Technology Alliance 2012 State of Technology Luncheon

Held each spring since 1998, the State of Technology Luncheon is the Technology Alliance’s largest annual event. Business, research and government leaders from across the state come together at the luncheon each year to celebrate Washington’s progress in building a vibrant technology-based economy and to gain insights from visionary leaders of innovative, globally recognized companies and institutions.

Featuring:
John McAdam
President, CEO & Director
F5 Networks, Inc.

Tuesday, May 22nd
Sheraton Seattle Hotel
Registration & Networking: 11:00 am
Luncheon: 11:30 am – 1:30 pm

Click here for more information and to register.

UW Service Gap Does Not Compute

Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times discusses the lack of capacity of the University of Washington to meet the demand for Computer Science enrollment.

“There may be no place where the gap between politics and reality is wider right now than the UW’s computer science department. Politics these days is all about shrinking. How can we retrench, reduce or reset. But even the lecture halls aren’t big enough to contain what’s actually going on in high-tech education.”

Full article here.

Puget Sound region wins Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge

On September 26, enterpriseSeattle announced that was awarded $1.2 million in federal funding through the Federal Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, a multiagency competition launched in May to support the advancement of 20 high-growth, regional industry clusters.

Investments in this challenge came from three federal agencies, the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration, and the Small Business Administration, with technical assistance coming from 13 more agencies.  This funding recognizes how the Puget Sound region is on the leading edge of creating the types of public-private partnerships that can help support business innovation. The funding will go towards the establishment of the Washington Interactive Media Accelerator (WIMA) and the furthering of enterpriseSeattle’s Washington Interactive Network (WIN) targeted at supporting the interactive media industry in Washington State.

“The interactive media industry in Washington State currently has more than 150 companies that employ more than 15,000 people,” said Jeff Marcell, President and CEO of enterpriseSeattle. “The funding provided by this grant will allow us to continue our work in support of the interactive media industry, creating an accelerator and programs that will continue to attract jobs and capital investment to our region.”

Read the enterpriseSeattle press release.
Read more about the award at the EDA website.

Big Ideas of (the First Half of) 2011

I promised in my last post that I would do one final entry on the Prosperity Blog before I leave the PSRC. And, since today is my last day, there’s no time like the present to make that happen. I also promised that this last post would be entirely self-indulgent and nostalgic, and I can think of no post that fits the bill more than the annual Prosperity Blog Year In Ideas feature – the yearly tradition in which I point out to you all how good my thoughts on economic development are, in Top Ten format.

Since it’s only halfway through the year (June 30 is less than two weeks away!), I’ll cut that Top Ten down to Top Five. And so, without further ado…and with no more ado ever again by me on this blog…here are the best practical proposals for improving our region’s business climate and competitiveness (and the most impractical, sky’s-the-limit ideas) I’ve had so far in 2011.

Weekly B-MOW: Interactive Media Industry Cluster Tour

It’s always a good day to get out of the office and learn something new. It’s especially a good day when you’re learning about something that is creating huge economic impact for our region’s economy. And it’s a real winner when something that’s creating lots of new jobs in the region is also cool and fun…like video games. Put that all together and what do you get? Seems like a Best Meeting of the Week to me. Join me for a tour down memory lane of last Friday’s fantastic Interactive Media Industry Cluster Tour!

Weekly FWSR: Fast Cars, Fun Games and Meat-related Typos

It’s time once again for my personal favorite feature at the Prosperity Blog: Fun With Search Referrers! It allows us to talk about the issues we care about in a concise, poignant and sometimes hilarious way. How is that different than every Prosperity Blog post you ask? Well thank you for the compliment! Did I mention that you look like you’ve lost some weight?

Anyway, here’s the latest Fun with Search Referrers, featuring fast cars, fun games and meat-related typos.

Games: Not Just For Fun Anymore

Well, I suppose that games haven’t been exclusively fun for a while. The military engages in “war games,” which are only entertaining if starring Matthew Broderick. And I don’t suppose the two incarcerated people in “the prisoners dilemma” think that game theory is a laugh-a-minute riot (although this clip from the British game show Golden Balls based on that concept is highly amusing).

But generally, when we think of games – particularly video games – we think enjoyment. So what if I told you that video games aren’t all, um, “fun and games” anymore? Would you say, “Well, I’d have to see that for myself!”? If so, then you’re in luck, because the next Prosperity Partnership Industry Cluster Tour is coming up on June 3, and it’s focused on the interactive media cluster!

One More Post about the Puget Sound and Cars

So I was on the treadmill at the gym this morning at 6 am (who’s the man!) watching SportsCenter, and on comes a commercial for Callaway golf clubs. I mean, it’s the Masters this weekend in Augusta, so no surprise, right? Except, the Callaway commercial opens with a picture of a Lamborghini and starts talking about their major strategic partnership between the sports car and the driver (ha! double entendre! but I’m referring to the golf club.) What, you may ask, is the connection?

Composite materials, of course. And where is Lamborghini developing their composites? The University of Washington. In fact, it’s mentioned in this Seattle Times article: “…the lab is a sort of hub for Lamborghini to work with the school, Boeing and other partners, including golf-club manufacturer Callaway and Intel.”

And so I’ll say it one more time. Our region has a secret automotive industry cluster that no one talks about!

A Tuna Salad Company, A Seafood Company or a Canned Goods Company?

That’s the old Branding 101 example of “you are what you say you are.” The idea being that Starkist or Bumblebee will be most successful expanding their product offerings if it fits in with a defined brand that people understand. You might be open to buying Starkist brand canned salmon or even Bumblebee fresh tuna steaks. Conversely, you probably wouldn’t want to buy tuna fish from a motor oil company, just because they branded themselves as a business that “makes things in containers.” So there are limits to everything.

We see a lot of that going on in our region. Boeing isn’t an “airplane company,” but rather an aerospace company and so you’re open to buying their tankers, and satellites and missiles. Microsoft is very much in the middle of defining themselves as a “platform company” that provides the tools upon which you create – whether that be word documents, video games, mobile apps or building energy management software.

These are the things that I thought of when I saw this article about BMW investing in IT start-ups as a way to facilitate defining themselves as a “mobility company.” Is this more Chicken of the Sea canned salmon or Pennzoil tuna?*

Prosperity Blog Makes News

Or at least inspires news.

A while back, I wrote a post on our growing talent shortage in the face of new companies moving to town.

The good folks at Xconomy saw the post, and were inspired to dig a little deeper. Here’s their story.

Clearly the moral of the story is this: the Prosperity Blog is on top of the latest developments in regional economic development. Read early and read often!

Weekly B-MOW: Seattle Chamber Intercity Study Mission

Every year, the Seattle Chamber does an “intercity study mission,” bringing regional business, government and community leaders to a peer city for a three day exploration of similarities, differences and, most importantly, the best practices that we can take back and copy in our own region. This past week, a group of us traveled for this year’s trip to San Jose for an Intercity Study Mission to Silicon Valley.

The reason to do a study mission to Silicon Valley is obvious: as much as we fancy ourselves as a leading region for innovation, we pale in comparison to the sheer breadth and depth and magnitude of what has come out of that region – HP, Google, Adobe, Apple, Yahoo…the list goes on and on. So, what are those things that we can take from them?

Here are my top three takeaways:

It’s Cloud-y In Seattle

I don’t know if any of you have friends and relatives that don’t live here (I assume you do), but there’s nothing more annoying than when they ask me “Hey, is it raining in Seattle?” Or, when they come to visit and it happens to be raining, they say, “I’m SOOOO surprising it’s raining!” It reminds me of all the comments I got when I was an intern in DC during the Clinton administration (“say hi to Monica Lewinsky for me!”).

So you can imagine how mixed my emotions were to write that post title. (The other option was some obscure Lando Calrissian/Cloud City reference). But sometimes, true is true. And it’s true: our region is the world leader in the cloud. Cloud computing, that is!

Weekly B-MOW: Washington Innovation Summit

I go to a lot of events. Many of them are boring. But I put my neck out a few weeks ago and said that the Washington Innovation Summit would not be. And I was right. I mean, really interesting panels, very forward thinking topics and some great keynotes. If you haven’t heard Geoffrey Moore speak on the transition in enterprise IT from “systems of record” to “systems of engagement,” then you don’t know what the next major business opportunity in the global economy will be.

Apparently, the whole day was video recorded, and will be available on the Technology Alliance website. And you can follow the audience’s questions and comments on Twitter via the hashtag #WAInnovation (including several insightful tweets from yours truly and a back and forth on how funny Bill McSherry is).

But if you want an immediate taste, I took a video of the opening panel, featuring some of the state’s economic development luminaries talking about how we continue to invest in economic development in a time of scarce public money.

Dressing Up in the Puget Sound

Man, I don’t even have to write a pun headline for that title. I mean, did I ever tell you about the time I was at the Seattle Symphony, sitting next to a guy in a bright green sweatsuit? To be fair, it was St. Patrick’s Day, but still…folks around here are much more likely to be seen at Canlis in jeans and Gore-Tex than rocking a Mad Men style.

But, shockingly perhaps, we actually have a pretty significant fashion & apparel industry cluster here in the region. And, if you’re interested, I’d be happy to take you on a bus tour of it.

The Many Economic Development Impacts of the Military

Over the last few years, Prosperity Partnership has been a leading proponent of making better connections with the military cluster here in the region. And it seems like everywhere I turn these days, that topic is a focus of conversation – whether it be the meeting we hosted here last week with the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition to try to address clean technology contracting opportunities or the success of legislation in the current state legislative session towards allowing military training to count toward civilian professional licenses.

Here’s a quick summary of some the major focuses and opportunities that our region needs to be considering.