- It is an honor to welcome you to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation's 2026 State of the
- Bloomington Regional Economy. I'm Val Pena. I am the current chair of BEDC, and I'm grateful to be here
- with so many leaders, partners, employers, educators, innovators, community builders, all of us who
- help make and shape Bloomington-Ellisville-Monroe County.
- Today's program is going to focus on where we are, where we are going, and how we're going to prepare
- for the opportunities that lay ahead. The future economy is already taking shape and our region has
- an important role to play in that. But to truly be a player, it requires data, strategy, collaboration,
- readiness, and a shared commitment to move forward.
- I offer a warm welcome to all our BEDC board members, regular members, sponsors, community partners,
- and special guests. We also have some fantastic elected officials who have joined us, and I'd like to
- give them each a shout out. Diane Powell from Senator Todd Young's office is here. Amanda Lowry, US
- Congresswoman Erin Houchin's office is here. Carrie Thompson, Mayor of the City of Bloomington, here.
- Mike Farmer from the Town Manager of Town of Ellitsville. William Ellis, Town of Ellitsville Council.
- Liz Fiddle from the Monroe County Council. Trent Deckard from the Monroe County Council. Scott Rudd
- from the Brown County Council. Welcome. We're glad you came over. And Noel Conyer, the Clerk Treasurer
- for the Town of Ellitsville.
- We'd also like to welcome the guests of our sponsors that have come. For many of you, this may be your
- first time here, and we would love to see you come back. So thank you for coming. A big thank you also
- goes out to our annual sponsors. Your investment is what helps the BEDC continue to work to strengthen
- business growth, regional competitiveness, and long-term economic opportunity. Our annual sponsors include
- Indiana University, Town of Ellitsville,
- Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, First Financial Bank, German American Bank, IU Credit Union,
- and Weddle Brothers Construction, Duke Energy, Smithville, People's State Bank, IU Health, and hopefully
- more coming.
- Today's meeting is also supported by the following SBRE sponsors. Please help me in thanking Bloomington
- Health Foundation, Herald Fish, Inc., Hoosier Hills Credit Union, Markey's, Monroe County Airport, Mimosa
- Tree Florist, Nature's Way, Patriot Engineering, Simtra Biopharma Solutions, and Work One. Thank you
- to all of you.
- I'd also like to give a huge shout out to my fellow BEDC officers. Paul Quick from Smithville Communications
- is our first vice chair. He is in Utah today. Chris Hawk, one of our newest members from IU Credit Union.
- He is our second vice chair. John Gernard from four of us. He is our treasurer. Carlos Lafferty, Monroe
- County Airport, is our new secretary. And Tyscar Michael Wetterbrothers, construction, is our past chair.
- So thank you to all of you.
- For those of you who are new to the BEDC, our BEDC staff consists of Clark Greiner, who is the interim
- CEO, Stacey Morata, who is the Communications and Membership Director, and Christy Wasson, who is our
- Operations Manager. Small but mighty team. Today is not simply a report on where we are. It is a conversation
- about where we're going
- and what it takes to compete, and how Bloomington, Ellisville, and Monroe County and our regional partners
- should prepare with the purpose of bringing those opportunities ahead. Because today we live in a world
- where site selectors weigh risk as heavily as opportunity. And our job, not only at BDC, but as this
- community, is to advance a proactive, integrated approach
- that positions our region as an irresistible destination for business development. The core idea is
- simple. Reduce uncertainty of every stage. At every stage, reduce it. From land readiness to workforce
- fit, so that investors can move quickly with confidence. At BEDC, we're translating that into three
- interconnected pillars.
- site preparation, site development strategy, and community engagement. In site preparation, it's truly
- turning potential into ready to go. Effective site selection begins long before a formal inquiry shows
- up on a desk. BEDC is suggesting that we prioritize shovel-ready partials for coordinating with public
- and private partners to accelerate the permitting
- infrastructure readiness, and land assembly. This includes proactive due diligence such as environmental
- studies, geotechnical work, floodplain analysis, and utility capacity assessments. BEDC is developing
- an up-to-date inventory of certified sites and ready to build parcels so that we can shorten the decision
- cycle for site selectors and reduce any perceived political, regulatory,
- or logistical risk. Site development strategy is assigning assets with industry needs. BDC's site development
- strategy is to translate raw land into ready-to-scale operating environments. By fostering public-private
- partnerships, we can de-risk capital expenditure and align infrastructure investments with anticipated
- demand. But the elements are critical
- for us to be able to do this, and they include utility readiness. In today's economy, data and energy
- resilience are as essential as the land cost. We shouldn't be talking about what we could do if we get
- an inquiry. Instead, the conversation right now needs to be, how do we harmonize utility expansions
- with anticipated industry clusters
- and use that with developable sites so that we can shift the dialogue from what might be possible to,
- hey, here's the plan. Transportation and logistics is another. We need to continue to optimize access
- to the highways and to rail, and most importantly, the airport. Workforce alignment, this is aligning
- training pipelines with the need of target industries.
- We need to have more candid conversations with IU, Ivy Tech, and the employers to help design curriculum,
- apprenticeships, and credentialing that shortens the path from job seekers to productive hires. And
- incentives and timing, coordinating with local, state, and federal programs to deliver timely incentives,
- tax credits, and land options that are competitive on a national scale.
- Community engagement, building trust, expectations, and a shared vision, so investors assess not just
- the site, but actually the community that they're gonna be in. BEDC sees the way to elevate Monroe County
- as well as the region's competitiveness is by building industry-specific recruitment processes.
- This includes clear communication on who on the team is doing what, along with regular updates on project
- status, ensuring stakeholders understand their roles, and a singular message on how new investment translates
- into jobs and long-term vitality. Stakeholder alignment, bridging our chambers, civic leaders, and economic
- partners to articulate a shared economic vision
- that recognizes and respects where we each specialize and gives us the ability to shift lead roles dependent
- on the site selector's needs and interests. And social and environmental responsibility, incorporating
- sustainable design, green infrastructure, and resilience planning so projects deliver not only short-term
- gains, but lasting community value. I think what we're hoping for
- is basically building a series of SWAT teams who are able to turn on a dime when we get an option or
- an investor and know that we have the right people and the right players at the table for them. The
- result is a Monroe County that reduced risks, accelerates deployment, and invites growth by integrating
- meticulous site preparation, forward-looking development strategy, and inclusive community engagement.
- We must all strive to make Monroe County a compelling low risk destination for site selectors. The outcome
- is a continuously improving ecosystem where projects move from inquiry to occupancy with speed and certainty
- and where our entire region can share from the benefits of growth. In essence, tomorrow needs today.
- And everyone in this room needs to be part of that regional conversation about economic development,
- competitiveness, and future opportunity. That is the work that is at us today so that we can talk about
- and actually be completely ready for tomorrow. And with that, please help me welcome Clark Greiner,
- our interim CEO for the BEDC.
- Thank you, Val. Good afternoon, everyone. It is a great day to talk about economic development. I want
- to begin by thanking our members, our public partners, our employers, our education and workforce leaders,
- our utilities, our developers, our sponsors, and every person in this room who is invested in the future
- of Bloomington, Ellisville, Monroe County, and the broader region. Economic development encompasses
- all the way from startups to mature companies. Each require different support from the community, and as
- As a show of support, I want to take a moment to talk about an early stage company that's with us today.
- They are emerging from the community, our entrepreneurial spirit and ecosystem right now, and I want
- to show a little support for them. The company is Resinex, and Resinex is developing an AI-powered acoustic
- monitoring and predictive maintenance system for industrial fans, compressors, and motors in a real-world
- environment.
- Resonex was started by three entrepreneurs seeking their masters from the Luddy School of Informatics
- and is seated at table 25. If I could get you guys to hold up the innovation sign right back there.
- Welcome Dixitza, Paritam and Janavi. Janavi wasn't able to make it here today with us, but Resonex has
- been a winning recipient of the
- prestigious Chung Woo Innovation Challenge, among others, and they are at a critical juncture in their
- business evolution and they need your help. So I'm gonna mention a little bit about that right now.
- Their call to action, what they need is they need to meet leaders in the room who can help them capture
- real world acoustic data sets in a live setting to build their AI model. I know we have that in here.
- If you lead or have influence and operate in what I'm referring to as an acoustically diverse facility,
- I urge you to introduce yourself to them and to the entire ResonX team at the conclusion of this event.
- They'll be happy to answer any of your questions and set up a demonstration on how their technology
- works. It's really innovative and really, really a neat thing to learn a lot more about. But they'll
- be available next to the exit over here.
- next to the dining area. And so I wanted to thank everyone in advance. But again, if you have impellers,
- fans, motors, this is an acoustical thing that they're doing. It's really an awesome thing. So thank
- you for coming, and we appreciate you. The people in this room matter, not just ResinX, but for all
- of us. We understand that meaningful economic development is deliberate. It happens when a community
- is intentional about its assets.
- honest about its challenges, and disciplined when preparing for the next opportunity. That's the spirit
- of today's meeting. From today's economy to tomorrow's opportunity, we're region preparing for what's
- next. Together, we have what it takes to prepare our community and region to compete. The role of the
- BEDC is focused and practical. We work in business retention, business attraction, site readiness, advocacy,
- and regional partner alignment
- In the simple terms, the BEDC helps business work. We support employers already here and ready to grow.
- We respond to companies and site selectors evaluating our region and our community. We connect partners
- so that when opportunity shows up, we're not starting from scratch. Economic development is about looking
- ahead around those corners, understanding what future employers need, knowing our assets, being really
- honest about our gaps,
- and working with the right partners to close those gaps. Ultimately, we want to deliver winning solutions.
- The recent National Aerospace opportunity tied to the airport gave this region a clearer view of the
- future and what that looks like and what success looks like. This project reinforced the importance
- of infrastructure, site readiness, workforce development, utility capacity, community coordination,
- speed, certainty,
- risk mitigation, and expertly telling our community story. We were not ultimately selected, but let's
- not overlook what we've learned. I think that's really important. The lessons learned is Monroe County
- can be part of a serious conversation about major investments, particularly for emerging technologies
- in the aerospace, defense innovation, and future focused growth across many of our traded sectors. So
- let's take a step forward.
- Successful communities are not defined by perfection. We're defined by preparation. Economic success
- is a team effort. Everyone in this room has something to contribute. And prepared communities win because
- they understand their assets, recognize their gaps, communicate clearly, and invest accordingly.
- Opportunities are at our doorstep. Business, government, education, workforce, utilities, why?
- because communities, we win together. Collaboration is a must across all our partners in the economic
- development ecosystem. A company evaluating the community wants to understand infrastructure, utility,
- workforce, training capacities, housing, incentives, permitting, transportation, quality of life, site
- control, environmental reviews, and long-term community support. Companies and their senior leadership teams
- favor prepared communities. And I want our members and partners to hear this clearly. It's about readiness,
- about action. It's about alignment, momentum, and the deliverables. And the deliverables aren't just
- land. It's about the documents go about that. It's about our story, how we tell that, how we communicate,
- and how we articulate that. Readiness creates competence. Companies invest where they find transparency,
- responsiveness, alignment, and the ability
- to solve problems when they arise. That's readiness. Site readiness is not simply about whether land
- is available, it's about whether a company can trust the timeline, understand the utility path, evaluate
- infrastructure requirements, and navigate permitting. Roadway access is important, development costs,
- and have the ability to move forward with confidence. When companies compare communities, it is asking
- direct questions. Some of the more basic ones
- but are very important is, will the site work? Can the utilities serve it? Can the development timeline
- be met? How difficult is the permitting path? What's our land use, zoning requirements? Can workforce
- and talent attraction meet the needs? Can the public and private partners move together? And can the
- company reduce uncertainty and increase their strategic advantage, serve their customers, and compete
- globally by choosing this location?
- The last question matters. Our job collectively as a community is to reduce development risk and help
- companies understand that we will work together confidently alongside them to accomplish collective
- goals. The more certainty we provide, the more risk we remove for site decision makers and the more
- competitive we become nationally. And we certainly saw that with that last project. We are already in
- the business of preparing for what's next. How?
- I'd like to talk about that. The City of Bloomington's Will Serve letter for the Monroe County Airport
- is a meaningful step in that direction, and it's a forward step. It's not just a technical document,
- it's a readiness signal to site selectors, to companies, to developers, existing employers,
- and defense-related industries, and that this region understands competition and is taking critical
- steps to win. The move says Bloomington is preparing
- Monroe County is preparing and the region is thinking ahead. We're also encouraged by progress connected
- to the Ellisville sewer expansion efforts and the federal support moving through Congresswoman Erin
- Houchin's office. That's another critical, meaningful step moving forward. Sewer may not sound exciting,
- but is often viewed as the backbone of investment in economic development.
- infrastructure readiness that demonstrates how serious communities take business retention, expansion,
- and attraction. Road, water, sewer, broadband, aviation access, permitting shape, whether community
- can support business growth here. Communities are drawn and companies are drawn to our talent and educated
- workforces, the quality of life. We have Indiana University, Ivy Tech, Crane, the airport,
- and our innovation ecosystem, the mill and the forge, their leaders in their space, not to mention the
- culture, the arts, plus a whole lot of other things that add up and matter. We are community preparing
- for what's next today. We're not just talking about readiness, we're delivering it. The BEDC will continue
- to convene, coordinate, advocate, identify gaps, and connect the dots between business needs and community
- capacities.
- Opportunities favor preparation, and preparation is required from all of us. Thank you. Now, on to the
- really exciting part of the show here, and I want to introduce our next guest here and make
- this introduction. Probably needs no introduction. Everyone knows he's back by popular demand. Mr. Phil
- Powell, he is the executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center. Phil Powell has been in
- business and the economic
- faculty member at the Indiana University Kelly School of Business for 29 years, and he serves as the
- executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center. Without any further ado, I'm going to get
- Mr. Powell up here for his high-power energetic review of our economy and the region. Thank you, Mr. Powell.
- How we doing? Before we move on, I know our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow citizens who were
- impacted last night. So if you were impacted, we're thinking about you and we're here to help. This
- is the time when B-Town really rises to the occasion. So I get this question a lot. Phil, how are we
- doing economically? How's Bloomington doing economically?
- Well, I can have a lot of answers, but you got to go to the data, right? Here's my bottom line. How
- is Bloomington doing? We're hanging in there. We're hanging in there. And when I talk Bloomington, I'm
- talking about Greater Bloomington, I'm talking about Monroe County, talking about our friends in Ellisville,
- all around the region here. So what does the data tell us? And I'm going to give you some high flying
- data here. I'm not going to go too detailed, because I want to get... And then I'm going to give some
- perspective on perhaps how we think about
- how the region or the county needs to move forward in terms of economic development, just a framework.
- Because there's a lot of great things to leverage here. There's a lot of great opportunities. And we're
- hanging in there. Actually, the county's doing better than... You may have heard me speak in November.
- At that time, we were really very scared. The data was very... There were a lot of dark shadows from the data.
- But actually, Bloomington is hanging in there. I'll give you some data. So for example, our unemployment
- rate right now, right? At the state level, we're at 4%. In Bloomington metropolitan area, 3.8%. So we're
- less than the state, right? And again, higher education, this has been a challenging 18 months for higher
- education. And I've also, I'll bring up some, one good place to compare us to right now is our friends
- at Purdue and Tippecanoe County.
- And we're doing better in some areas and doing not as good with our broilermaker friends. But also,
- more importantly, employment growth. For the last year, employment here has grown 4x what we've seen
- in the state. Now, it's not fast, but we've seen about 1% growth in Monroe County for the last year.
- At the state, it's only been about 0.2, 0.3%. So again, we're showing some...
- pleasantly surprising resilience in this economy. And it has to do with an increasing diversity of what
- is driving our prosperity here in our backyard, here in Beatown. What are the biggest drivers of that
- employment growth right now? Well, healthcare, employment's up 7%. Now, part of that is sort of a bittersweet
- story because we've seen a lot of closures in healthcare facilities in the uplands region.
- And so what's happening is that consolidation is happening here in Monroe County with our regional hospital
- and the great resources that IU Health and other providers provide. So we saw 7% growth in healthcare.
- Manufacturing, we Hoosiers love to make things, right? We love to score touchdowns and become national
- champions, but we also love to make things. Manufacturing in Monroe County is up 3%. So doing well,
- and that's in spite of, you might say,
- I heard about those layoffs at Novo Nordisk. And yes, so you gotta understand folks that businesses
- right now are navigating this whole issue of the relationship between technology and labor, right? We're
- gonna have some announcements of retrenchment like we had at Novo Nordisk. We're gonna have
- some announcements like we did at Simtra in the same industry of expansion, right? Don't take these
- single announcements as some sign of economic apocalypse, right?
- Businesses are expanding and retrenching, they're adjusting to this new reality called artificial
- intelligence. Our economic models at the Kelly School of Business suggest that the last two quarters
- of 2026 are gonna be a lot better than the first two quarters. We're seeing a lot of uncertainty come
- out of the market as we solve some of these larger geopolitical and policy issues. That's really what's
- been holding our national and our local and state economy back.
- We expect a much, we talked about risk. The risk that we've been seeing have been more policy related
- than they have been fundamentals. If I had more time, I would reassure you that the national economic
- fundamentals are quite strong when we look at debt and capitalization. There's a lot of good news out
- there that doesn't make it to the surface. So we're not expecting a recession. We're actually expecting
- a better second part of the year than the first part.
- Where we have perhaps two other points I want to make on the employment side in Monroe County and in
- Greater Bloomington is that we actually saw shrinkage while we saw growth in healthcare manufacturing.
- We've also seen 13% growth in construction. 13%, right? Anytime you see growth in construction, that's
- good for future prosperity. Part of that we see across the street over here, right?
- So growth in manufacturing, growth in healthcare, growth in constructions, those are both good signs
- of our economic backbone getting a little stronger. Where we did see some shrinkage, which was kind
- of surprising, was we actually saw a shrinkage in accommodation and food services of about 2%. Now part
- of that is a pullback. We've seen American households sort of pull back in some of their travel during
- the second half of 2025.
- Also, you might say, well, Phil, our biggest employer is in educational services, right? Indiana University.
- Educational services is about 20 to 25% of our economy here in B-town. Here's the good news. In educational
- services, we saw 1% shrinkage in educational unemployment, which is actually given the challenging
- environment of higher ed and even K through P through 12 education. That's actually a pretty good number.
- In Tippecanoe County,
- at the home of Purdue, whereas we saw 1% shrinkage, they saw 3% shrinkage. So Indiana University, the
- wonderful institution of which I've been a part of, quickly on 30 years next month, is hanging in there,
- and is making sure that we're delivering the value and the employment and the jobs that we need for
- this community. And while we did see some shrinkage in educational services, and it's not just IU, that's
- our friends at Ivy Tech, and also in P through 12,
- But while we did see 1% shrinkage in educational services employment, actually total wages paid went
- up 5%. So in terms of economic stimulus, dollars on the table, we're still delivering in terms of educational
- services. And a lot of that is IU. So good employment growth, low unemployment. It's like, Phil, there's
- some good news here. You kind of seem a little rosier than I expected.
- Where's our Achilles heel? And you've heard me preach about this. While we have seen aggregate growth
- in income, while we have seen aggregate growth in employment, what the average worker is making per
- hour of work, which economists would argue is the ultimate measure of prosperity in a community, is
- what do you make per unit of work? What do you make per unit of effort? Or average hourly earnings?
- Our average hourly earnings in Bloomington, and I double and triple checked this this morning. Our average
- hourly earnings in Bloomington, Monroe County has shrunk 4% in the last year. The average worker in
- our community is making 4% less than they did a year ago. That's on average. And that's in an environment
- of 4% inflation. So that's an 8% reduction in real wage. Compare that to Indiana,
- Where mine is 4%, the state is, the average Hoosier worker went up 4%. For the average Hoosier, their
- wage is kept up with inflation. And in Tippecanoe County, they're up 8%. So in terms of what we're making
- per hour, this is an Achilles heel for our economy. We need an economy that generates higher wages.
- And we know that. We know the problems that I mentioned have been here are structural. You know what
- the quickest way to increase the average wage is? Let's retain our graduates from campus. Let's create
- an environment where they want to live and work here. The average college graduate in the United States,
- based on survey data, 60% of them, their first preference for where they want their first job is where
- they went to school.
- So the focus that we're seeing, the increased focus that we're seeing from IU on retaining our college
- grads, that's one way to help that wage issue. Because college grads get paid more, they bring value
- to the economy, and the faster and more we can retain them, the better we can raise the average, but
- also create high incomes, which multiplies the economy and lifts all boats.
- So while income and what we make per hour has been our Achilles heel, and this is where we really need
- to work, and it is that average hourly earnings statistic is what I would encourage our leaders here
- in the room to look at and monitor. But if you heard me in November at our future cast that we do, I
- was really bullish on our growth in private business, our growth in the private sector.
- Right? And there the news continues to be good. Our growth in terms of number of businesses, whereas
- it grew in the state only about 1%, it's grown in Monroe County by about 2%. So our creation of new
- businesses, our creation of new commercial establishments is happening at twice the rate of the state.
- And even more impressive is that we've seen employment in the management of companies and enterprises,
- that's up 8%. And I would say that's a shout out to what we're seeing from Amplify Bloomington. That's
- a shout out for what we're seeing from the high quality incremental growth we're seeing out of the Trace
- District. If you were at the IU Founders and Funders Network Summit last month, very inspiring, right?
- And we're highlighting some of the great resonance, right? Yeah. More businesses like this, right, that
- are connected to the university, that are connected to this ecosystem that the university's building,
- but in partnership with phenomenal investment and energy from our partners outside the university here
- in the community. And what that does, folks, what that does is that tees up what
- as one economist, as me, would suggest is a way to frame how we approach economic development. We have
- challenges, right? There's price of housing. I've mentioned wages. Also, we struggle with economic equity
- here in the county. We're outliers in those variables. But if you want to focus on moving the needle,
- here's a way to think about it.
- If you study the way that communities and cities and metropolitan areas are growing, what's happening
- is, is that they're focusing on specific points of geography in your region. If you look at the story
- of how metropolitan regions evolve and change, it starts from specific points in those geographic areas
- where you have
- smart, creative, innovative people coming together and talking and interacting and working together
- and living together and drinking beer together and watching college football games together, right?
- This is what we call creative collision. Even in this 21st century technology economy where we've celebrated
- remote working, it's the actual creative collision, the actual act of people being in the same space,
- in the same neighborhood,
- in the same office working together that is driving innovation and is driving the fastest economic growth.
- So as we think about Bloomington, as we think about Monroe County, as we think about the uplands, let's
- think in terms of these points of creative collision. The trades district, the airport, the convention
- center, right? There's other places... I'm not giving justice to all the points of geography in the
- region here.
- But what happens is, is that creative collision generates innovation. And that innovation creates businesses.
- It grows businesses. It elevates incomes. And what happens is, is that the region changes and evolves
- from the inside out. That is how the metropolitan areas and the cities and towns that are growing fast
- are looking at it and they're growing. They don't think about it just in terms of how do we fill our
- vacant lots, right?
- It's people that drive economic development, and where people are coming together, it happens. We also,
- so we want to think in those terms geographically. Also, I want you to see my great institution, IU,
- as this phenomenal source of economic value. And in the 21st century economy, university research is
- playing more and more and more
- of a role. So whatever hose that we've got hooked up to Indiana University, we want to take that off
- and we want to make it bigger, thicker, and put it in there, or hook up more hoses. Because university
- research begets intellectual property, it begets innovation, it begets entrepreneurship. And as you
- know, one of the pillars of the IUB 2030 plan is service to our state, which means service to our community,
- which means what? Elevation of prosperity for Bloomington.
- And when we talk about innovation from university research, that commercial activity around the country
- always nests itself in an innovation district. And that's what's happening here in downtown Bloomington,
- especially with the Trace District. And we're starting to see the fruits of that investment. And I just
- quoted you some numbers. Again, new business growth, twice the rate of the state, where 8% growth on
- high level
- managers and entrepreneurs that have come into the city. The trades district is part of that. The university
- is part of that. Other parts of the city are part of that. But again, leveraging IU in terms of not
- only the graduates, we want those graduates to stay here, but also the university research of which
- President Whitten and her team and the campus team here in Bloomington have really doubled down on.
- And while we faced a challenging higher ed environment, IU continues to increase its research dollars
- and increase the connection that it makes in terms of economic impact. The last thing I'll leave you
- with, which will set us up for the panel, and again, let me back up. If we confuse university research
- with business creation and innovation, that's an exciting environment, right? That's how we keep our
- graduates.
- Also an important part of that, and this is a challenge I gave to the region and the BEDC a year ago,
- and that is one missing element of that is we need about, I would argue, we need about a half dozen,
- we need to recruit about a half dozen dynamic companies from the outside. I'm not talking about the
- big guys like Microsoft or pick your big company, right? Go out and recruit those mid-sized companies
- that are growing really fast, right?
- because it's the midsize, it's the newer midsize companies that are on the cusp of their industry, that
- are growing fast, that are going to be the source of what can make Bloomington even more competitive.
- But we've got to bring those companies in, and it gets back to the great elements of the recruitment
- strategy that you heard from Val and Clark. Lastly, what would I challenge us to do? I would challenge
- Bloomington to answer the state's call to invigorate
- execute and promote a regional uplands economic strategy. In March, the Governor, Governor Braun and
- Secretary Adams announced a billion dollars in tax breaks for the bio heartland strategy out of central
- Indiana. Central Indiana
- came together. The mayors of the region came together. They put together the Bio Heartland Strategy.
- They made a choice to focus on one set of industries. And they put together a plan. Luckily, the Indiana
- Business Research Center and the Kelly School of Business, it was a privilege to be part of that study.
- But they came together and they said, we're going to plant our flag on animal plant and human sciences.
- And everything that goes into that, including food and health services delivery.
- And what we did is we pulled the data and I got to be a part of this. We had mayors around the table
- and we took the data and we identified in that nine county region which of 200 sub industries each county
- had the opportunity in. And it built a win-win. And so the same opportunities here in the uplands. And
- we're happy to be part of that if you'll so invite us in terms of IU and the Kelly School.
- But this emphasizes that our state is calling upon the regions to be better versions of themselves.
- To step up, make that vision, and move forward, and the status says, hey look, we're there to support
- you. We're there to support how you define how you're gonna be a better version of yourself. And this
- effort builds upon the relationships and the cooperation and the coordination that you saw with Ready
- One and Ready Two.
- It also helps to solve the problem of how in any region you've got big players, right? But then you
- can solve this issue of how do we work together so that everybody wins? That's what we've been able
- to establish in central Indiana. It's not just about Indianapolis, but it's also about Tipton County,
- which is 0.5% of the regional GDP. We found industries in Tipton County,
- that are now part of the Central Indiana Strategy sitting alongside IU Lab, which is a $150 million
- investment in life sciences. So with that, I want to move into a discussion of maybe how to put on the
- table how Bloomington can activate some of these thoughts and ideas. And so it's a privilege for me
- to introduce our two panelists. And I have the privilege of moderating
- some great questions which I hope provoke your thought process. First, I want to introduce Josh Richardson.
- Josh has served as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation since October of last year,
- doing a great job. And I actually got to work with him in the role he had held before that, and that
- was commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. And before joining IEDC, Josh had
- a very decorated and
- prestigious career at DWD and transformed how we manage our workforce here in Indiana. Josh is an IU
- grad, has his law degree from McKinney School in Indianapolis, and before that, he's a cardinal. He
- got his bachelor's degree at Ball State. But without further ado, I'd like to introduce President of
- the IEDC, Josh Richardson.
- I tell you what between walk-up music and following Phil Powell I'm gonna have to dig really deep not
- to let the energy level drop here
- So again, it's great to be here in Bloomington with you all. I try not to use lines that are overused
- that you've all heard before, but it is super exciting to be here in the home of the national champion,
- IU Hoosiers. This would have been two years ago, a year ago, I would have had to check notes and say,
- well, that can't be right, but today we get to stand here and celebrate that all together, so that's
- wonderful. As Phil has mentioned, president of the IEDC, a role I've been in for six months, but I do
- think it's important to talk about that background. Almost 20 years of history in state government,
- I worked in Governor Daniel's office early on in my career, but early on in the Braun administration,
- there was a real recognition of the link between workforce development and economic development. The
- fact that Indiana's future in economic development would be limited if we cannot produce the type of
- workforce and talent that would be needed.
- to attract businesses to our area. Here in this region of the state, you have a huge advantage there.
- Phil talked a little bit about the opportunity and the potential and the need to retain our graduates,
- talked about the use of research, but I will tell you that when we pitch businesses, when we encourage
- them to come to Indiana, we really use in every single pitch that we do the higher education institutions
- that we have within our state because of their ability to produce workforce talent. So it certainly
- is an asset in this region, but an asset across the state for us as well.
- When I came into this role, I came in with a couple of really high-level directives from Governor Braun.
- One is to focus on jobs and wages as the measure of our economic success. While that sounds really obvious
- on its face, I will tell you that as an agency like mine, the IEDC is unique. We're a competitive agency.
- We want to win deals.
- But it's also really important that as we do that, we remember why deals matter. Yes, we want to be
- business friendly here. We want to move at the speed of business. We want to have the kind of environment
- that allows businesses to succeed. But the reason why any of that matters is because of the opportunity
- that it gives Hoosiers to advance their lot in life and their careers. And so it's really important
- to work on wages. As Phil's pointed out, Indiana over the last 20 years, really over
- the last 40, if you look back further, then that has struggled to move on that per capita income as
- compared to the rest of the nation. So at the IEDC, over the last year and a half, Governor Braun, in
- the last six months with me, we continue to increase the average wage of incentivized jobs. The number
- last year finished just under $40 an hour for projects that we had incentivized. So far through this
- year, we're at $44 an hour.
- we can tend to continue to push that number higher because that is the way that we make a difference
- in a low unemployment state like the one that we're in right now. And I mean both the state of Indiana
- and unemployment state more broadly. Employers are competing for talent and so as we incentivize projects,
- we want to make sure we're bringing the kinds of high quality, high wage jobs that Hoosiers need. The
- next priority and this has come up
- I think with everybody who's been to the microphone today, is a greater focus on regional economic
- development. This is important for a number of reasons. Others have made the case, and I think that
- we'll talk about it more on our panel. You know, 20 years ago when the IEDC was created, by itself the
- creation of a quasi agency that would move at the speed of business was fairly unique. It was a competitive
- advantage for Indiana versus a lot of states in the nation that we were putting this focus on economic
- development.
- Well, fast forward 20 years later, success breeds a lot of copycats, and we've seen other states set
- up methods of doing this. Ohio, just to our east, has devoted a lot of the revenues from their liquor
- taxes to their economic development efforts, so they're very well-funded as they do this. But what we
- find more and more is at a high level, while we can work to create the conditions that put Indiana on
- the radar, ultimately, the business doesn't move to Indiana. They move to a location. They move to a
- region. They move to a spot.
- that has done the work that it needs to do to be prepared.
- for that type of entity. And so we'll talk about this more as we move on. I know it'll be a topic of
- discussion as we move through this, but really the work that you're doing here, to have sites ready,
- to have identified the partners that are needed to act on this. I think we talked about this earlier,
- the task force, as Valerie had said, that could turn on a dime. And I think it's a really nice way to
- say it because when we do these economic development deals, it's not creating the task force because
- there's a potential project. It's having a task force already ready with
- identified partners that can turn and adapt to the needs of this business so that we can locate here.
- Also, incredibly important to have a community that is rallied around what is our strategy, what are
- we trying to attract. I think it's really easy and we want to be welcoming to all types of industry
- and all types of business, but I think it's important that each region has a sort of
- some sort of focus, some sort of strategy alignment around the idea of the advantages that your assets
- give you and what you'll be able to do in terms of attracting business. So with that, I'll turn it over.
- I'll move to the panel where I know we'll address more of these questions, but it's good to be here
- with you today. Thank you, Josh. It's great to have you on the panel and look forward to a
- great conversation. Our next panel member, who I've known really well since his days at IU, Trevor Fowdy.
- Trevor Fowdy is Chief Operating Officer at the Applied Research Institute, or ARI, which is based here
- in Bloomington. The mission of ARI is to unite America's technology ecosystem, connecting innovators
- and governments with the resources and partnerships that power transformational ideas. Before ARI, Trevor
- was part of the IU family. He served as Associate Vice President for State Relations here at Indiana
- University. Trevor earned his bachelor's from Bethel College,
- and is Masters in Public Affairs from the great O'Neill School, which has the number one MPA program
- in the nation. So let's give it up for Trevor. Good afternoon. Great to be here. I always enjoy to come
- back to Bloomington, see a lot of familiar faces about
- 16 years ago now, I went to work for then Representative Todd Young in his Washington office, but came
- back to the district quite a bit with him and spent a lot of time in Bloomington. Nine years ago, I
- went to work at IU where I worked with Val Peña quite a bit in that office. And so when Val called
- a couple of weeks ago and said, I need you to help us with this lunch. I know Val well enough to know
- that that wasn't a question. And I said, all right, I'll be there. And I think everybody here knows
- what I mean.
- But it's great to represent the Applied Research Institute. We've been based here in Bloomington since
- 2017. If you don't know what we do, I'll give you a real high-level overview, and then I'll talk about
- one of our newest initiatives, which is part of the reason why I'm here today. But we were founded as
- a nonprofit with a mission focused on crane. And essentially, how do we draw on the R&D capabilities
- of IU, of Purdue, of Notre Dame,
- to help Crane expand the program offices that they have and the research and work that they do to support
- the military. So a lot of early work was in hypersonics, in microelectronics, fields like that that
- Crane was interested in working on and had some expertise. Over time, that sort of expanded. Most of
- the programs that we run now, we run several for either Crane or the Department of Defense directly
- in different agencies. But it's really about how do we speed up innovation?
- How do we speed up acquisition at the Pentagon so that great ideas can be transitioned to help keep
- our country safe and to help keep the world safe? So we do that across a number of different programs.
- Most of them fall into the category of tech scouting. So we have a special designation with DARPA called a Partner
- partnership intermediary. We're the sole entity that has that with DARPA, but we do a lot of their tech
- scouting around the countries with academics, with small businesses, helping them find interesting research
- ideas and topics that they may want to bring in. We run a program for the Defense Innovation Unit called
- OnRamps, and we run that nationally. There are currently seven or eight offices. We're adding a couple
- more this year. That continues to grow. That program was really started in Silicon Valley, and how do
- we bring big tech
- to the Pentagon and to the federal government. And after early success with that program, they said,
- we're probably missing lots of pockets elsewhere around the country. And so now we run that program
- to help tech scout around the country for them as well. We ran a similar program for Crane up until
- last year called the Midwest Tech Bridge. Some of the reorganization of the Pentagon, that program has
- gone away, but we still help Crane through other programs, find commercial solutions to some of the
- challenges that they're trying to address for the Navy.
- We also run a series of procurement platforms. I won't spend a lot of time talking about those today,
- but department-wide, the average time it takes to execute a contract is five months, 150 days. And through
- our platform, which is really designed to help non-traditional contractors and small businesses figure
- out if there's a demand signal, we're down to about a 35-day average and have regularly started executing
- contracts in a week. So really exciting stuff there at a time when
- the government's figuring, trying to figure out how to buy faster. But then about five years ago, we
- started doing work for the state too, through IEDC. Josh has been a great partner since he's come in.
- And we have a couple of national programs that we went after, but to be based in Indiana and looking
- at key economic sectors in Indiana. So the first was a Microelectronics Commons Hub through the National
- Microelectronics Commons Program.
- That is based down near Crane, and that looks at how do we speed up innovation, how do we speed
- up manufacturing. You'll notice a theme in a lot of this, how do we make stuff in Indiana in fields
- like microelectronics, where we've not historically had a deep bench. And then we did another one in
- biotech. John Fernandez helped lead that for us in looking at a regional tech hub program through the
- Economic Development Administration.
- John was the right person to help. He has a little experience with the EDA. But that's located
- in Indianapolis and focused on how do we drive biotechnology manufacturing and workforce development
- in Indiana. And again, part of that is focused on strong life sciences industry. There's also a thread
- to national defense there as Crane increasingly gets involved in a program called BioMade that the military
- runs focused on biotechnology.
- And then this last year in January, we got a designation in the state through the Federal Aviation
- Administration to manage a UAS test site. We are the ninth in the country, partnered with Jan, if you
- don't know Jan Schuller-Hicks here in the back, make sure you get to know her. She does a lot of the
- economic development work for IEDC in defense and around crane and in this area. She was a great partner
- on that. We worked with them to design a program for a drone test site in Indiana.
- And then we successfully won that. What's unique about our test site versus the existing test sites
- is we were the first test site allowed to use military operational areas and military ranges. The Department
- of War has made several investments in Indiana in the UAS space, and I don't think a lot of people realize
- that. Camp Atterbury is where they do their prototyping.
- The prototyping office sets their policy there. They do all their testing and demonstration events there.
- And that's really the military testing evaluation side. Last fall, they also announced that the drone
- dominance program office, which is part of a national effort, and the drone dominance program is focused
- on the manufacturing side, that's run through crane. And they put a billion dollars through crane to
- start to figure out manufacturing and supply chain. And so what we really pitched the FAA on was we
- can piggyback on that and help with the commercial sector.
- And testing evaluation is important. We think there's a lot of opportunity with IU and Purdue and Notre
- Dame and industry that is increasingly locating here to do a lot of that testing and evaluation. But
- ultimately, we have a bigger vision with the state, and that is for a component manufacturing ecosystem.
- Historically, we've been very good at that. We do it in the auto industry. We've done it in the RV industry
- and the boating industry. And a lot of that infrastructure is in place from our small towns that are
- built around their tool and die or machine shops to some of the assembly factories. We think there's
- a real opportunity here for the state of Indiana and communities around the state to contribute to the
- growing use of drones. And so we're focused on the commercial side, but we also have access into those
- military ranges through partnerships.
- that will really allow for dual use ecosystem to grow up and take advantage of some of the things I'll
- talk about. Thank you. Thanks, Trevor. There's some amazing behind the scenes stuff going on in your
- area of defense that
- we don't know about, so thanks for sharing that. Great to have this panel. I wanna ask a few questions
- and take advantage of our two great guests to again, provoke some thought on how Bloomington moves forward.
- Josh, I talked about how the state is ready to empower the regions, right? And we saw that with the
- announcement in March. So my question to you is, you've got regions that are primed
- and ready, and you've got other regions that perhaps are still working on that. From where you sit at
- IEDC, what differentiates those regions of the state that are ready to go, ready to be empowered with
- all the tools that IEDC has versus those regions that are not? It's essentially entirely about alignment.
- It is about the assembly of the appropriate partners in the room. That's the workforce, that's the site
- readiness, that's the business community, and pulling those folks together with a
- clear strategic path towards what they want to accomplish. And so I think that the issue isn't that
- Monroe County or Bloomington or the surrounding area has to be the best site in the nation for any particular
- thing. It has to put itself in a position to win these deals in the competitive searches that companies
- do across the globe for sites to locate. And I think you have a lot of assets to do it.
- The question is, is can you get the alignment behind it? The nice thing about CERDA, just to contrast
- it, is that RDA is made up of the mayors of all of the places in that nine county region. And so they
- have a more streamlined governance, which I think has allowed them to move faster. I think everyone
- can do that. And the issue is alignment. Awesome. And Trevor, building on that, right, is that
- We've been blessed with great investments by the Department of War, by the federal government. There's
- a lot of talk that the benefit of that's not just the direct investment, but it's also the dual use
- technologies. The internet was a dual use technology. It serves the purpose of defending the country,
- but then you have the spinoff spillover effect in terms of innovation.
- through AI's work connecting research, innovation, defense, and industry, where do you see this specifically?
- Where do you see the strongest opportunities for Indiana communities to turn emerging technologies into
- long-term economic growth, especially in terms of the dual-use thought process? Yeah, great question.
- I think we're really headed back towards an era, particularly on the military side, where defense production,
- defense manufacturing matters. We saw that in World War II with the arsenal of democracy.
- I think we're headed back to that for a lot of reasons, right? We've seen how drones are being used
- and air superiority is no longer defined by stealth and precision like it was a generation ago. It's
- who can get the most mass on target. And so what the countries that make the most and make the most
- quickly are going to be the ones that control the skies. That's where we see a lot of opportunity for
- the state, right, is to revitalize that manufacturing base. I think on the flip side, right, the part
- of the story we don't always think about with World War II is what that meant for commercial
- activity that happened after, right? There's no modern computing without some of the work that was done
- by the military in World War II. Several other big technologies came out of that. We have a modern jet
- industry and commercial aviation because of the work that was being done and so on. And so I think for
- local communities, right, there's going to be some degree of manufacturing, but it's what do we manufacture?
- And we spend a lot of time when we look at programs that we want to go after or when we advise the state,
- talking about where is our right to win, right? What are the strengths that we have? So I'll use drones
- as an example. It might be hard for Bloomington to compete with the West Lafayette because if I use
- expertise and produce expertise on airframe or airworthiness sort of issues. But there are a lot of
- important component parts, batteries. How do we get the right chemistries and batteries that last longer
- or some of the chips?
- that go into those, there are some of those components where Bloomington could organize around that
- and really have been, we could partner with them through the test site to do a lot of testing on those
- technologies. Awesome. This is kind of a question for both of you, given that we're running up against
- the top of the hour here. You know, where you guys sit, you see the state, right? Josh, you're with
- the governor and you see the state and where it can go, you see the potential, right?
- And Trevor, where you sit, you see all the federal funding and perhaps how Indiana can be this very
- sophisticated puzzle piece. But when there's discussion of Bloomington and Ellitsville, all the other
- great communities in Monroe County, Indiana University, Crane, our airport here, which is really making
- strides, our broader regional partners, which make up the ecosystem and the uplands as a whole, when
- those conversations are happening,
- In your mind, what are our strongest opportunities, our strongest assets, and how do you see us playing
- a differentiatedly positive role in the story of Indiana prosperity? Yeah, well, so the nice thing is
- here in this area, really I think they align with where Indiana's potential is at.
- Here in this area, you're especially strong there. So one is in defense. The new investments that are
- being made in defense, Indiana has a chance to be big winners from there. There are political aspects
- to that, but also our strong history in manufacturing and support of the defense industry. And so with
- crane being down here, Indiana has a chance to win. And disproportionately, I think this region can
- play a role in that. The next is in life sciences. And I appreciate that you pointed this out earlier.
- And while we talk about this life sciences initiative and the billion dollars
- that we've pledged over the next decade to creating 100,000 jobs in health and life sciences. When we
- talk about that with CERTA, that's largely from the organization, but that is a statewide initiative.
- We're looking for wins in life sciences and health sciences across the country. And clearly, I use expertise
- in health sciences and otherwise give you a real chance to win.
- The last piece of that that I think that we all are aware of, the question of where this all turns out,
- other than great walk-up music, how AI and what role the university can play in helping Indiana usher
- in this next phase of the economy. I think it's really important that we do that, and we've rolled out
- a program called NAI, because everything has to have IN in it. But this is a program with CICP to help
- businesses connect
- with education partners, with higher ed partners, to really look at how they can implement AI and automation
- and stay ahead of the curve. Indiana's been a manufacturing intensive state, and while we've worked
- to do things to diversify our economy, and we should, we also want to continue to be dominant
- in manufacturing. So I think this region is well positioned to take advantage of the things that I think
- Indiana as a whole should be taking advantage of. Trevor? I mean, Josh just took all the good answers.
- I think he checked off everyone I had. The one area that I will mention that I think you're increasingly
- going to see a lot of attention around this is one of the next big industry. We just had the SpaceX
- IPO last week, right, is space. There are elements of that that is an offshoot of defense, but I look
- at an investment that Indiana University made I think about a year and a half ago into a partnership
- with Crane around microelectronics, but it wasn't just microelectronics.
- it was radiation hardened microelectronics. And I think a lot of people miss that that really matters
- for what we're putting into space with satellites. I think there are some components of traditional
- aviation and airspace sort of work that translates into space. And I think a lot of that goes hand in
- hand with some of the drone work. And so I think there's an opportunity for communities that have a
- research institution to start looking at those areas as well.
- on the front end of that industry. Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed the panel. I think the big takeaway
- here that I think all three of us would give to Bloomington is that I'm going to come back to what Josh
- said, alignment. As a region, getting alignment around two things. What makes us special and different,
- because that's how you compete. Just like in business, regions compete by being different and being
- differentiated.
- around that, and then you double down on what makes you special economically, on the industries where
- you have comparative advantages. And if we can coalesce a little bit better around that, we're going
- to move at not only speed of business, but like the speed of light. So how's that for an optimistic
- statement? Anyway, hey, we're national football champions. We can do anything, right? So with that,
- Thank you for your time. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Trevor. I'm gonna hand it back to our friends at...
- I'm gonna hand it back to our friends at BEDC and Val. We actually have a few minutes for questions.
- Oh, we do? If anybody has questions, please raise your hand. Carlos from Monroe County Airport. Hey.
- How's it going? I just... With the folks that we have up here,
- On the panel, I just thought I'd ask a natural question coming from the Monroe County Airport here,
- just four miles outside of downtown Bloomington. Oh, there we go. I just made a note for myself. Given
- that the Monroe County Airport sits in the Indiana drone
- corridor that's currently being developed, we're kind of the de facto airfield for Crane, since Crane
- doesn't have its own airfield. And we have this talk about merging, manufacturing, research, and testing
- with the state, ARI, and the Monroe County Airport kind of sits right under all of that. Does anybody
- see a pathway or
- maybe a recommendation for what the Monroe County Airport leadership should be doing to have a place
- at the table or provide a space for some of this to come together on our hundreds of acres of developed
- land out there at the airport. Yeah, I think there's a great opportunity. The corridor that you mentioned
- is a partnership between Crane and the National Guard to create a 250 mile long
- what's called a beyond visual line of sight corridor. Right now, you can't do a lot of testing unless
- you maintain visual line of sight, which means you can't test more than about a mile away. But increasingly,
- the FAA is allowing with certain systems in place to do that over longer distances. And so that'll go
- near Bloomington. It'll use the airport as one of the launch or landing sites.
- With the test site itself, though, there's more that we can do. They're an important partner to us.
- That's going to be one of our first offerings as a test site once we get the paperwork completed with
- the FAA. But we'll also, as the test site, have the ability to partner with the airport.
- To set up different airspace right that might be used for a different purpose that isn't primarily militarily
- focused. Some of that may be related to work that IU wants to do it may be related to what industry
- is interested in coming here, but I think you're right to look at developing that land.
- because I think there is a real opportunity. And I think what really sets Indiana apart from most of
- the test sites, which tend to be out western to southwest, is just the wide variety of use cases that
- we can do, right? You could launch from Bloomington, and you could do public safety testing around the
- campus. You could do agricultural testing in actual fields, or you could do the defense work. I think
- maybe we have time for one more question. Chancellor?
- I'm John Ciorciari. I'm the interim provost at IU Bloomington. Thank you so much for all your insights.
- You talked about comparative advantage, and clearly one of the comparative advantages is our technological
- prowess as a major research university. I spent my morning touring around labs in biology and chemistry
- and learning about cutting-edge work our faculty and grad students are doing on everything from molecular
- biology to computer chip processing speeds and AI.
- But I wanna ask about a different aspect of where we have a comparative advantage, and that's in the
- arts and humanities. We have a world-class school of music and school of art architecture and design.
- We have fabulous museums and cinema and auditorium, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on where that
- comparative advantage should fit into our thinking about what makes for a competitive regional environment
- for business. So I love that question. You know, we talk about this a lot. The next,
- So this next generation of business attraction is going to be focused on workforce. And so I've mentioned
- that a number of times, but we run into this bit of a problem where businesses increasingly want to
- go to locations where the workforce exists. Workforce increasingly wants to go to locations where they
- have multiple job opportunities. The way to get a little bit ahead of that is through investments in
- the quality of place. And so through our ready initiatives, ready one, ready two,
- We've been able to invest in communities, but very specifically, through the generosity of the Lilly
- Endowment, I think there's $35 million that we're able to devote to enhancing the arts in communities.
- And so yesterday at our IEDC board meeting, we talked a great deal about this, of how we can add art
- into these places. Because what we find is, again, when we do these pitches, what we would love to be
- able to do is to tell these companies, we already have a pool of available workers that have the skills
- that you need.
- just never happens. But what you can do is if you can paint the picture about your community taking
- steps to be the kind of place that they can see attracting this talent, that is a good way to sort of
- bridge that gap. And the arts are a huge part of attracting talent. And so I'm really excited that we're
- going to be making a historic investment in the arts in Indiana. And I hope that that will help us keep
- this talent around. It does absolutely add to the innovation culture. And the innovation culture ultimately
- is what we depend on to create jobs.
- Great question. Well, folks, I'm glad we have some time for Q&A. We're gonna hand it back to our friends
- at BDC, but thank you for your time today thinking about Bloomington, thinking about our neighborhoods,
- and thinking about our region. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Let's give another round of applause.
- Phil Powell, Josh Richardson, Trevor Fowdy.
- Thank you for the thoughtful conversation. Thank you, Phil, for giving us a little bit of hope after
- your dismal speech in November.
- So thanks for that. But more importantly, I think what we've seen is there is a lot of opportunity out
- here and there continues to be that option for us in this region, for Monroe County, for Bloomington
- in particular, things we're seeing in Ellitsville, the airport. So, you know, we have a lot of work
- ahead of us today, so we can be ready for tomorrow, but I think that there is just huge enthusiasm for
- it. So I do appreciate that. I do
- want to thank our sponsors but one thing I want to do there are two folks that we left off the list
- and because we left you off you get an extra extra shout out but we have representative Dave Hall here
- he joined us so thank you so much Dave appreciate it
- And then also County Commissioner Jody Madeira is here at the back of the room. So thank you again for
- also coming. So just wanted to make sure that we did acknowledge that. Once again, we cannot do anything
- without our partners and we appreciate each of you being in the room and helping us do that. Before
- we adjourn, I do want to let you know that we have our next meeting. We take July off like
- all of Bloomington does, so we will not be having a meeting in July. But on Wednesday, August 19th at 8 a.m.,
- we will be featuring Scott Bullock from the Applied Research Center, also known as the ARC. And he is
- offering subsequent tours that we can sign up for at that time to also see the ARC. This is gonna be
- a real opportunity, because I will tell you once it opens, it will be much more difficult to get into the ARC.
- But that we are hoping that a lot of you get a chance to be able to see that our next BEDC all member
- meeting which will be Wednesday, September 16th at 4 PM as well. That's usually a little looser and
- more fun than some of the other more serious topics, but
- Anyone who is interested in knowing and learning more about BEDC seeing where we're going. I know a
- lot of you I had a question in the back just kind of say so what's going on with the CEO search. We
- have if you haven't heard we have.
- contracted with Jorgensen Pace. They are a search firm. They have had started their stakeholder meetings
- going around. Many of you may have already been called. If not, several of you still will. We have a
- great pool of candidates, they have said, that are coming this way. We have a fantastic search committee
- that is being led by Paul Quick of Smithville. Stephen Bishop is on it, who is sitting there up in the
- front row. So we have a lot going on there. We hope to have a new CEO in place on September 1.
- So we are excited about that. A lot of good things are happening in this community, in this county,
- in this area, thanks to you all. So thank you for being here today. We appreciate again our guest speakers.
- We look forward to having greater discussion in the future. Thank you. Have a great afternoon.