News Articles

One of the main advantages of WIRED involves the flexibility of using federal funds to leverage additional investments with new ideas. In North Central Indiana, we used WIRED funds to identify and strengthen entrepreneurship skills through business plan competitions. 

Business plan competitions are one of the best ways to raise the profile of entrepreneurship within a region. We could not used WIRED funds for prize money, so we turned to our state economic development folks for help. They lined up the support we needed to develop a successful competition. 

You can read more about our competition here. 

If you are interested in the background information on our approach, please contact Pat Bacon at the Indiana Venture Center. 

Here are some examples of other business plan competitions around the country: 

• Mississippi State University
  
• UC Berkeley
  
• Rice University
  
• Northwest Venture Championship
  

There is an interesting article on the front page of today's WSJ about how the credit troubles and slowing economy are forcing a number of cities to cut back on the large scale projects that they had planned. This has obvious economic development and job creation consequences and will force regions to look to smaller scale projects to make up the difference.

From today's EDA Newsletter is a story about clean energy in NW Florida:

EDA Investment Spurs Environmental and Economic Benefits

When Green Circle Bio Energy Inc. decided to open a new wood pellet plant, it chose Cottondale, Florida, in Jackson County. This rural county in Florida's panhandle is now emerging as an alternate energy industry cluster, following an economic transition due to a declining timber industry and a changing agricultural base.

Strong regional leadership in the area was also instrumental in creating this alternate energy industry cluster. Investing nearly $1.2 million, the U.S. Economic Development Administration's assistance to this region has included water, sewer, and road infrastructure improvements to attract new businesses. Now, Green Circle Bio Energy Inc. has invested $93 million to construct the new alternative energy production facility. This wood pellet facility will produce an annual capacity of 560,000 tons of wood pellets to be supplied to central heating companies and the power generating industry for co-firing in coal based power plants. The wood pellets, made from sawdust and pulpwood, help reduce fossil fuel use and subsequent CO2 emissions, providing a cleaner alternative energy source. Over 50 new direct jobs – and an additional 100 jobs generated by suppliers – are expected as a result of this wood pellet facility.

This will be the largest wood pellet production company in North America, and 100 percent of its production is under contract for export to Europe. The facility considered locating in Russia and South America, but after much analysis, chose to locate in Florida's panhandle, close to the raw materials needed to produce its pellets. A first-of-its-magnitude initiative, it will eventually export these pellets across the globe. Not only will the facility use energy saving methods in its construction, but will also be powered with electricity from the local Waste Management landfill, and tree bark from the pulpwood will fuel the furnaces.

Rising gas and oil prices and growing concerns of climate change are creating a growing demand for energy alternatives. Forward-thinking businesses, such as Green Circle Bio Energy are capitalizing on this demand and are finding that environmental considerations are not a hindrance to the bottom line, but rather, a source of innovation and an opportunity for growth. In the case of Green Circle Bio Energy, this growth will aid in transitioning northern Florida to more efficient alternative fuel choices, while also creating more higher-skill, higher-wage jobs as the company builds more and continues to engage in the worldwide marketplace.

For more information on Green Circle Bio Energy Inc., visit: www.greencirclebio.com/index.php

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Skills for Scotland provides a clear, concise framing of a workforce development strategy. It's a good, short report that provides us some valuable perspective on workforce strategy. Download it here.

Here's the vision that frames the document.

Our vision is for a smarter Scotland with a globally competitive economy based on high value jobs, with progressive and innovative business leadership:

• Where people can work in teams, are creative andenterprising and hungry to continually learn new skills.They expect to realise their aspirations and are equipped to achieve their potential in a constantly changing world.People are motivated to contribute to Scotland’s future and are confident that they can do so.
• Where people are entrepreneurial and innovative; smallbusinesses are encouraged to grow and there is strong, coherent support for businesses of all sizes. Migrant workers and overseas students play a valuable role in an expanded workforce and economy.
• Where employers improve productivity by investing in their own staff and are able to access a skilled workforce that is increasingly literate and numerate with good ICT and problem solving skills.
• Where learning and training providers work as one system and thanks to wider use of technology and e-learning, barriers of geography and rurality have been reduced.

Senator Voinovich (R-Ohio) has introduced legislation to amend the Workforce Investment Act to promote the principles of Wired (Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development). The proposed legislation would establish the three new voluntary programs within the WIA framework.

The bill, called the WIRED Act:

• Authorizes states and regions to work with a governor (or governors in the case of multi-state regions) to submit WIRED plans for approval by the Secretary of Labor. The plans must be aimed at crafting targeted workforce development programs that provide enhanced job training and related employment activities in the region. They may include complementary economic development activities. If approved, the plans could allow states to combine a number of different federal workforce and economic development funds;  
  
• Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to award supplementary grants to assist in implementing a WIRED plan or to carry out other regionally-focused workforce development activities; and
  
• Authorizes the use of formula funds available to states and local areas under WIA to carry out regionally-focused workforce development activities without going through the entire WIRED approval process. As stated earlier, some of this vital funding is currently going unused because of the inflexibility of the WIA program.

You can read more about the Voinovich bill here.

You can read the text of the legislation here.

Led by the E. Philip Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology, the Finger Lakes WIRED Strategic Growth through Innovation Program prepares regional business leaders to grow their high potential firms.  Executive education specialists and RIT business professors bring their expertise together in this training program, in which senior management officials from regional firms develop their own strategic growth plans.

Download More Information (Microsoft Word Document)