from BCN09: Creative Industries and Regional Competitiveness

Representatives from two Seattle employers (Microsoft and PATH), KONE Corporation in Helsinki and Fukuoka Urban Laboratory suggested the needs of creative companies to grow and attract talent.

Each discussed the need to continue investing in research, each discussed the primacy of attracting talent to their regions and companies, and each talked about the fact that intellectual companies are inherently less placebound than ‘old school’ manufacturers.

They were asked to tell us what they look for in a region. 

A welcoming business climate is a foundation – taxes, regulations, transport, etc.  But then the needs diverge. 

BCN 09: Creativity and Talent in Urban Environment

Gaudi in Barcelona

Today, the second meeting of the International Regions Benchmarking Consortium begins in Barcelona.

The consortium was started two years ago by PSRC and the TDA of Greater Seattle, as a way to measure our economic performance against that of our peers around the world.  Other regions that are participating are Barcelona, Stockholm, Helsinki, Munich, Dublin, Vancouver BC, Fukuoka (Japan), Daejon (S Korea), Cape Town and Glasgow. 

Last year’s first meeting took place in June 2008 in Seattle.  This year, 15 delegates from the Puget Sound region are in attendance.

The theme of this year’s conference is Creativity and Talent in an Urban Environment.  Today is creativity, tomorrow is talent.  I will post as often as our internet connection and our rigorous schedule allow.

Salt in the Wound, which has been re-opened just so you could put salt into it

Leilani Lanes was the world’s best karaoke bar with a great bowling alley attached to it. Then it got sold to a developer and it closed. It was going to be made into condos. It was a shot to the heart…love progress of course, just so sad to see a great place go.

Leilani then

Now (a few weeks ago actually) word comes that the developer is bankrupt and the property has been taken back by the bank.

Why? Why do I have to die this death over and over? Is it not enough that this icon of all things cool is gone, surrounded by a chain link fence?

Can’t it just become condos and be done.   I mean, highest and best use is great. Progress is great. But closing the old girl down and replacing her with nothing? It’s a crying shame. Literally. I am crying. And it’s a shame.

Leilani now

Curse you, economy. When times are good you take away pleasure, when times are bad you take away lack of pain.  Have you no soul?  No compassion?

Can you at least put a karaoke mic in the parking lot, just for old time’s sake?

Washington Aerospace Partnership takes off

Did you see it?  The big news today?  I am talking about the launch of the Washington Aerospace Partnership.

Sadly, I’ve been away from the blog for while, but that’s because I have been supporting the Governor on aerospace for a few months, as she works to make sure Washington keeps its place as the #1 place in the world for aerospace.

Well, I thought aerospace was important enough to end my blog boycott.

Today, the WAP launched itself and is focused in the very near term on supporting Boeing’s KC-767 mid-air refueling tanker proposal.  You couldn’t pick a more important and timely goal if you wanted to secure Washington’s aerospace future.

This is going to be a great effort.  Washington is the single greatest place in the world to locate an aerospace company.  We have the greatest workforce in the world, we have a competitive tax environment and we have a government that wants to keep aerospace growing. What more do you want?

So I come not to bury Washington but to praise it as the place where aerospace was born, and the place where aerospace will thrive for decades to come.  Sure we have work to do. But we’re gonna do it.  And we’re also going to find a way to not only defend our current jobs against the continual onslaught of other states trying to steal our work, but to grow a dynamic, tech-based industry that happens to create thousands of family wage jobs for folks who don’t have a four-year degree.

Click here to join the effort.

Sully is a stud

I am all for staying on topic, and I know the rules say this blog is about issues not people.  But this dude is a stud.

Gliding a plane, filled with smoke, shaking violently, over Manhattan, over the GW bridge and then accomplishing the unaccomplishable – ‘landing’ his plane in water with no fatalities.

Awesome.

A bargain at (almost) twice the price

‘A good buddy of mine’ is going to Hawaii this weekend, for 8 nights.  Last year, my buddy went to Hawaii at about this same time of year, also for about a week.  All the travel publications say now’s the time to travel, as prices are at all-time lows.

There’s apparently a lot of truth to that.  Just checking online tells me that Expedia will get you from Seattle to Honolulu next week for as little as $235.  The same flight last year would’ve cost you $550 -$600 if memory serves correctly.  Last year, a room at the Hilton Hawaiian Village ran about $300-$325.  This year, you can get one for as little as $219 ($197 if you’re a senior citizen).

So for two (non-senior citizen) people, for 7 nights, that breaks out as follows:

                       2008                    2009

Airfare            $1,100                 $470

Lodging         $2,100                 $1,533

Total              $3,100                  $2,003 

Total savings $1,097, or 35.4%

Talk about a sign of the times.

True, but…

Perhaps you’ve heard – Washington is the best state in America to start a business.  US News and World Report just the other day ranked us #1, ahead of Virginia, Colorado, Texas and Nevada (and all the other states of course).

The article rightly pointed out our productivity here, our adoption of alternative energy, and our tech-intensity.  Interestingly, it also said we are #1 among the states in adoption of energy efficiency, which runs counter to the conventional wisdom that our low energy prices make us naturally less likely to engage in energy efficiency projects than higher-cost states.

But…

A Better Place or Business As Usual?

Yesterday I became a fan of my first non-Seahawks related Facebook page. Better Place is a company that is looking to develop and implement a network of electric cars, through a subscription-based model. The way it works is you buy a 100% electric car, then subscribe to the Better Place service, which takes care of your battery and all the electricity your car uses, and you’re billed monthly. Basically, it’s a car that you pay for like a cell phone, and you never use gas. Israel and Denmark have already signed up to deploy the technology, and Renault-Nissan is building the cars you’ll be able to buy to use the service. Oh, and California just joined up too.

So, it is with more than my usual skepticism that I read about the desired government “bailouts” the US car makers are hoping to secure. Why should the government prop up what might very well be an outdated technology or an industry that time has passed by? Isn’t one of the fundamental rules of economics that capital and resources should flow to those who can most efficiently manage that investment?

Why should the government be bailing out car makers?

Watch the Lunch here

You can watch the Prosperity Lunch here.

Posted with Vopod, a new service of wordpress. We’ll try it out and see if it works.

Location is a choice

AP Photo

At today’s Prosperity Partnership luncheon, Scott Carson laid out a series of cogent observations about what economic survival in the 21st Century means.  I thought he summed it up nicely when he said:

 

For a global company in a highly competitive industry, a supportive business environment is a critical element of success. And location is a choice.

To paraphrase Michael Scott…

“A Survival Guide to 21st Century Aerospace” Nov 6 – Be there!

As of last week, we have a new program for our November 6 Prosperity Partnership annual lunch.  Scott Carson, President & CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will be giving our keynote address.  The title of his talk: A survival guide to 21st century aerospace. Anyone who cares about the future of aerospace in our region should definitely be there.

I am not sure what Scott will tell us, but I do know that the aerospace industry has been up front with us all about what we need to do to remain the world leader in this huge, lucrative industry.

My guess is the news will be the urgency with which we need to act more than anything, but I really shouldn’t speculate.

Bottom line is, if you haven’t signed up yet, you need to.  You can do it here.

Blogging from Leadershp Conference #2 – Global Health

The Conference topic this year is Global Health.  As in, how can we capitalize on the list of great things going on in our region, from Gates, to PATH, to SBRI, to of course UW and WSU?

BTW, if you don’t know it, Seattle is rapidly becoming the center of Global Health on worldwide scale.  This has all grown organically, some would say “by accident.”  But I always think when someone says that it just means that they weren’t the ones that planned it.  I say it grew up because talented people executed their vision.  And because we have UWMC and the Gates Foundation.

So, recognizing that it is hard to say what should be done when we haven’t wrapped up the preceedings yet, my vote goes to a little planning and a lot of doing. 

Blogging from Leadership Conference #1 – Suncadia

Today’s the third day of the three-day Regional Leadership Conference, put on the by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, and held this year at the brand spanking new Suncadia Lodge in Cle Elum.

Suncadia is the resort I’ve been waiting for.  Less than 90 minutes from Seattle, the place is awesome.  Beautiful hotel, amazing views (especially this time of year) and a first-rate conference facility.  I would be happy to come here with my family or for a conference.

In fact, I’m going to go so far as to say if a conference is being held here, it will increase my cances of attending…just so I can come stay here.  Plus it has the best view from its lobby of any hotel I’ve been in (Kauai Hyatt excepted).

So if you haven’t been here and you want to get away for the weekend, you need to get yourself up here.  And next weekend I bet the leaves will be even better.

“Stop pushing me!”

Another day, another 700 points. We are full on fire in a movie theater over here!

A great piece in Crosscut appeared today or yesterday, in which Benjamin Lukoff laments the dearth of financial literacy in America and its contribution to the current crisis. I must say that I am sympathetic to his arguments.

It’s been said that a run on WaMu is what really put it over the edge. In fact Lukoff links to a story with an interesting bit about the role people freaking out played in WaMu’s demise. I am not sure raising the FDIC limit, which the article discusses, is the answer (in fact I’m pretty sure it’s not) but that is Chris Strow’s issue to write about, not mine.

I’m just going to say that there’s a lot of panic going on out there. And it’s of course contributing to the volatility in the market. So now’s probably not a bad time to implement the first half of the world’s most over-used bit of financial advice.

In the meantime, if anyone needs me, I’ll be in HR increasing my 401(k) contribution.

I wanna know what happens to me

Call me selfish, but the most interesting question in this whole financial mess as far as I’m concerned is “what happens to me?”

Maybe I should clarify.  By me, I mean me and my 3.6 million closest friends, who might really be screwed by this whole thing.

Let’s talk about Washington Mutual.  We’re talking a great company in Seattle since the year of the great Seattle fire. With the buyout by JP Morgan Chase, what happens next?  Safeco is another example.  Not crisis-related of course, but bought out nonetheless.

Are these hisorically great companies and leaders in our community still playing the same role in five years that they played last year?  Clearly the answer is no.

Don’t get me wrong.  Business is business.  Good business is good business and bad business is bad business.