Our Challenge

With last week's election and this Fall's economic crisis, the landscape has changed greatly this year for all Americans. For us in the Miami Valley, the economic crisis is not new but it is worsening. There will be opportunities though, and the regions and leaders across the country that are best prepared to respond to those challenges will reap the rewards.

The Miami Valley must help to define the new vision for economic recovery not just for our region but for our country. That economic recovery vision must necessarily include the following areas:

• Intelligent Healthcare
• A re-evaluation of the national significance of manufacturing
• An improved paradigm for "Agile Education" or the development of learning techniques that teach people to solve problems rather than simply memorizing facts
• An examination of our energy economy and environmental remediation
• A new national research framework - tied to specific goals across every major industry
• We need to make intelligent infrastructure decisions, we need to merge the auto-economy with the need for clean, efficient transit by helping to merge our industries with our societal goals.
  

We can help begin this dialog locally and filter up suggestions to the State of Ohio and ultimately to the new Obama administration.

Copyright 2008, Stephen Lahanas

The MVEDC.org Site goes live

Hello, we are proud to announce the launch of our formal website for The Miami Valley Economic Development Council. We will continue adding our content to all three sites (the MVEDC Blog, Wiki and Website) as efforts progress through the Summer. Thanks and we hope you take the time to get involved in helping to revitalize our region...

http://www.mvedc.org

Copyright, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Thinking Big - Long Term Strategy

Strategy 1.0 has several elements that will obviously entail long term commitments, but it does not represent a long-term strategy. The long-term strategy must tackle some more significant issues, including infrastructure and major economic investments in the area. One thing to keep in mind at this point though is that for our efforts to succeed we must think big - there needs to be true vision for an end state of what we wish to accomplish.

What do we want for the The Miami Valley? We'd like to be known as a place where there is both a high quality of living as well as a good chance to pursue and improve one's career. That's why our parents and grandparents came here.

In today's CNN.com there was a list of the 100 Best Places to Live & Start a Business , Blue Ash (ranked number 62) was on the list but it was the only entry from Ohio. What does the Miami Valley need to do to get on such lists and stay on them?

• Attract a number of large employers
• Attract a number of start-up businesses (on a consistent, ongoing basis)
• Redevelop our regional airport - by adding large parking garages, more runways, more terminals and permanent exhibition facilities to enhance our yearly air show
• Redevelop large sections of Downtown Dayton - with retail and new office space
• Invest in our schools
• Generate several new significant cultural events to give area residents more to do close to home
  

What binds all of this together with Strategy 1.0, and what is already underway from various other directions is a coherent theme with a compelling message. All of the tactical efforts, all of the strategy on the books, it won't go anywhere until we've perfected the story we have to tell. Our story is of great deeds and a history rich in innovation, discovery and entrepreneurial drive - it is about people who weren't afraid to think big...

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Strategic Objective #7: The Miami Valley Innovation Institute

The final objective for Miami Valley Strategy 1.0 is designed specifically to ensure sustainability of Innovation & economic development for the region. It can be referred to as The Miami Valley Innovation Institute (MVI-I).

This center or institute would serve be a multiple roles:

• part Museum
• part Education Center
• part Marketing Center
• part Incubator
• part Facilitation Center (for both technology-focused and cultural events)
  
• part Re-development Architecture Showcase
• part Venture Capital forum
  

The Institute would represent the nexus through which all other regional development efforts were coordinated and their message disseminated to the rest of the world. It gives the region an opportunity to realize that our region is more than the just the birthplace of aviation. The center should be located in Downtown Dayton to facilitate coordination with the convention center, Sinclair Community College and to help promote that area as one or more Innovation Zones (see Objective 1).

The task ahead is daunting. According to news reports this week, Ohio has lost as many jobs in manufacturing over the past 7 years as it did during the Great Depression. The Miami Valley has been particularly hard hit, partially because we did not re-establish ourselves & our reputation as global leaders in the emerging technologies that now drive our economy.

Many of us saw this coming in the 1980's and many more in the 1990's. It's here, now and we can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines and watch it happen, we must launch a proactive and comprehensive response and invest the time, and the resources necessary to reinvent ourselves. We are better adapted than most for that mission. The Innovation Institute would become an important focal point for that transformation - helping us to see exactly how and when we can begin to rebuild for the future and letting the world know what have done and what we can do .

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Strategic Objective #6: The AF Cyber Command Campaign

The Opportunity

AF Cyber Command is the United State's Air Force newest Major Command (or MAJCOM). It is currently in Provisional status and is operating from a provisional location - Barksdale AFB in Louisiana. Right now there is a national competition underway by cities / regions vying to be chosen for AF Cyber Command's permanent location. The Miami Valley region has not yet been a major player in this competition. The Shreveport LA region has already invested more than $5 million developing a cyber innovation center in its efforts to keep the new MAJCOM there. The prize to whomever wins this is an estimated increase in local revenue of up to $10 billion per year.

The original deadline for selection of the permanent location was Feb. 29th, but that deadline has now been extended through the Fall of 2008. We now have the opportunity to present ourselves to the selection committees again, but in order to exploit this opportunity we must move quickly. We need to have a comprehensive marketing campaign delivered to the USAF by early April by Ohio leaders (in CA, Governor Schwarzenegger has campaigned directly on behalf of his state, we need our Governor and Senators involved as well).

The AF Cyber Campaign

This opportunity then represents the first chance to test a new regional economic development strategy. The Miami Valley provides the AF a great number of advantages including:

• One of the largest AF bases in world - and one that is architected to support IT, i.e. the Cyber mission.
• A great number of educational institutions nearby including AFIT which is on based and focused around Technology.
• A large, highly trained technical workforce.
• A safe interior geographic location for national Cyberspace operations.
• A heritage of groundbreaking innovation.
  
• Synergy with many other related programs at Wright Patterson AFB.
  

We are the logical choice for the Command - we need to let the USAF know that and soon.


AF Cyber Presentation

| View | Upload your own

References:

• AFCYBER: What it will do and why we need it
• AF Cyber Command's website
• Frontline - Cyberwar Documentary
• The AF Cyber Command Competition
  

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Strategic Objective #5 - Studio 2.0, Cinema 2.0

This objective is really three built into one. There has been talk for more than a decade about bringing a film festival to the Dayton area and the connection seems to be obvious. Wright State University has a film school, one of a very few in the Midwest, and our region would make an excellent place to launch an independent festival that could highlight student and local film-makers. However, much has changed since then, there are new opportunities and a more expansive set of considerations to keep in mind.

The three elements of this objective take the wider set of opportunities and considerations and blends them into a unified approach:

Part 1 - Studio 2.0: This may involve an initiative by Wright State or could be some sort of public / private partnership. The primary goal would be the development of a prototypical next generation media creation environment. Note that we refer to it as media given that much of the future movie-making will occur without use of traditional film stock at all.

Studio 2.0 is a facility which has a much smaller footprint than previous movie-moving studios due to the opportunities we have for digital enhancement - it combines a relatively small studio space with a data center to manage the digital production. This type of facility can be completely competitive with production capabilities found in Hollywood, Vancouver (Hollywood North) and Orlando. This can be both a learning faclity and the kernel for a new local industry.

Part 2 - Cinema 2.0: The name for the festival but one with a twist and a niche. The focus would be to highlight technical achievements in movie-making as well exploitation of technology by independent film-makers. Giving the event a unique spin will allow it to stand out immediately from ordinary / generically themed regional festivals - the theme we've chosen highlights the type of economic development that we hope to spur in the Miami Valley.

Part 3 - Hollywood East: Why not? Other cities, such as Wilmington North Carolina have managed to attract major film production on a consistent basis. The Miami Valley has a lot going for it in terms of diverse surroundings for filming and local talent. The more of an industry we are able to build here ourselves the more likely that other production companies will consider us. The other part of this equation has to do with Digital animination and simulation, which are related industries (utilized by video game companies, the military, education etc.) - all of these activities are synergistic and support one another. For an example of how this is working check out what's going on in Orlando.

Not too long ago, the Dayton area was a world leader for digital animation and simulation and helped pioneer some of those technologies - it's time to swing the focus back to the valley...

The process of making motion pictures has evolved well beyond film...

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Strategic Objective #4: "The Miami Valley Innovation Challenge"

There is often no better incentive to solving a problem than to provide a specific contest wherein the defined goal is resolution of a particular scenario - motivation is intensified by use of awards, both monetary and honorary.

We've all seen examples of where this has worked in the past - a few years back there was a challenge held to help promote the ability for private industry to develop low-earth orbit transport vehicles. On the discovery channel or Nova there are often shows capturing events where robotic technology is tested through challenges of various kinds. What doesn't exist yet is a collection of multiple challenge events wrapped in the context of an Innovation event - an "Innovation Olympics" for lack of a better term perhaps.

The Miami Valley Innovation Challenge then is a yearly event where at least 10 different Innovation competitions occur simultaneously. The specific challenges will be problem-based scenarios within a specific technology category. There might be ten different categories or there could be multiple challenges across fewer categories. The technology challenges and categories would be chosen by a committee of local Thought Leaders from education, industry and government as well as from local inventors and activists.

Possible technology categories might include:

• Genetics / Bio-informatics
• Healthcare Informatics
• Nano-technology
• Aerospace
• Robotics
• Physics
• Communications Technologies
• Information Technologies
• Education & Simulation Technology
  
• Business Technologies

And of course these categories might include any number of subcategories. A crucial key to making this a powerful force for innovation in the Miami Valley is the ability to showcase the event and combine it with a number of concurrent activities, such as symposiums on related topics, conventions and educational workshops. This is also something that will require media partnership both at the local and national level.

This event should help define our region for the rest of the world by focusing on what we do best - stimulating progress through innovation. Spin-offs from this should include opportunities for winners to commercialize their discoveries here locally, coordination with educational providers across the state and perhaps the nation and partnerships with institutions renowned for their pursuit of innovation (such as NASA and MIT).



Copyright 2008, Semantech Inc.

The Council Launches its MVEDC Wiki

The Miami Valley Economic Development Council is pleased to announce that it is launching:

The MVEDC Wiki.

The MVEDC Wiki is a collaborative effort meant to support virtual coordination of regional talent in our attempt to help define and execute new strategies for promoting economic development in the Miami Valley. Feel free to visit or contribute, there is no formal membership for the Council - the only pre-requisite for participation is a desire to make a difference.

Strategic Objective #3: "Insourcing"

First of all, we need to define just what 'Insourcing' is to help understand why it can become an important part of our Miami Valley Economic Strategy 1.0:

Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing; that is insourcing (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility. (wikipedia, 2008)

The Organization for International Investment tracks insourcing from the perspective of international companies investing in operations within the United States, but Insourcing can occur between US companies within the United States as well and that's where Objective #3 is focused.

BTW - to get an idea of which US companies are outsourcing jobs to India and elsewhere, take a look at the International Association for Outsourcing Professionals site. There are various estimates that between 3 to 6 million US jobs will be moved offshore this decade - moreover many of the jobs going are in manufacturing and IT and other higher paying services industries so the impact is greater than an average mix of jobs migrating away.

What can be done to stem the flow? Is there a way to offer companies a competitive alternatives within the United States? US to US insourcing represents one strategy to do both. While we listed insourcing as a potential part of Innovation Zones (objective 1) they can certainly exist outside of the zones as well. The basic premise can follow a number of different paths but the following elements might remain common:

• Insourcing could be a public / private partnership.
• Insourcing can be combined with current programs such as welfare to provide better training and the chance for better wages & a real career (workfare scenarios enhanced).
• Insourcing can be combined with school programs to provide students a way to earn more substantial wages and also to gain industry-specific experience.
• Facilities can be re-purposed and dual purposed to make them more productive (offices that are under-utilized, school facilities etc.).
• Insourcing must be able to provide US companies a significant cost advantage - i.e. if labor costs going to India are reduced by 80% then the Insourcing centers can lease their services without requiring companies to cover the full capital investment (and an insourcing center can support multiple companies) perhaps providing overall cost reductions of around 50%. The insourcing center becomes its own entity - a service provider.
  

Insourcing with the US (in the Miami Valley) would provide other US companies the following benefits:

• Competitive options to sending jobs and work overseas.
• A higher level of confidence that work sourced would be competently managed.
  
• The creation of well-qualified pools of local talent who are already fully or wholly trained in that company's processes.
• Stimulation of local economies whose residents will be more capable of affording the products and services provided by US companies.
• Hopefully, tax incentives at local, state and federal levels.
• A more hopeful and fair approach to managing workfare efforts.
• No worries about political instability or faltering infrastructure (i.e. power grids, roads etc. that in the third world lead to issues).
  
• A chance to gainfully leverage otherwise neglected facilities and stimulate those areas where said facilities exist (downtowns for example).
  

And the Miami Valley is exceptionally well-suited to do this. With our workforce, educational institutions, infrastructure and extremely reasonable cost of living, we can develop insourcing centers easily and do so in a very affordable manner.

Copyright 2008, Semantech Inc.

Strategic Objective #2: "Start-up Degrees"

Most of you are probably familiar with the story of Google or perhaps Dell or any number of other high tech start-ups that were launched over the past two decades. Many of those companies got their start while the founders were still in college. This is not an accident - being in college exposes creative young minds to new possibilities, many of those possibilities are related to business.

This natural process is very beneficial to the locations where this occurs, many of the students who've started companies have done so in the same communities where their colleges were located. For our second objective of Miami Valley Strategy 1.0, we are proposing some new - the 'Start-up Degree.'

The Start-up Degree is not a radical shift in education, but it is an important one. The notion behind this is that what the student is learning can and should be applied to the real world. This would be a gradual process, with elements introduced in the first year, but the real difference shows up in the final year of the degree. The upper level courses are completely customized based upon a specific business goal, with the ultimate goal being the establishment of a company devoted to exploiting that business concept.

For this to work, we would need several things to happen:

1. Buy-in from more than one local college
2. Re-purposing of some on-campus facilities to support these fledging companies
3. The creation of start-up scholarships
4. Coordination with other area initiatives (such as innovation zones)
5. Recognition by academics that curriculum ought to mirror real world problems & practices

Another facet of the project could involve grants or loans that might make those funds contingent upon keeping the start-ups located in the Miami Valley for a certain period of time.

If one of our major goals is to keep our best talent /youth here in town then we need to empower them with comparable opportunities here in The Miami Valley (to what they'd find elsewhere).

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Strategic Objective # 1: "Innovation Zones"

The first major element of Strategy 1.0 for Miami Valley Economic Development is the creation and establishment of multiple "Innovation Zones" around the Miami Valley.

Definition of an Innovation Zone:
An Innovation Zone represents recognition for past achievement and of future potential in a formal manner than allows regional Innovation to become sustainable or to maintain sustainability. While the concept is and will remain somewhat flexible there are a variety of elements which can be included in order to provide formal recognition or support:

• Zone Categorization - one of the primary goals we're trying to achieve is continuation of or stimulation for synergy. Synergy within industry often occurs when thought leaders from the same subject domains are located close to one another. This can be nurtured by designating certain zones to be primarily associated with one of those subject domains - for example nano-technology or Healthcare Informatics.

• Tax Incentives - These could come from local, state or federal sources or a combination thereof and associated to specific durations of time (to either facilitate start-up or to reward demonstrated innovation).
  

• Municipal Leases - It is often the case that there are buildings that are under-utilized within metropolitan areas. Sometimes these buildings come under municipals control - or are partially managed in partnership between private industry and municipal entities. Exploiting those facilities to help nurture start-ups represents a strategic investment in the region.
  

• Micro-Loans - While this concept is most often associated with Third World economic development it is equally applicable here as well. Loans from between $5,000 to 50,000 may be enough to get some businesses started , especially if combined with other opportunities including municipal leases, corporate mentorships, grants and so on. The loans might be awarded largely based upon criteria for potential innovation.
  

• Patent Support - Taking the details for patent management out of the list of worries or tasks for new businesses will make it is easier for local innovators to move forward with their enterprises. Within each Innovation Zone, shared patent support would be provided.
  

• Innovation Grants - How resources are directed makes an important impact on successful the return on investment will be. The Space program illustrated very clearly that investment in innovation pays off many times over to industry. Innovation is not always about research - having practical applications and near term problems to solve makes that spending much more effective.
  

• Corporate Mentorships - There is no reason that every small company that is created has to learn everything on their own. Corporate mentorships provide a way for concrete business skills to be learned and also offers smaller companies opportunities for partnering, shared leases and other knowledge exchanges.
  

• Joint Marketing - Each Zone has its own marketing entity, who's role includes management of Zone events, outreach and support across Zone members. One of the primary goals of this group would be support for finding funding to expand zone discoveries and opportunities.
  

• Insourcing - The Miami Valley is particularly well suited to providing virtual support within the United States. An Innovation Zone itself might explore the possibility of establishing insourcing capability/entity based on the zone category (for example an Innovation Zone based upon Healthcare Informatics may develop an insourcing center designed to help provide diagnostic support to hospitals across the country).
  

• Small Business Designation - This represents the long pole in the tent, it would require recognition by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to create a new type of small business designation - an Innovative Small Business (IBS). There would of course need to be criteria applied, but one of those criteria would be location of the business within an Innovation Zone.

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Our Secret - It's time to Share it

I was just having lunch with someone today not from the Miami Valley region. It was a pleasant and interesting conversation. About halfway through it though he asked me a pointed question - "given your background and the work you do, why are living where you are, why aren't you in Silicon Valley or Boston?" The implication being that those were the areas most often associated with high tech businesses and innovation.

It was a fair question. I responded back with a few things; first my family is here - I have roots, but then I asked him, "don't you know about our history?" He wasn't sure what I meant so I elaborated, 'our history in regards to high tech and innovation.' A history that stretches back over 100 years but still includes recent innovations such as the search engine, open source software, Global Hawk and so on. He admitted that he wasn't aware of that.

Now the most surprising part of all of this was that he hailed from Cincinnati. How is it that even within the State of Ohio, practically just down the street from us, people don't know about the Miami Valley? If we had conspired to keep our reputation, our story a classified secret we couldn't have done a more effective job. It's time that we de-classified this secret and begin to market ourselves based upon our Reputation rather than our Location.

Being "The 90 minute market" which strangely people thought was effective even while businesses fled the region in droves was quite frankly a poor idea from the start. What were we telling the world, that we were within a short drive to all sorts of other more interesting locations? The more recent "Get Midwest" campaign is a continuation of that pathetic theme and the time to say No Longer has arrived.

• We will No Longer let marketing or demographics dictate strategy.
• We will No Longer neglect the real story of the Miami Valley, keeping our heritage and our value proposition a well-guarded secret.
• We will No Longer entrust the future of the valley to those without vision...
  

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Miami Valley Strategy 1.0

Over the next week, we will be presenting a number of detailed concepts related to the initial draft of a regional economic development plan focused upon innovation. We are referring to this as Miami Valley Strategy 1.0 and the following is a summary of what we will cover:

Initiative 1 - "The Innovation Zone"
This represents a new type of economic development and common mix of state & local government incentives.

Initiative 2 - "Start-up Degrees"
This program would involve local universities and support the creation of curriculum options that encourage the creation of local businesses as part of the culmination of the degree.

Initiative 3 - "Miami Valley Insourcing"
Our region is uniquely well suited to pursue this new approach to resource management - it provides US-based alternative to offshore development and service support.

Initiative 4 - "The Miami Valley Challenge"
A series of Innovation Challenges or competitions across a number of technology categories with accompanying symposiums.

Initiative 5 - "Studio 2.0 & Cinema 2.0"
The next generation of film-making does not require large studio complexes to produce Hollywood quality films or TV shows. This will represent a model studio for the future and support a film showcase or festival for films produced using Cinema 2.0 techniques.

Initiative 6 - "The AF Cyber Command Campaign"
This represents the first major campaign for the council and will support acquisition of the new command and the billions of dollars of related business.

Initiative 7 - "The Miami Valley Innovation Center / Institute"
The institute will be both museum and active participant in facilitating local innovation.

More to come soon...

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

Our Core Vision

All strategy must derive from a foundation - the following vision will serve as our foundation for specific suggestions and strategies which will follow soon:

No one can predict the future, but some of us do have a track record. Before “Silicon Valley” ever existed, the Miami Valley was inventing the technology that eventually became part of the first computers. The entire science of Aerospace, was invented here and the list goes on. However, nothing stands still and we know that better than most. The first man to step on the moon was from the Miami Valley, but his leap was merely a baby step - what science has yet to yield may be beyond estimation but not beyond our imagination.

Our plan for the future is simple, The Miami Valley will depend upon the vision of its natives and spirit of its newcomers to help continue to redefine the world around us. This proactive strategy is dependent upon the perpetual collaboration of regional thought-leaders to determine where new economic opportunites will arise and their ability to rapidly develop strategies to meet those head-on.

Innovation, while a creative endeavor is also very much a business exercise. Research and discovery without practical context or application seldom provides real progress. Necessity and challenge are the crucible for innovation. Innovation is also not merely the province of select groups of leaders or experts, it is and always has been open to everyone.




We learn from the past, not to recreate it, but rather to enrich the future...

Copyright 2008, The Miami Valley Economic Development Council

How Innovation Drives Economic Development

• The creation of new businesses based upon new technologies.

• The redefinition of existing businesses through expanding contexts, vision and application of new technology.

• The cross-pollination of thought leaders in industry - these “social ventures” preface later business ventures and scientific collaboration.

• The inspiration and motivation of our young people. Seeing is believing, seeing it happen in one’s own community is empowerment.

• The development of a regional self-image, one built around confidence, individual spirit and an appetite for conquering the unknown.

• Innovation attracts - attracts capital, attracts talent, attracts opportunities.

Copyright 2008, Miami Valley Economic Development Council