Create West Virginia

West Virginia Says YES to Entrepreneurs

Last night in Morgantown, Martinsburg, Charleston and Fayetteville, dozens of young entrepreneurs gathered to launch the YES Network (Young Entrepreneurs Support). It was an energizing and inspirational milestone for the Vision Shared Entrepreneurship team - congratulations!

It is YES Network's goal to:

provide active, consistent programming that spurs the development of peer to peer and mentor networks and facilitates access to tools we need as entrepreneurs. With research of other entrepreneurial organizations, and through a survey tool, we have identified three key programs – Peer to Peer Forum, Mentor Network, and Business Opportunities – that will best serve the needs of young entrepreneurs.

At the Fayetteville event at the White Horse Inn (a really spectacular hospitality business in its own right), over 40 local entreprenuers gathered as Brandon Holmes, New River Gorge Region YES Network leader and partner in the innovative Internet/video marketing firm Weld, outlined the benefits of joining the peer support network.

Initiatives such as the YES Network will go a long in adressing some of the cultural barriers we face in West Virginia when it comes to adopting an entrepreneurial, risk-tolerant approach to creating new opportunities.

Creative Communities Resolution

In preparation for future legislation in support of building creative communities for the new economy, the West Virginia House of Representatives passed House Concurrent Resolution 63 (HCR63) in Wednesday. This is an exciting step towards building the awareness and insight among our state legislators on how to draft legislation to support creative economy activity and community developmpent in our state.

Thanks to Julie Terry and A Vision Shared for their ongoing support for Create WV initiatives!

Talent or Taxes? Where Should We Become Leaders?

If you were the Governor, or a leader in the Legislature, where would you place your bet for future economic development in West Virginia? Would you prioritize the development and recruitment of talented, highly-educated workers, researchers and teachers to build up our state's brainpower, or take a much more aggressive whack at eliminating what are generally described as non-competitive taxes such as the business franchise tax?

Ideally, of course, we could do both...if only we had the budget flexibility to do so. But as everyone knows, we have to make tough, thoughtful decisions. Both approaches are being considered this session in the West Virginia legislature in various forms. Bucks for Brains? A clear step towards attracting talented researchers and beefing up our talent base. Elimination (over time) of the franchise tax? An ongoing effort to get to a level playing field with successful neighboring states such as Virginia.

Both pathways have some supporting evidence, but none of it is so clear as to shine an inarguable light on the subject. Is Virginia so successful because of low taxes, or because of its close proximity to the Washington, DC, federal spending spicket and the existence of highly respected universities (and corresponding leadership in % of adults with college degrees)? The answer you give may say more about your political leanings than it does about the available evidence. There are many arguments in favor of tax cuts, and many questioning their value.

We don't have any economists on the volunteer team of Create WV, so we won't pretend to know for sure. However, it does seem obvious based on a review of various pockets of prosperity around the country that if you can't be great at both, you better start focusing on being a leader in at least one of the categories while continuing to improve the others. Much of the New Economy innovation and wealth creation in the 1990's and 2000's came out of some of the most expensive places to do business: Silicon Valley, Massachusetts, New Jersey (a huge bio-tech center)...all of which often rank relatively low in "best places to do business" rankings. At the same time, the success the South has had in attracting business, especially Virginia, North Carolina, and Texas, often gets attributed to competitive tax structures.

Those notorious rankings (you know, the ones we're always 49th or 50th in) from publications such as Forbes typically rate a variety of factors when championing the next hot spot for business. The states at the top are typically leaders in one or two areas, but competitive in almost all of them. Factors include:

• Overall business costs - Includes taxes, but many other factors such as energy costs (a specific area where West Virginia generally ranks highly)
• Labor rank - The elusive "talent" quotient - how educated is the workforce? How skilled in high-demand high-tech industries? How many of them available to get to work now?
• Regulatory environment - How streamlined is government to reduce friction when trying to start a business or a new business investment?
• Economic climate - This is a little bit of a chicken-or-egg rating, but the assumption is that the better the economy is doing today, the more opportunity there is for new business to thrive.
• Growth prospects - Another "finger to the wind" rating category, very difficult to evaluate with accuracy but generally an assumption on how much additional talent and investment is available to keep the growth going.
• Quality of life - The final controversial factor: according to whom? Is an hour-and-a-half commute less "quality" than a lack of cultural amenities? Is the opportunity to purchase a low-cost, beautiful home overlooking rich, lush forests of higher quality than having access to higher average salaries?

West Virginia does have a lot going for it that simply needs better packaged, positioned and promoted. But there are many efforts in West Virginia public and private sectors to address our areas of glaring weakness (visit www.visionshared.com if you'd like to join in and help). The question is, are we taking bold enough steps? Are we being aggressive enough? Or are we content to continue a slow, risk-averse approach while other regions of the country (and world) are taking bold steps to become leaders?

Where do you think West Virginia should make its boldest bet for the future?

Planners as Case Workers for Communities

A Guest Post by Calah Young, AICP, Terrell Ellis & Associates:

As a practicing planner and consultant in West Virginia I often find myself playing the role of social worker to communities in trouble.  According to Wikipedia the main tasks of social workers are

“casework (linking clients with agencies and programs that will meet their …needs), counseling, human services management, social welfare policy analysis, community organizing, advocacy, teaching, and social science research”. 

This direct connection to social policy should not be surprising to most people.  In West Virginia so much of what our towns and counties face in terms of planning issues, such as the decline of our population, job loss, and limited investment, can in many ways be linked to other broader social issues.

The parts of this analogy that I find most captivating are the case management and counseling aspects.  I find that even in the most proactive areas of our state, where development is occurring and planning efforts are practiced there is still a lack of local capacity.  Planning commissions operating without trained memberships or staff and the absence of local leaders who are knowledgeable about land use issues make it difficult to generate well-thought out long range decisions for our communities.  Even worse are those communities who are trying to improve upon how they make decisions and their future sustainability yet find themselves often left with visions of their potential and no discrete directions to get there.  What is needed in those cases is a sort of planning case manager who can guide communities through the steps they need to reach their goals.  This is a role I am currently taking on in Wyoming County. 

The process there began with an economic development strategic plan that identified a need for concentrated decision making in areas related to development.  What arose from that will become the first planning commission for the county.  My role is to help them develop this body from the ground up, provide training to the new members in order to educate them about their roles, responsibilities, and give them some general information about the practice of planning.  In my mind though this project is much more than concrete deliverables, it as about working closely with a community to help them understand and take ownership of their issues.  It is about providing them with access to resources that can assist them in meeting their goals.  Most importantly it is as much about counseling them through this process and enabling them to create change.  Creating the capacity from within should be the goal of any planning project in this state – even if it has to be done one community at a time.

Elkins: A Creative Mountain Community

After spending a couple of days in Elkins, it is easy to grasp the creative potential of one of West Virginia's larger small towns. With its Vision 2010 plan, it has developed an impressive roadmap for the future.

Sitting in the heart of West Virginia's mountain highlands, natural beauty is a given. License plates from out of state are widespread as skiers and mountain-lovers of all types set up shop for a few days of adventure.

Yet outdoor excitement is not the only draw. In fact, for years Elkins has been an important hub of Appalachian culture. The Augusta Heritage Festival (Augusta was the historic name West Virginia went by in its earliest periods of settlement) has been a bellwether showcase of mountain culture for decades, and the Augusta Heritage Center has developed into a year-round center of cultural documentation and development. From their web site:

In 1973, "Augusta Heritage Arts Workshops" was the name given to a summer program that was set up to help preserve the Appalachian heritage and traditions. In 1981, Davis & Elkins College became the sponsor of the program, renamed Augusta Heritage Center. In the 26 years since then, it has flourished and grown. Augusta Heritage Center is a non-profit organization known nationally and internationally for its activities relating to traditional folklife and folk arts of many regions and cultures.

In partnership with Davis & Elkins College, a small, private liberal arts college in Elkins, the August Collection houses field recordings of West Virginia folk culture and music. An impressive array of workshops are offered to bring more into the cultural traditions of bluegrass, folk, blues and other cultural forms.

Elkins' downtown, while struggling with redevelopment challenges of all small towns, shows many signs of life. There is an independent bookstore, Main Line Books, a great "third place" hangout in C.J. Maggies, a hip little coffee shop and cafe called the Kissel Stop, the Artists at Work artist co-op, and even extensive wi-fi Internet coverage through most of downtown (first hour free). 

Two relatively new attractions are pulling more people into town: The American Mountain Theatre and the Durbin Greenbrier Valley Railroad are fantastic examples of innovative entrepreneurial ventures that add a great deal to the tourism, entertainment and cultural offerings of the region.

So Elkins strikes many as a town with a strong foundation to build on for new economy growth. Its "quality of place" is clearly very high. However, what may be most impressive is the collaborative community planning initiative called Vision 2010. It is certainly one of the most comprehensive efforts we've seen here at Create WV, and we encourage everyone to take a look at the fruit of their efforts. The plan reaches into all the key areas that creative communities must address: education, diversity, opportunities for young people, and much more.

We're certainly cheering Elkins and Randolph County on as they endeavor to turn these plans into reality. As Corridor H gets completed in the coming years and access from East Coast urban centers improves, it is not hard to visualize many opportunities for growth in new economy and creative industry sectors. You can learn more from the City of Elkins web site and Randolph County Chamber of Commerce.

Research, Innovation, Commercialization...Growth

The innovation economy continues to pop up its head in West Virginia. While still not quite up to the growth rate found in other states, West Virginia's technology, biomedical and related R&D-driven industries are beginning to share the impact they are having on our prosperity.

The most recent update was from WVU, supported by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, who released a study demonstrating that the biosciences industry was responsible for nearly 22,000 jobs and a business volume of about $7.2 billion in 2006. Ongoing research at Marshall University and WVU in the field generated an additional $200 million in 2007.

The average salary in this industry is currently $55,000, much higher than the state average salary of $37,000. For every salary dollar above average, it is important to also understand the ripple effect in job creation in service sector and other industries. Most of the biosciences jobs are clustering around West Virginia's university communities in Cabell and Monongalia Counties, and in the largest urban county, Kanawha. According to the study, there were 400 jobs in the bioscience field in Cabell County in 2001. That has tripled since then, growing to 1,200.

There is much more opportunity to be found with a research-focused economic development strategy. While West Virginia is benefiting from early efforts, the study ranked West Virginia 41st out of the 50 states in an aggregate of research funding, financial capital, educated work force and an innovative pipeline. It is critical that the "Bucks for Brains" investment currently being debated in the legislature is passed, and hopefully, grown in the future.

The South Charleston-based MATRIC organization has been a poster child for R&D-based growth. The research organization, which has made a living off of hiring ex-chemical industry Ph.D.'s laid off by former industry icons Dow and Union Carbide, announced yet another growth initiative: Mid-Atlantic Technical Engineering or MATE. MATE will cater to clients in the chemical, energy, biofuels and aerospace industries, and it will hire more than 50 engineers and support staff this year, said MATRIC president Keith Pauley.

For too long, West Virginia has often waited for innovation to be delivered in other parts of the country, and then tried to compete for the production-related jobs that resulted. But the more we can participate in the early part of the curve, developing a reputation for innovation and cutting-edge breakthroughs in energy, biosciences, biometrics and other intellectual property-based industries, the more we can secure these high-income jobs for our region. WVU, Marshall, MATRIC and others are proving that we can thrive in the innovation game and bring real opportunities to our state.

Cafe Cimino Brings Quality to Sutton's Place

If you asked a business consultant for an ideal location to place a high-end, nationally recognized restaurant and country inn, Sutton, WV, in Braxton County, may not show up on the list...or at least not near the top.

However, Tim and Melody Urbanic, the entrepreneurs who started Cafe Cimino nine years ago, turned  their vision into a reality on the banks of the Elk River. In the process, they have turned Exit 62 off I-79 into a destination for many in West Virginia and the surrounding region. It's not uncommon to see limousines pull up full of excited visitors from Charleston or other cities ready to partake in Chef Urbanic's innovative Southern Italian and Euro/Mediterranean dishes.

In many ways Cafe Cimino proves the adage "build it and they will come." The secret? You must build a place that is unique and of high quality, something worth the drive and that delivers an experience that is memorable and inspires word-of-mouth. This grows out of the Urbanic's passion for quality, innovation and the desire to share their enjoyment of life with others. It's definitely contagious.

If you visit, don't forget a treat for Maggie May, Cafe Cimino's sweet-hearted golden retriever.

Do you have other suggestions for innovative gems around West Virginia that are breathing new life into remote or small places?

Rural Broadband Education Workshops

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will conduct four educational workshops focused on rural broadband during 2008. The workshops will provide an opportunity for communities and organizations in rural America seeking to bring the benefits of broadband to their communities to learn about the resources, programs, and policies of the FCC and USDA.

The topics to be covered at the workshops include: the different technology platforms used to provide broadband services, USDA funding for broadband deployment, the FCC's Rural Health Care Pilot program, and wireless spectrum access. The workshops will also provide communities and organizations with an opportunity to share their experiences about broadband deployment in rural and hard-to-reach areas.

Workshop Dates and Locations

April 30, 2008: Blacksburg, Virginia
June 19, 2008: Saginaw, Michigan
September 18, 2008: Austin, Texas
November 20, 2008: Phoenix, Arizona

Registration

If you are interested in attending a particular workshop, please submit the following information to register:

• Community/Organization Name
• Address
• Phone Number
• Email Address
• Contact Person
• Workshop Location You Wish to Attend
• Number of Expected Attendees
• Description of Accommodations Required for People with Disabilities
  (Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities will be made available upon request.)

There are several ways for you to register for a workshop:

• Online. Complete the online registration form.
• By E-mail. Send the information outlined above in an email to ruralworkshop@fcc.gov.
• By Telephone. Call (877) 480-3201 and press Option 1.
  For TTY, dial (717) 338-2824.
• By Mail. Mail a letter with the information outlined above to:

Federal Communications Commision
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
ATTN: Chelsea Fallon
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Larry Malone

Malone Consulting Services

(304) 545-3052

www.malonecs.com

Government's Role in the New Economy

Whatever your opinion of government, whether you fall into the pure free-markets, "less is more" camp or the hands-on government camp, there should be one thing we all agree on: government has quite an influence on our state. With up to 52% of our state economy somehow connected to government spending (yes, the highest in the nation), how could it not?

Here are a few ways in which government can support our transformation into a successful new economy, creative industry region:

• Embrace e-Government - Some good news on this front, after years of falling behind other states. Read about the progress from The State Journal. Government can provide the visibility and convenience of online services as a great motivator for more people to get online, which should open doors for other benefits to citizens such as e-learning.
• 21st Century Education Reform - West Virginia is one of a handful of signees to the 21st Century Skills partnership, but much work remains to be done to truly transform our local schools to embrace teaching the holistic learning skills required for success in the new economy. We also need a gigantic rally to get a higher percentage of our adults to earn college degrees and a much more aggressive infusion of arts and culture in our schools.
• Research Funding - $50 million is a great start; let's pass this and build on it next year. For those who may be skeptical that government-funded research is a good thing, remember that the Internet, along with many othe major innovations in science, health and technology, would not exist without it.
• Arts and Cultural Funding - While we're not last in this category, we're not necessarily first either. The combination of the development of an arts/cultural economy with tourism and business recruitment is very synergistic.   
• State Image - While the Tourism Commission has done an award-winning job promoting West Virginia as a great place to visit, we need a stronger push for inviting people to consider our state as a great place to live and start an art gallery, a business or some other creative endeavor. The proposed "Coming Home" campaign is a start. This type of initiative is very important for both internal and external image; our assets are not widely known, and too many negative assumptions still exist.
• Re-Purposed Economic Development Programs/Funding - While industrial parks have been and will continue to be important for economic growth, we believe the real opportunity in the 21st century is through economic gardening. How can we include entrepreneurship and new economy business incubation as a core part of our state economic development programs?
• Broadband as 21st Century Utility - The Governor's task force on broadband coverage in West Virginia is due very soon. If it delivers as promised, it should be a great roadmap to guide where private sector efforts can fill the gaps and where private/public partnerships may be required. One thing is true: you can't participate in a global Internet-based economy when you don't have a connection.

What do you think? What is the role of our state and local governments in supporting the transition to the "Conceptual Age" and global, Internet-based economy?

if you'd like to track any legislative activity on any of these fronts, remember you can visit the State Legislature's web site at: http://www.legis.state.wv.us/index.cfm.  And please, as with any public policy issue, let your voice be heard. Contact your representatives and senators to share your opinion!

Building Our Collective Creativity

Our rallying cry for Create West Virginia is provided by legendary communications guru and author George Lois:

"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."

So how exactly  do we embrace this mantra and develop our collective creativity in West Virginia? How do we apply this creativity to solving social and economic problems? Here are some critical foundations for creativity for your consideration:

• Permission - All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. (Pablo Picasso)
• Volume - It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.(Edward de Bono) The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas. (Linus Pauling)
• Confidence -Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.(Erich Fromm) Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. (Rita Mae Brown)
• Openness -There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line. (Oscar Levant) One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries. (A.A. Milne)
• Motivation -The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes. (Saul Steinberg) Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. (Franklin Roosevelt)
• Perspective - You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. (Albert Einstein) Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• Persistence - It is worth mentioning, for future reference, that the creative power which bubbles so pleasantly in beginning a new book quiets down after a time, and one goes on more steadily. Doubts creep in. Then one becomes resigned. Determination not to give in, and the sense of an impending shape keep one at it more than anything. (Virginia Woolf)

Here is a long list of interesting articles to help you or your group take the next leap forward into creativity. Enjoy, and please check in to post updates on your breakthrough thinking!