Economic Confidence: Where's Yours?

Here is what Americans think about their economy at the moment. How about you? How confident are you in the economy and its performance?

Source: Gallup Organization, April 2006

Defining Business Incubation

The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) says: "Business incubation is a business support process that accelerates the successful development of start-up and fledgling companies by providing entrepreneurs with an array of targeted resources and services. These services are usually developed or orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the business incubator and through its network of contacts. A business incubator’s main goal is to produce successful firms that will leave the program financially viable and freestanding. These incubator graduates have the potential to create jobs, revitalize neighborhoods, commercialize new technologies, and strengthen local and national economies."

Wasting Time: Let Me Count the Ways

According to TimeManagement4U.com, the Top 10 time wasters are:

1) Procrastination & Excuses
2) Running Errands & Commuting
3) Rushing
4) Telephone, Mail, & E-mail
5) Paperwork, Reports, & Memos
6) Meetings
7) Computers & the Internet
8) Planning & Decision Making
9) Entertainment, Television, & Radio
10) Saying Yes

Ford Still Standing in St. Thomas, Ontario

Ford's assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ontario has dodged a bullet, but union leaders are wary that another one could still be coming.

Detroit-based parent Ford Motor Co. announced the closing of two more assembly plants yesterday and although it didn't include St. Thomas, top Canadian Auto Workers officials say concerns remain because the struggling auto giant intends to shut down another two more operations in North America.

Read more here.

Tennessee's FastTrack Infrastructure Program

The FastTrack Infrastructure Development Program(FIDP) funds may be used for infrastructure improvements. Funds may not be used for "speculative" projects but are restricted to situations where there is a commitment by certain private sector businesses to locate or expand in the state and to create or retain jobs for Tennesseans.

Activities funded under the program will be limited to those services normally provided by local governments and their implementing agencies to businesses which are locating, expanding, or operating in Tennessee. FIDP funding is provided for, but not limited to, the following activities:

-Water Systems - source development, intake structures, treatment plants, storage tanks, transmission lines, and other improvements normally associated with the provision of public water service.

-Wastewater Systems - collector lines, treatment plants, and other improvements normally associated with the provision of public wastewater service.

-Transportation Systems - access roads, rail sidings, port facilities, airport improvements, and other improvements normally associated with the provision of public transportation service.

-Site improvements - limited to extraordinary situations where physical conditions of the site must be altered before construction can occur, site improvements will normally not involve improvements to land owned or to be purchased by the company.

-Other improvements to physical infrastructure may be eligible if it can be demonstrated that the improvements are required for the location or expansion of private business. No infrastructure improvements, however, will be allowed on land owned or to be purchased by the company.

Expansion Management on What It Takes to Develop Biotech

I just got around to reading the latest issue of Expansion Management Magazine and read a good article on biotech. Read it here.

Of note, the article is pretty clear about the requirements to compete in this area from an economic development standpoint. It's worth a read.

Dear ED Futures Reader:

Welcome to this week's issue of the ED Futures Newsletter.

Below you will find links to this week's articles. As you can see, there are several industry profiles and snapshots. There are also a number of "practical advice" articles that might interest you.

Enjoy spring. It's here.

Best wishes,

Don Iannone
ED Futures Publisher
Email: dtia@don-iannone.com
Telephone: 440.449.0753

______________________

Phoenix and Tucson Growing Together
Monday, April 10, 2006

Springfield, Missouri Growing
Monday, April 10, 2006

North Carolina Triad Area Gets Workforce Innovation Grant
Monday, April 10, 2006

Industry Clips: North Carolina
Sunday, April 09, 2006

Industry Clips: South Dakota
Saturday, April 08, 2006

Industry Profile: Regional Banks
Friday, April 07, 2006

Industry Profile: Major Drugs
Thursday, April 06, 2006

Nevada: Major Industry Overview
Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Oklahoma: Major Industry Overview
Wednesday, April 05, 2006

We Need Practical Stuff!
Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Project Management Tips for Economic Developers
Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Some Blogging Tips
Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Economic Developer's Professional SWOT Analysis
Monday, April 03, 2006

Dealing with Difficult Clients
Monday, April 03, 2006

Is a Messy Office Hazardous to Your Career?
Sunday, April 02, 2006

Indiana University Schools Get High Marks
Sunday, April 02, 2006

Phoenix and Tucson Growing Together

Phoenix and Tucson are heading for a collision.

Arizona's two largest metropolitan areas are on course to meet and merge within a decade, engulfing several small towns along the way.

The downtowns of the two major cities are separated by 120 miles. But their suburbs reach much farther along Interstate 10. Planned developments stretch 60 miles south of metropolitan Phoenix, deep into Pinal County. In Tucson, new projects are heading 40 miles north into Pinal, the only county that separates the two regions. That leaves only a 20-mile gap between the two cities' growth. advertisement

Urban researchers are calling the corridor a megapolitan, or "super-sized" metropolitan area, and see it spanning from Prescott in the north all the way south to Sierra Vista and the Mexico border. The Phoenix-Tucson stretch is the epicenter.

Dubbed the Arizona Sun Corridor by researchers, the megapolitan area is one of 10 expected to be the center of most of the nation's growth during the next 35 years. The combined population of metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson today is about 5 million. Forecasts call for the swath's population to top 10 million by 2040.

"Megapolitans are the future of the country's growth," said Marshall Vest, an economist and director with the Economic and Business Research Center at the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management in Tucson. "Phoenix and Tucson are already merging into one, but the growth is much more than just a corridor of land filling in."

Being part of a megapolitan designates an area as a growth magnet. Government is starting to look at the areas as places for better planning. That, along with projections for growth, can mean more federal money for projects such as freeways.

Read more here.

Springfield, Missouri Growing

Springfield, which comprised only 7 percent of Missouri's total work force in 2004, accounted for more than one-third of Missouri's job growth.

And, according to Greg Williams, senior vice president for economic development at Springfield Business & Development Corp., the region has not stopped growing since.

In fact, a recent study by Joseph Haslag, associate professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Columbia found that job and income growth in Springfield is outpacing that of St. Louis and Kansas City.

Williams cited several reasons for Springfield's growth, including the area's geographic centrality, its low utility costs, and the business- and tax-friendly environment, in addition to it being an attractive area in which to live. The area's cost of living also is, on average, about 10 percent below that of the national standard.

Read more here.

North Carolina Triad Area Gets Workforce Innovation Grant

It seems that getting "Wired" may provide an extra spark toward local efforts to foster a creativity cluster as an economic engine in the Triad.

The recent award to the Triad of a $15 million U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (Wired) grant comes as area business leaders are working to promote growth and develop connections among regional creative businesses.

"What we have (with this grant) is the opportunity to staff an industry roundtable focused on the arts. This is a key starting point to finding how to grow the (cluster) as an economic engine in the Triad," says Don Kirkman, CEO of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, which was awarded the grant.

He says the grant will bring together private-sector representatives from the creative and artistic community as well as educators from K-12 through the university level in an effort to enhance the profile of the Triad as a creative and innovative region.

More here.