruited one of its own to lead Innovation Pointe, a new initaitive to launch knowledge-based businesses. Read more. posted by Ed | Biozona hits Arizona It may sound like a new energy drink, but Biozona is the brand that will bless Arizona's bioscience efforts. Read more. posted by Ed | Economy Watch Saturday, September 09, 2006 Here are some of the articles on the economy that caught my eye recently. Farm subsidies Climate change: The heat is on Chinese economy to experience continual rapid growth for the next two decades U.S. Economy: Productivity Slows, Labor Costs Rise Economy shows some signs of slowing, Fed report says Wages lagging behind profits Lugar on Energy: ‘Oil Dependence is Dangerously Unsustainable’ Census report: More are struggling to get by Report from Fed's 12 bank regions Snapshot of America Business failures are good for the economy China faces shortage of workers posted by Ed | Incentives Watch A couple of innovation stories dominated the headlines in the past couple of weeks. Port St. Lucie landed the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. The deal includes $56.5 in local incentives, a 20-acre donated site, and an additional $25 million expected from the state. Read more. Concerned about the restructuring going on at Ford, Kentucky has taken steps to prepare invcentives to keep Ford's Louisville assets in place. Read more. posted by Ed | Purdue conference: Regional Development For Local Success My colleagues at Purdue staged a very successful conference last week: “Regional Development For Local Success: Innovations in Economic Development and Governance”. This conference represents the first annual conference for the Purdue Center for Regional Development. Since its founding in May, 2005, the Center has rapidly moved to the front lines of regional economic development. The EDA has selected the Center for a major research project on rural clusters. In addition, the Education and Training Administration has awared the Center a Workforce Innovation in Regioanl Economic Development (WIRED) grant. Since July, I have been serving on the Center's staff as an economic policy advisor, working particularly on our WIRED project. Here are some comments on the conference last week: “These people are brilliant,” said William Kittredge, a senior official from the Washington, D.C.-based Economic Development Administration (EDA), referring to the Purdue organizers. “There is some serious take-away information here that can make a difference in long-term development.” Read more. posted by Ed | Spartanburg's downtown master plan If you are involved in downtown development, you might follow the process just getting uderway in Spartanburg, SC. Civic leaders are launching a master planning process for thie downtown core. Read more. posted by Ed | Arizona's move into science and technology Arizona is continuing to build an innovation economy based on stronger research assets. Read more. New research released by the Morrison Institute at Arizona State underscores that Arizona residents are increasingly supportive of this type of development strategy. You can download the research here. posted by Ed | Lansing, MI begins to unite Lansing EDPros are looking to collaborate more closely. Read more. As one participant notes, "Everybody agrees we cannot continue business as usual in the Lansing region. If we maintain the status quo, we lose as a region." posted by Ed | Michgan invests $100 million Michigan's 21st Century Jobs Fund has awarded $100 million in first round start-up funds to 61 projects. The Michigan Strategic Economic Investment and Commercialization Board selected the projects. Read more. The 21st Century Jobs Fund is a $2 billion, ten-year initiative administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to accelerate the diversification of Michigan's economy. posted by Ed | Clemson's commitment to advanced materials Clemson continues to build out its research infrastructure. In partnership with the South Carolina Research Authority and Anderson County Development Partnership, Clemson will be adding an incubator building to strengthen commercialization of advanced materials technologies at the Clemson Research Park. Read more. posted by Ed | New Jersey's new economic strategy New Jersey's governor Corzine released his economic strategy last week. Read more. The plan, not surprisingly, ends with a focus on metrics. Although these metrics are not set out, the plan points out:
You can download the plan here. posted by Ed | Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County The Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County follows an interesting focus: it specializes in small business turnarounds. Small businesses employ less than 200. Read more. Interestingly, the local Workforce Investment Board funds the Collaborative's 911 business assistance program. Visit the web site here. The Collaborative is guided by a twelve member board of directors, drawn from both the public and provatge sectors. Eaqually important, the Collaborative represents a partnershiop among the county government and different cities within the county. View the board. One of the biggest challenges facing public sector economic development efforts -- like county economic development porgramws -- comes in connecting to the market (instead of blindly following political calculations). The Collaborative's structure is a good appraoch to connect public resources to market needs. posted by Ed | Collaboration in Southeastern Wisconsin A regional agenda is forming in Southeastern Wisconsin. Last week, a business group unveiled its plan for boosting this collaboration. Read more. Wisely, the civic leaders are focusing on underlying issues. They have even used a "placeholder name" - Regional Economic Development Entity - in these early planning materials. posted by Ed | Silicon Valley unplugged Silicon Valley is launching the biggest regional wireless initiative: an effort to provide 2.4 million residents with free wireless access. When completed, the network will cover 42 municipalities and nearly 1,500 square miles. Beyond providing wireless access to the general public, the network will also be capable of supporting a broad range of uses by residential, small business, public sector and commercial users. Read more. posted by Ed | Colorado's new economic foundations Over the past few weeks, I've come across a number of articles on Colorado's new economic foundations. Colorado is one of a number of states trying to figure out how to develop the foundations for nanotechnology. The Colorado Nanotechnology Association has the goal to make the state one of the top 10 places for nanotechnology companies. Read more. Colorado has also been focusing on the biosciences. Here's some of the latest on its bioscience efforts. Read more. Another push comes from alternative energy and the effort to articulate a Colorado climate agenda. Read more. posted by Ed | Resource: Exposing earmarks A new web site is devoted to figuring out who benefits from earmarks. The upcoming Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill has about 1,800. Learn more. posted by Ed | Pittsburgh's new marketing effort Pittsburgh has launched a new marketing effort, tied to its 250th birthday. The basic theme focuses on innovation: "Pittsburgh, Imagine what you could do here". Read more. posted by Ed | 'Streetwise MBA' for inner city businesses Here's a good example of how a business school can reach out to helop inner city entrepreneurs: A nine-month "street-wise" MBA. Read more. posted by Ed | Building Maine's creative economy Maine, like Vermont, is committed to building an 3economy that includes the creative industries. EDPros have joined with artists to conduct a series of conferences around the state. Here's a report from Skowhegan. Read more. You can learn more about the Maine effort from this report. You can also download a creative economy community handbook here. posted by Ed | Another PA innovation zone launches Pennsylvania has launched its 19th innovation zone. This one is located in Buck's County. You can learn more here and here. posted by Ed | The value of field trips Regional visits are one of the best ways to get yor leadership geared to the new realities shaping regional economic development. In the past year, civic leaders from Lexington, KY visited Oklahoma City to see the inspiring turnaround in that city-region. Civic leaders from Milwaukee and Madison, WI have been studying closely the example of Denver. Wisconsin's leaders are learning how to implement regional collaboration. This fall, civic leaders from Oklahoma City will be traveling to Indianapolis. Here's another example. Civic leaders from Witchita will be heading to Ricmond, VA. Read more. posted by Ed | Casinos: a no spin-off zone Chester, PA is betting on a casino to revitalize its downtown. But experts who have studied the industry are not so sure. According to one analyst: "They're going to get some tax revenues and some jobs, but Chester is not going to become a tourist destination, and you won't see a lot of spinoff businesses, other than those directly related to the casino, like pawnshops." Read more. Casinos owners have no interest in spinoff development. They are interested in capturing wallets. Once they have a hold of your wallet, they do not want to let go. So, they construct parking garages nearby with convenient walkways to the casino. They banish clocks from the walls. They pump in clean, cool air to keep their patrons awake. And they subsidize quality food service to keep patrons happily fed. And for high rollers, they provide 24/7 concierge treatment. The reason: On average every person entering a casino loses between $60 and $80. The more people, the more wallets. The more time stuck in a casino, the more money for the casino operators. (I once asked the general manager of the Isle of Capri Casino in Louisiana if he ever gambled. He looked at me, expressionless, and said, "Nope. It's a sucker's game.") posted by Ed | |
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