Public Art: Cary, North Carolina

Many economic and community development groups are giving attention the role of public art as a strategy to create interest in their communities. For a god example of how to create a public arts plan, take a look at what Cary, NC is doing.

Click here to download the plan.

Greater Baltimore Staffs Up for Tech Industry Charge

The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore has hired two new business development staff to support the sector-specific strategy outlined in its 2004 Business Plan.

In January, the Economic Alliance announced it would focus on a few targeted industries in which Greater Baltimore has a strategic advantage over other regions. Those sectors are biotech/pharmaceuticals, information technology/ homeland security, and financial services/health services.

More here.

Bio in St. Louis

A lot is shaking in the bio-sector and life sciences in St. Louis.

Over 390 firms in plant and life sciences employ 22,000 people in greater St. Louis. These companies poduce an annual direct and indirect economic impact of $10.5 billion according to the St. Louis RCGA estimates.

St. Louis is also home to a variety of firms that are supportive to growing plant and life science firms, providing the support that scientific entrepreneurs need. One such source of support is the Nidus Center for Scientific Enterprise, a non-profit incubator for plant and life science firms. In 2001, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center opened, further enhancing St. Louis' position as a national center for plant and life science research.

Saint Louis University has been designated as one of the six sites for viral clinical trials for a potential AIDS vaccine and is part of a related national study. Washington University fas founded BioMed 21, a $300 million strategic initiative with the Center of Genomics and human Genetics, Division of Clinical Sciences, and the Center for Biological Imaging. Saint Louis University and Washington University together received over $420 million in NIH funding in 2003.

In the last year 8 St. Louis companies have received over $30 million in venture capital funds. Currently St. Louis has six local venture capital funds, with $300 million raised for investment in biotech and medical companies. The St. Louis life science venture funds are Ascension Health Ventures, BioGenerator Fund, Oakwood Medical Investors, Prolog Capital, RiverVest Venture Partners, and Vectis Life Science Fund.

More here.

Rural Entrepreneurship 3

What do rural entrepreneurs say they need?

Here is what rural entrepreneurs in North Carolina told the NC Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship.

The Rural Center conducted 22 focus groups across the state to take the pulse of rural entrepreneurship in North Carolina and to hear from entrepreneurs about their business challenges and what they need to succeed in starting and growing new businesses. Early results indicate the following:

- Entrepreneurs in rural North Carolina face many of the same challenges faced by entrepreneurs in other parts of the country, namely distance from markets, limited local expertise and the absence of peer networks.

- In a few cases, as in Brunswick County and the areas surrounding Asheville, the challenges stem from local prosperity that is bringing in Wal-Marts and other big box retailers to compete with smaller locally owned businesses.

- While participants often cited challenges unique to their business, region or industrial sector, there were four problems cited by entrepreneurs in every focus group session:

* The sense of isolation plaguing rural business owners.
* Lack of access to capital
* Difficulties in accessing outside resources and support services.
* Need for more training and education programs for entrepreneurs.
* While problems persist, there are many signs of optimism.
* Certain sectors, such as agri-tourism, appear to be poised for growth.
* Most rural communities have a strong history of entrepreneurial success and a powerful work ethic on which to build a base for future prosperity.

Rural Entrepreneurship 2

Culture plays a significant role in stimulating entrepreneurship in rural areas.

In that regard, you may find a presentation by the National Commission on Entrepreneurship to contain some useful insights. Download it here.

Rural Entrepreneurship 1

I have been looking into the issue of rural entrepreneurship. I ran across an excellent and very straight-shooting guide to how rural counties can foster entrepreneurship. The guide was prepared by the Nebraska Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. Download it here.

Nevada's ED Incentives

Everybody is looking for new ideas on incentives. I like the portfolio of tools that Nevada has to offer. This is straight off the Nevada Commission on Economic Development website.

IncentivesTax Climate

The outstanding tax climate in Nevada is one of the best reasons to do business in the state. This tax structure also clearly distinguishes Nevada as offering a business environment very few states can match.

In Nevada there is:

No Corporate Income Tax
No Personal Income Tax
No Franchise Tax on Income
No Inheritance or Gift Tax
No Admissions Tax
No Unitary Tax
No Estate Tax*
Competitive Sales and Property Tax Rates
Minimal Employer Payroll Tax - 0.7% of gross wages with deductions for employer paid health insurance

Building Strategic Alliances

Alliances and partnerships are essential to economic development.

Increasingly, ED organizations are building national and global alliances and partnerships. In this regard, you may find a report by U.S. AID, called Tools for Alliance Builders, to be of interest. It offers some good advice on how to approach strategic alliances.

Get the report here.

Minnesota Tourism Marketing

We have been doing some tourism related work. Wanted to share a summary of Minnesota's tourism marketing plan, which I ran across in my research. It's concise and points to strategic areas of focus and core strategies, which are two key elements of a sound tourism marketing plan.

Mission

To promote and facilitate increased travel to and within the state of Minnesota.

Goals

- Sustain and grow travel-related sales.
- Increase nonresident travel.
- Stimulate travel in-state by Minnesota residents.

2004 Marketing Strategies

- Develop results-driven advertising and promotions that market Minnesota as a travel destination.

- Implement an integrated media and public relations plan that expands the scope of tourism marketing.

- Develop regional and statewide marketing partnerships with the tourism industry to avoid duplication of efforts and extend reach of Minnesota tourism promotions.

- Provide quality travel information and services that meet customers’ needs and interests.

- Promote Minnesota as a destination for group tours and vacation packages.

- Promote international travel to Minnesota, focusing on targeted markets.

- Identify travel experiences with potential for increasing tourism in Minnesota, and facilitate product development in these areas.

- Raise cash and in-kind resources to extend Minnesota marketing.

- Provide strategic leadership for tourism initiatives and related policy development.

Rethinking High Tech by Occupations

I ran across a very interesting article by researcher Pingkang David Yu about measuring regional high technology concentrations based upon high tech occupations.

It says that Chicago actually has the great number of high tech jobs, followed by Washington, DC, Silicon Valley, Boston, and then NY City.

Short and interesting read.

Download Yu's article here.

Industrial Revolution: Past and Future

Perspective is a wonderful thing. All of us need it.

In that regard, you may find an article by Robert E. Lucas Jr., John Dewey Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago, on our world economic development situation to be quite interesting and useful. In 1995 Lucas received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Read Lucas' article here.

Minneapolis Fed District Regional Economic Outlook

The Minneapolis Federal Reserve District economy is expected to grow well in the second half of 2004 and during 2005, according to the Minneapolis Fed's forecast models.

Even though gasoline, commodity and materials prices have recently jumped (see related stories on natural resources and gasoline prices), the district economy seems to be weathering the bumps in prices, as indicated by solid growth in retail sales, construction and manufacturing.

Hiring is also picking up as companies are facing increased demand. The overall outlook for agriculture is favorable with strong commodity prices and generally good growing conditions, except for some drought-stricken areas.

More here.

Community Colleges Today

I do a considerable amount of work with community colleges.

A recent article in the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis' Fedgazette provides some interesting insights into where these institutions are today.

Maybe not quite the stepchild of the higher education system that it once was, the two-year college still battles an inferiority complex despite strong enrollment growth and relevance in today's economy.

More here.

SanDag: Best Practice in Regional Planning

I spent some time on the San Diego Regional Council of Governments (SanDag) website and I was very impressed with the high quality work this organization does with respect to regional planning.

Many areas are struggling to address regional issues. There are some excellent ideas to be had in touring the SanDag website. For one, I really like the organization's Economic Data Warehouse.

Click here to visit the SanDag website.

Economic Development Primer

Most economic developers must be educators as well as deal makers, planners, and catalysts for change. Community education about economic development is abolutely essential. It is important in creating awareness of what economic development is about and why it is important to a community's vitality.

Here are two useful resources that can help you with your educational job. Here is the link to my slides from a Principles of Economic Development course I teach, and here is a link to a useful Economic Development Primer produced by the World Bank.

Cluster Analysis: The Statistical Perspective

Cluster development has been the rage in economic development for the past decade. It is being practiced worldwide. It is important to understand the statistical foundation of cluster analysis if your organization is planning to go down the cluster development path.

What is "cluster analysis?" It is the statistical method for partitioning a sample into homogeneous classes or groups to produce an operational classification. This may help the analyst to formulate appropriate hypotheses concerning the origin of the sample.

Cluster analysis is a data analysis tool for solving classification problems. It can be used to sort cases (people, things, events, industries, busineses, etc.) into groups, or clusters, so that the degree of association is strong between members of the same cluster and weak between members of different clusters. It may reveal associations and structure in data which are not readily apparent to a researcher.

Montana Builds Global Partnerships

Here is another example of global partnership building, which I have been advocating over the past two years.

Representatives of nine nations agreed Friday to work toward closer economic ties with Montana, but a Japanese official stopped short of indicating when his country might end a restriction on imports of beef, a leading Montana product.

The international delegation is on a visit led by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. He said the four days in Montana are part of an effort to build the relationships essential for broader trade opportunities.

At the Capitol, representatives of the state and the nine countries signed a "declaration of economic friendship and cooperation," stating their desire to advance relationships and seek closer economic connections. The countries are Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia.

More here.

Chicago Fed Looks at Higher-Pay Job Growth

The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank has just released an analysis of what types of jobs have been created nationally with the end of the jobless recovery. The study's results conclude that a fairly consistent pattern of growth, resembling past trends, has occurred across employment categories in the past year.

Download the report here.

Montana on the Move

A new economic development initiative has been launched in Montana, which gives attention to how to develop the state's economic regions. The new initiative stresses that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to developing these regions.

More here.

Technology Alone Not Enough

Penn State researchers have said that the technology alone can't create the next Silicon Valley and successful IT economies of Silicon Valley, Boston's Route 128 corridor and Ireland evolved because of a confluence of complex factors ranging from infrastructure to cultural attitudes.

Presenting her research at the Tenth Americas Conference on Information Systems in New York in a paper titled 'Infrastructural Challenges in Developing an Information Economy in Humboldt County, California, Penn State researcher Eileen Trauth said, "Some people have the naive view that if a region gets fiber optic cables, computers and a university, then companies will come and a knowledge economy will flourish.

The researchers studied rural Humboldt County in 2003 when the county had almost a 20-percent unemployment rate and an economy based largely on labor-intensive and seasonal industries. Information technology was seen as a means of enhancing existing companies' competitive edge and creating new business opportunities.

More here.

Industrial Productivity Data

Let's say you wanted to target the most productive industries for your area. Where would you find data on industry productivity (national data)? Click here to see what the Bureau of Labor Statistics has available.

Note: Not local area data, but it can help you understand the variables and how you can create a local industry productivity series.