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VT Economic Development |
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February 2006 |
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IN THIS ISSUE |
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Office of Economic Development receives funding to aid Southwest, Southside communities
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Upcoming Events
March 10, 2006
"The Orient Success: Export Opportunities in Asia and the
Pacific Rim"
Blacksburg, VA
A briefing by a US Commercial Service Foreign Service
National from Shanghai on the China/Asian market for U.S.
exports.
Brochure
and registration form .
April 24-25,
2006
Technology and Rural Prosperity IT Conference; Making
Technology and Globalization Work for Rural
America
Institute for
Advanced Learning and Research
Danville,
VA
America's rural areas and
small cities face many particular challenges when trying to embrace new
technologies and expand their economies to include high-tech industries.
Educators, economic developers, government and business leaders will
gather together at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in
Danville, Virginia on April 24 & 25 to focus on specific technology
advances, challenges and concerns that rural communities must explore in
order to succeed in the innovation economy and achieve private and public
sector growth. An evening reception and dinner program on April 24 will be
followed by a full set of panel discussions and speaker presentation on
April 25... more.
April 25-26,
2006
Virginia Industrial Development Authority (VIDA)
Institute
Williamsburg,
VA
The Virginia Industrial Development Authorities (VIDA)
Institute is a day and a half seminar that focuses on these
responsibilities and targets Industrial Development Authority directors
and members, government administrators, and economic and community
development professionals.
For more information, please visit the program website at http://www.conted.vt.edu/vida/ or contact Susan Caruvana at scaruvan@vt.edu.
VT News
General Electric hopes to develop,
tap Hokie talent
More than 50 Virginia Tech students have been invited to
take part in the 2006 GE/VT Student Leadership Conference (SLC) to be held
at The Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center on Feb. 10 and 11. Sponsored
by General Electric, the event is designed to help Virginia Tech students
acquire and polish their leadership skills in preparation for joining the
workforce. Students of engineering, business, and computer science,
including six graduate students, will take part in this
conference.
Corporate Research Center
forms new company from leadership training
technology
A new company is being created in the Virginia Tech
Corporate Research Center to offer products developed by Virginia Tech's
Division of Student Affairs. The Cooperative Leadership Institute
"designs, develops, and delivers technology-enhanced leadership learning
programs that create greater access to performance-driven learning," said
Charles L. Lattimer, president of the start up.
Extreme Safety Corps kept a watchful eye on ABC's new home
for the Smith family
Virginia Tech played a vital behind-the-scenes role
making sure ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” construction in
Blacksburg, Va., was as safe as it was fast.
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Greetings from the
Director Since we last wrote in
November, we are proud to announce receipt of a major grant from the
U.S. Economic Development Administration, as detailed below in the
lead story in this newsletter. Other recent highlights include
culmination of a year long effort by Dave Nutter and myself, working along with
the Council on
Office of Economic Development Receives Funding to Aid Southwest and Southside Communities OED was recently awarded a
$132,000 university center grant from the S. U.S. Economic
Development Administration (EDA), continuing a nearly
two-decade-long relationship with the grant program. Only 12 of 42
proposals submitted in the recent competition received
funding. Settle describes his
organization as a "think and do" tank, working with support from
university, public, and private sector leadership to align
university resources with the state's economic development
institutions, companies, and communities. The office creates
partnerships and provides analytical resource to foster new
higher-skill, higher-wage, private sector employment and investment.
These activities help Southwest and Southside Virginia to develop
and sustain innovative industry clusters and prosperous,
entrepreneurial communities. The EDA grant will support planning for a number of technology-related initiatives, including regional research and development centers in Southwest and Southside. Each community-based, public-private, research-focused partnerships will address specific technical needs of an existing business cluster with staffing by the university, public, and private sector. Lee Cobb, head of the Region 2000 Economic Development
Partnership, who has been developing plans with Virginia Tech for a possible
center in Lynchburg, described the center concept as"...providing
both a physical and virtual link to university researchers for
businesses." This may involve, for example, placing university
researchers inside companies or providing direct access to unique
university resources like Virginia Tech's Terascale Computer, System
X, which is ranked among
the fastest super-computers in the world. The EDA grant also supports educational activities, such as an annual conference on "Virginia Tech Resources for Economic Developers" which brings economic developers, elected officials, and private sector representatives from across Virginia to the university's Blacksburg campus. This showcase includes tours of research labs and small group sessions on campus with faculty. Liz Povar, business development
director with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership,
lauds the program as a means to
"...offer participants first hand insights into university resources
that can be used to help existing businesses in their regions and
that can broaden the assets that localities and regions use to
attract other businesses to their communities."
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NEWS FROM THE WEB The important challenge of growing
the next generation of math, science, and technical workers is
highlighted several recent reports.
Storm clouds on the horizon
A committee of the National Academy of
Sciences just released Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and
Employing America for a Brighter Economic
Future. They find U.S.
advantages in science and technology steadily eroding, and urge a
number of actions, including improvements in K-12 science and math
education, steps to strengthen the nation's commitments to basic
research, and efforts to develop, recruit, and retain top students,
scientists, and engineers from both the U.S. and
abroad. A new survey conducted by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) finds that teens believe science and technology hold answers to pressing societal problems. Large majorities are confident that innovations and new inventions will lead to cleaner water, reduce world hunger, eradicate disease and solve pollution and energy problems. They also believe they have developed some of the skills like problem solving and teamwork needed to address those issues, although the MIT team notes that contrasts with opinions in some surveys of college faculty. In the end, however, most don't want to take the job on themselves, with only 14% expressing interest in a career in engineering, and only 9% considering pursuing a career in science. According to a survey by the National Association of
Manufacturers (NAM), eighty percent of Promoting careers in manufacturing is one of several projects that will be undertaken by the Smyth-Washington County Regional Workforce Consortium as part of a $900,000 grant awarded under former Governor Warner's Virginia Works program. The Consortium will also establish a regional Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence to represent local industries and to address workforce training needs in partnership with area training providers. |
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The Virginia Auditor of Public
Accounts has just unveiled
Commonwealth Data Point. This new
website provides "one-stop shopping" for state and local information
on government expenditures, revenues, and a number of demographic
topics. Navigating from
one very simple and colorful menu, users are just a few clicks away
from multi-year data on everything from per capita income for
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RESOURCE SPOTLIGHT
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Virginia's Region 2000 Not only is
this a uniquely comprehensive structure, the organization has a
somewhat unique approach to economic development. In 2004 the board of the
economic development council voted to reverse its allocation of
resources to focus most of its efforts on the retention and
expansion of local businesses. With a base of technology
industries that include some 5,000 employees in nuclear (anchored by
Areva and BWXT) and some 2,000 in wireless. While recruitment isn't
neglected, the focus on growing local firms appears to be paying off
for the region. The
loss of wireless giant Ericsson in 2000 was followed by a surge of
entrepreneurial activity in that industry.
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