PCRD

A New Kind of Brain Drain

Posted by Susan Davis

The Kauffman Foundation has a new series of reports on the impact that foreign nationals on entrepreneurship and innovation in the United States. Over one million immigrant workers - including scientists, engineers, doctors, and researchers - are competing for just   120,000 permanent U.S. resident visas each year. This creates a reverse brain drain with skilled workers left with no choice but to return to their home country. The report indicates that in 2006 Indiana ranked 22nd in the number of resident Indian and Chinese Inventors with a total of 643. The reports are available here.

Closing Polygons

One of the most basic practices of social networking is "closing triangles," according to Valdis Krebs. You can read about this at his blog. It is basically when one person knows two people but those two people don't know each another, and there is a compelling reason why they should. The person who knows them both closes the triangle by introducing them. Sounds simple. It's what we've been doing in social settings our whole lives. My colleague Ed Morrison has been applying this and other social networking theories and practices to economic development. More connected regions are going to more quickly recognize, create, and react to opportunities for economic growth.

It seems that a bigger challenge and potentially even greater opportunity can be realized in closing polygons. In this highly specialized society we've created for ourselves nobody has all the answers, nor does any group of two or three have them. The big ideas come when the experiences, intellect, and resources of multiple parties come together. So, maybe start by closing triangles but also think about those polygons.

Rural Philanthropy

The National Center for Responsive Philathropy has released a report titled Rural Philanthropy: Building Dialogue from Within. This W.K. Kellogg Foundation report suggests grantmaking behavior and trends are skewed heavily toward support for urban-based or urban-focused programs. The report explores both real and perceived barriers between rural nonprofits and foundations in urban areas, as well as strategies for overcoming those obstacles. The complete report can be found here.

New Curriculum: Know Your Region

The U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) has funded Western Carolina University to develop and disseminate a curriculum titled Know Your Region. The curricula and resources will provide concrete outcomes that support EDA's efforts to foster effective regional development in the knowledge economy. The project is well along the way to completion and is quite impressive. More information is available here.

Renewable Energy

I’ve recently been involved in several discussions concerning energy, more specifically renewable energy capabilities.  During those discussions I learned of a little-known source for information about the various sources of renewable energy, The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).  I encourage anyone searching for information about renewable energy to visit the NREL website.  Information is available on solar, wind, geothermal and electric infrastructure systems, just to name a few.  Additionally, the website lists upcoming conferences, meetings, news, and other resources which address pertinent components of renewable energy.  I encourage everyone to visit this website to learn more about the national efforts and research activities being conducted relating to renewable energy applications and technologies.  The link for the website is http://www.nrel.gov 

The Collaboration Continuum

"Collaboration" is a term bandied about a great deal in regional development work - municipalities, institutions, organizations all trying to figure out if or how they should work together. Most of the time, it seems, there is little understanding, much less agreement, about what collaboration means. Defining these terms is a great idea when working with multiple interests trying to figure out if and how to work together in a regional context.

Over the years I've seen several collaboration continuum tools that are helpful. I recently ran across one that I think is a great communications tool. The continuum begins with Networking and ends with Integrating. It also plots how turf and trust play into the relationship. For example, when trust is low and turf issues are high, the best to hope for is probably some information sharing (Networking). When Turf issues are low and trust is high, that is when greater levels of collaboration can occur.

This little model is available in an animated PowerPoint file here. It comes from a youth development organization, ACT for Youth, out of New York but I think it applies to all areas of regional development work.

A Lifelong Learning System for Mature Workers

As part of the Indiana WIRED initiative, the Tecumseh Area Partnership has developed a business plan for a regional Lifelong Learning System for older workers (45+) in North Central Indiana. The plan includes five recommendations to assist older workers to remain in the workforce and help employers attract and retain these workers. The following is an overview of the recommendations:

• Develop an informational funnel website for key learning opportunities.
• Provide fee-for-service consulting to employers through workshops and individual assessments related to mature and aging workforce issues.
• Provide direct services to lifelong learners
• Create and launch a Manufacturers Cooperative to secure and provide resources for training and development, outreach, and other basic human resource development or back office services.
• Explore the possibility for cable channel development to provide the public with information about various targeted careers and pathways to reach those careers. This will be researched during the initial year for future implementation.

The development of the business plan involved a 26-member task force and technical assistance from the Center for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). The complete business plan is available here and a list of task force members is available here.

Incentives Based Economic Development: The Arizona Example‎

Posted by Indraneel Kumar

One of the widely used tools in economic development is tax-incentives, such as the property and other tax rebates. A drawback of rebates and other incentives is that cities and jurisdictions are pitted against each other in a fierce competition to attract retail and other stores by maximizing their incentives. As a result, many times cities and jurisdictions lose instead of gain because incentives and rebates outpace any employment and/or sales tax gains from the stores. The tax rebates cause undue local competition within the region. Cities compete with each other to attract retailers than strategizing and planning regionally. Retailers take advantage of the competition and locate to a city or jurisdiction providing the maximum incentive often at a loss of the local governments and their residents.

Recently, Arizona signed a law limiting the tax-incentives for cities within the Maricopa County. Phoenix is one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions and attracting large retailers. According to proponents of the law, retailers will locate to Phoenix any way due to the market demand and there is no need for excessive tax rebates. Economic development should be market-driven and not incentive-driven. The critics say that the law should be applicable to the whole state and not limited to a metropolitan area. Read the whole story here.

Want to Know More about the Food Business? Want to eat “Slow Food?”

With all of the current interest in eating “slow food” (that is, food produced locally so as to save on the dollar and environmental cost of long-distance transportation, cold storage and so on), this conference in Kansas City might be interesting and produce some ideas for local growers, restaurateurs and “green family feeding!”  Fans of food co-ops might learn something too! Go here to learn more, and thanks to PCRD’s Terri Lester for bringing this one to our attention!

Angels in Our Midsts

Part of the Indiana WIRED's goals are to create a more active network of Angel Investors in North Central Indiana, recognizing that more investment in entrepreneurship will lead to new business, new jobs for the region, and economic growth. A step in that direction was taken yesterday with a full-day workshop designed for Angels and potential Angels. The workshop, Angel Investing: The Art of the Deal was held yesterday. The Lafayette Journal & Courier covered it in an article here.

Yesterday's event marks the first time Angels from across the North Central Indiana regional economy were brought together under one roof to explore and discuss how investment in this region can lead to wealth creation and economic development. This is a great start in creating a regional angel network.

One of Indiana WIRED's four primary strategies is to Create an Entrepreneurship Super Region and the specific goals of this strategy include:

• Create a regional community and culture that supports entrepreneurship
• Develop stronger connections among and build the capacities of support organizations
• Increase the availability of resources for existing and emerging entrepreneurs