| CRBJ Charter Member: |
|
|
| CRBJ Home > September 2006 | |||||
High tech in the North Woods? Yes!
Unless a community or region has a major medical research institution in its backyard, it simply won't become the nation's next biotechnology "hot spot," even if free land and tax incentives are thrown on the table. With 40-plus states, including Wisconsin, scrambling to find the right niche within the growing medical biotech market, new players must proceed with caution. But many communities have other foundations upon which to build a tech-based economy. That exercise is under way in Ashland, where the first Lake Superior Region Technology Conference was held recently at the Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College campus. Ashland sits at the foot of Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay, a picturesque area within easy reach of Superior-Duluth, Minn., Bayfield, Hayward and Hurley-Ironwood, Mich. A somewhat longer drive connects the region to the Twin Cities, Eau Claire-Chippewa Falls, Marshfield and Wausau. While predominantly rural in character, Ashland isn't isolated. Its economy has been historically based on logging and paper products, but it's also home to call centers, health-care institutions, tourism, a private college and light manufacturing. Like any community in rural Wisconsin, Ashland officials wonder what will happen next to its economy. It has some attractive assets -- a well-educated workforce, strong high-speed telecommunications capacity, and a high quality of life -- but it must leverage those assets in ways that will create more high-paying jobs. Two years ago, leaders of the Chequamegon Bay chapter of the UW Alumni Association invited the Wisconsin Tech-nology Council to hold its board of directors meeting in Ashland. That led to the creation of a chapter of the Wisconsin Innovation Network, the Tech Council's membership subsidiary, and the beginnings of a networking and fact-finding process. The latest step is the Lake Superior Region Technology Conference, where participants didn't hear discussions about bringing the medical biotech economy to the North Woods, but did attend workshops designed to build on existing economic sectors. With crude oil prices high, bio-energy has moved off the back burner to the forefront of corporate planning and policy discussions. In some parts of the country, corn-based ethanol and biodiesel are emerging industries; in the North Woods, might wood byproducts and switchgrass production lead to the state's first cellulose ethanol plant? That's one of the goals of a recent statewide report on bio-energy and bio-products. The fact is, tech-based economies aren't just for big cities. With the right mix of resources, both natural and manmade, smaller communities can find a place in the market. In northwest Wisconsin, the process of determining "what's next?" is already under way. Tom Still is president of the Wisconsin Technology Council. madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
|
||||