WEBVTT 00:00:00.226 --> 00:00:07.452 - It is an honor to welcome you to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation's 2026 State of the 00:00:07.452 --> 00:00:14.820 - Bloomington Regional Economy. I'm Val Pena. I am the current chair of BEDC, and I'm grateful to be here 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:21.905 - with so many leaders, partners, employers, educators, innovators, community builders, all of us who 00:00:21.905 --> 00:00:26.014 - help make and shape Bloomington-Ellisville-Monroe County. 00:00:26.242 --> 00:00:34.064 - Today's program is going to focus on where we are, where we are going, and how we're going to prepare 00:00:34.064 --> 00:00:41.732 - for the opportunities that lay ahead. The future economy is already taking shape and our region has 00:00:41.732 --> 00:00:49.707 - an important role to play in that. But to truly be a player, it requires data, strategy, collaboration, 00:00:49.707 --> 00:00:53.694 - readiness, and a shared commitment to move forward. 00:00:53.986 --> 00:01:00.625 - I offer a warm welcome to all our BEDC board members, regular members, sponsors, community partners, 00:01:00.625 --> 00:01:07.329 - and special guests. We also have some fantastic elected officials who have joined us, and I'd like to 00:01:07.329 --> 00:01:13.902 - give them each a shout out. Diane Powell from Senator Todd Young's office is here. Amanda Lowry, US 00:01:13.902 --> 00:01:20.606 - Congresswoman Erin Houchin's office is here. Carrie Thompson, Mayor of the City of Bloomington, here. 00:01:22.082 --> 00:01:29.752 - Mike Farmer from the Town Manager of Town of Ellitsville. William Ellis, Town of Ellitsville Council. 00:01:29.752 --> 00:01:37.272 - Liz Fiddle from the Monroe County Council. Trent Deckard from the Monroe County Council. Scott Rudd 00:01:37.272 --> 00:01:45.017 - from the Brown County Council. Welcome. We're glad you came over. And Noel Conyer, the Clerk Treasurer 00:01:45.017 --> 00:01:47.198 - for the Town of Ellitsville. 00:01:49.602 --> 00:01:56.135 - We'd also like to welcome the guests of our sponsors that have come. For many of you, this may be your 00:01:56.135 --> 00:02:02.669 - first time here, and we would love to see you come back. So thank you for coming. A big thank you also 00:02:02.669 --> 00:02:09.202 - goes out to our annual sponsors. Your investment is what helps the BEDC continue to work to strengthen 00:02:09.202 --> 00:02:15.989 - business growth, regional competitiveness, and long-term economic opportunity. Our annual sponsors include 00:02:15.989 --> 00:02:18.590 - Indiana University, Town of Ellitsville, 00:02:19.138 --> 00:02:28.201 - Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, First Financial Bank, German American Bank, IU Credit Union, 00:02:28.201 --> 00:02:37.531 - and Weddle Brothers Construction, Duke Energy, Smithville, People's State Bank, IU Health, and hopefully 00:02:37.531 --> 00:02:38.686 - more coming. 00:02:40.002 --> 00:02:46.906 - Today's meeting is also supported by the following SBRE sponsors. Please help me in thanking Bloomington 00:02:46.906 --> 00:02:53.875 - Health Foundation, Herald Fish, Inc., Hoosier Hills Credit Union, Markey's, Monroe County Airport, Mimosa 00:02:53.875 --> 00:03:00.516 - Tree Florist, Nature's Way, Patriot Engineering, Simtra Biopharma Solutions, and Work One. Thank you 00:03:00.516 --> 00:03:01.502 - to all of you. 00:03:07.234 --> 00:03:14.378 - I'd also like to give a huge shout out to my fellow BEDC officers. Paul Quick from Smithville Communications 00:03:14.378 --> 00:03:21.326 - is our first vice chair. He is in Utah today. Chris Hawk, one of our newest members from IU Credit Union. 00:03:21.326 --> 00:03:28.143 - He is our second vice chair. John Gernard from four of us. He is our treasurer. Carlos Lafferty, Monroe 00:03:28.143 --> 00:03:35.091 - County Airport, is our new secretary. And Tyscar Michael Wetterbrothers, construction, is our past chair. 00:03:35.091 --> 00:03:36.926 - So thank you to all of you. 00:03:41.282 --> 00:03:50.109 - For those of you who are new to the BEDC, our BEDC staff consists of Clark Greiner, who is the interim 00:03:50.109 --> 00:03:58.850 - CEO, Stacey Morata, who is the Communications and Membership Director, and Christy Wasson, who is our 00:03:58.850 --> 00:04:08.277 - Operations Manager. Small but mighty team. Today is not simply a report on where we are. It is a conversation 00:04:08.277 --> 00:04:10.334 - about where we're going 00:04:10.434 --> 00:04:18.216 - and what it takes to compete, and how Bloomington, Ellisville, and Monroe County and our regional partners 00:04:18.216 --> 00:04:25.779 - should prepare with the purpose of bringing those opportunities ahead. Because today we live in a world 00:04:25.779 --> 00:04:33.124 - where site selectors weigh risk as heavily as opportunity. And our job, not only at BDC, but as this 00:04:33.124 --> 00:04:37.342 - community, is to advance a proactive, integrated approach 00:04:37.570 --> 00:04:46.445 - that positions our region as an irresistible destination for business development. The core idea is 00:04:46.445 --> 00:04:55.585 - simple. Reduce uncertainty of every stage. At every stage, reduce it. From land readiness to workforce 00:04:55.585 --> 00:05:04.460 - fit, so that investors can move quickly with confidence. At BEDC, we're translating that into three 00:05:04.460 --> 00:05:06.590 - interconnected pillars. 00:05:06.914 --> 00:05:15.424 - site preparation, site development strategy, and community engagement. In site preparation, it's truly 00:05:15.424 --> 00:05:23.933 - turning potential into ready to go. Effective site selection begins long before a formal inquiry shows 00:05:23.933 --> 00:05:32.443 - up on a desk. BEDC is suggesting that we prioritize shovel-ready partials for coordinating with public 00:05:32.443 --> 00:05:36.574 - and private partners to accelerate the permitting 00:05:36.834 --> 00:05:44.876 - infrastructure readiness, and land assembly. This includes proactive due diligence such as environmental 00:05:44.876 --> 00:05:52.688 - studies, geotechnical work, floodplain analysis, and utility capacity assessments. BEDC is developing 00:05:52.688 --> 00:06:00.807 - an up-to-date inventory of certified sites and ready to build parcels so that we can shorten the decision 00:06:00.807 --> 00:06:06.398 - cycle for site selectors and reduce any perceived political, regulatory, 00:06:06.498 --> 00:06:15.558 - or logistical risk. Site development strategy is assigning assets with industry needs. BDC's site development 00:06:15.558 --> 00:06:24.289 - strategy is to translate raw land into ready-to-scale operating environments. By fostering public-private 00:06:24.289 --> 00:06:32.772 - partnerships, we can de-risk capital expenditure and align infrastructure investments with anticipated 00:06:32.772 --> 00:06:35.902 - demand. But the elements are critical 00:06:36.162 --> 00:06:43.630 - for us to be able to do this, and they include utility readiness. In today's economy, data and energy 00:06:43.630 --> 00:06:51.170 - resilience are as essential as the land cost. We shouldn't be talking about what we could do if we get 00:06:51.170 --> 00:06:58.492 - an inquiry. Instead, the conversation right now needs to be, how do we harmonize utility expansions 00:06:58.492 --> 00:07:01.054 - with anticipated industry clusters 00:07:01.186 --> 00:07:09.132 - and use that with developable sites so that we can shift the dialogue from what might be possible to, 00:07:09.132 --> 00:07:17.079 - hey, here's the plan. Transportation and logistics is another. We need to continue to optimize access 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:25.025 - to the highways and to rail, and most importantly, the airport. Workforce alignment, this is aligning 00:07:25.025 --> 00:07:29.310 - training pipelines with the need of target industries. 00:07:29.570 --> 00:07:37.740 - We need to have more candid conversations with IU, Ivy Tech, and the employers to help design curriculum, 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:45.447 - apprenticeships, and credentialing that shortens the path from job seekers to productive hires. And 00:07:45.447 --> 00:07:53.617 - incentives and timing, coordinating with local, state, and federal programs to deliver timely incentives, 00:07:53.617 --> 00:07:59.166 - tax credits, and land options that are competitive on a national scale. 00:08:01.250 --> 00:08:09.430 - Community engagement, building trust, expectations, and a shared vision, so investors assess not just 00:08:09.430 --> 00:08:17.931 - the site, but actually the community that they're gonna be in. BEDC sees the way to elevate Monroe County 00:08:17.931 --> 00:08:25.630 - as well as the region's competitiveness is by building industry-specific recruitment processes. 00:08:26.434 --> 00:08:34.776 - This includes clear communication on who on the team is doing what, along with regular updates on project 00:08:34.776 --> 00:08:43.433 - status, ensuring stakeholders understand their roles, and a singular message on how new investment translates 00:08:43.433 --> 00:08:51.932 - into jobs and long-term vitality. Stakeholder alignment, bridging our chambers, civic leaders, and economic 00:08:51.932 --> 00:08:55.710 - partners to articulate a shared economic vision 00:08:55.842 --> 00:09:03.734 - that recognizes and respects where we each specialize and gives us the ability to shift lead roles dependent 00:09:03.734 --> 00:09:11.192 - on the site selector's needs and interests. And social and environmental responsibility, incorporating 00:09:11.192 --> 00:09:18.867 - sustainable design, green infrastructure, and resilience planning so projects deliver not only short-term 00:09:18.867 --> 00:09:23.646 - gains, but lasting community value. I think what we're hoping for 00:09:23.746 --> 00:09:30.573 - is basically building a series of SWAT teams who are able to turn on a dime when we get an option or 00:09:30.573 --> 00:09:37.333 - an investor and know that we have the right people and the right players at the table for them. The 00:09:37.333 --> 00:09:44.363 - result is a Monroe County that reduced risks, accelerates deployment, and invites growth by integrating 00:09:44.363 --> 00:09:51.326 - meticulous site preparation, forward-looking development strategy, and inclusive community engagement. 00:09:52.674 --> 00:10:01.076 - We must all strive to make Monroe County a compelling low risk destination for site selectors. The outcome 00:10:01.076 --> 00:10:09.635 - is a continuously improving ecosystem where projects move from inquiry to occupancy with speed and certainty 00:10:09.635 --> 00:10:17.566 - and where our entire region can share from the benefits of growth. In essence, tomorrow needs today. 00:10:18.498 --> 00:10:27.440 - And everyone in this room needs to be part of that regional conversation about economic development, 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:36.648 - competitiveness, and future opportunity. That is the work that is at us today so that we can talk about 00:10:36.648 --> 00:10:45.502 - and actually be completely ready for tomorrow. And with that, please help me welcome Clark Greiner, 00:10:45.502 --> 00:10:48.158 - our interim CEO for the BEDC. 00:10:53.346 --> 00:11:06.559 - Thank you, Val. Good afternoon, everyone. It is a great day to talk about economic development. I want 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:20.286 - to begin by thanking our members, our public partners, our employers, our education and workforce leaders, 00:11:20.578 --> 00:11:27.654 - our utilities, our developers, our sponsors, and every person in this room who is invested in the future 00:11:27.654 --> 00:11:34.394 - of Bloomington, Ellisville, Monroe County, and the broader region. Economic development encompasses 00:11:34.394 --> 00:11:41.470 - all the way from startups to mature companies. Each require different support from the community, and as 00:11:42.082 --> 00:11:49.057 - As a show of support, I want to take a moment to talk about an early stage company that's with us today. 00:11:49.057 --> 00:11:55.766 - They are emerging from the community, our entrepreneurial spirit and ecosystem right now, and I want 00:11:55.766 --> 00:12:02.941 - to show a little support for them. The company is Resinex, and Resinex is developing an AI-powered acoustic 00:12:02.941 --> 00:12:09.982 - monitoring and predictive maintenance system for industrial fans, compressors, and motors in a real-world 00:12:09.982 --> 00:12:10.846 - environment. 00:12:11.106 --> 00:12:18.030 - Resonex was started by three entrepreneurs seeking their masters from the Luddy School of Informatics 00:12:18.030 --> 00:12:24.818 - and is seated at table 25. If I could get you guys to hold up the innovation sign right back there. 00:12:24.818 --> 00:12:31.810 - Welcome Dixitza, Paritam and Janavi. Janavi wasn't able to make it here today with us, but Resonex has 00:12:31.810 --> 00:12:33.982 - been a winning recipient of the 00:12:34.114 --> 00:12:40.278 - prestigious Chung Woo Innovation Challenge, among others, and they are at a critical juncture in their 00:12:40.278 --> 00:12:46.262 - business evolution and they need your help. So I'm gonna mention a little bit about that right now. 00:12:46.262 --> 00:12:52.486 - Their call to action, what they need is they need to meet leaders in the room who can help them capture 00:12:52.486 --> 00:12:58.590 - real world acoustic data sets in a live setting to build their AI model. I know we have that in here. 00:12:59.362 --> 00:13:05.329 - If you lead or have influence and operate in what I'm referring to as an acoustically diverse facility, 00:13:05.329 --> 00:13:11.297 - I urge you to introduce yourself to them and to the entire ResonX team at the conclusion of this event. 00:13:11.297 --> 00:13:17.034 - They'll be happy to answer any of your questions and set up a demonstration on how their technology 00:13:17.034 --> 00:13:22.830 - works. It's really innovative and really, really a neat thing to learn a lot more about. But they'll 00:13:22.830 --> 00:13:25.182 - be available next to the exit over here. 00:13:25.346 --> 00:13:31.714 - next to the dining area. And so I wanted to thank everyone in advance. But again, if you have impellers, 00:13:31.714 --> 00:13:37.839 - fans, motors, this is an acoustical thing that they're doing. It's really an awesome thing. So thank 00:13:37.839 --> 00:13:43.904 - you for coming, and we appreciate you. The people in this room matter, not just ResinX, but for all 00:13:43.904 --> 00:13:50.029 - of us. We understand that meaningful economic development is deliberate. It happens when a community 00:13:50.029 --> 00:13:52.030 - is intentional about its assets. 00:13:52.354 --> 00:13:59.187 - honest about its challenges, and disciplined when preparing for the next opportunity. That's the spirit 00:13:59.187 --> 00:14:05.889 - of today's meeting. From today's economy to tomorrow's opportunity, we're region preparing for what's 00:14:05.889 --> 00:14:12.591 - next. Together, we have what it takes to prepare our community and region to compete. The role of the 00:14:12.591 --> 00:14:19.753 - BEDC is focused and practical. We work in business retention, business attraction, site readiness, advocacy, 00:14:19.753 --> 00:14:21.790 - and regional partner alignment 00:14:22.562 --> 00:14:29.066 - In the simple terms, the BEDC helps business work. We support employers already here and ready to grow. 00:14:29.066 --> 00:14:35.570 - We respond to companies and site selectors evaluating our region and our community. We connect partners 00:14:35.570 --> 00:14:42.198 - so that when opportunity shows up, we're not starting from scratch. Economic development is about looking 00:14:42.198 --> 00:14:48.640 - ahead around those corners, understanding what future employers need, knowing our assets, being really 00:14:48.640 --> 00:14:50.078 - honest about our gaps, 00:14:50.242 --> 00:14:57.419 - and working with the right partners to close those gaps. Ultimately, we want to deliver winning solutions. 00:14:57.419 --> 00:15:04.193 - The recent National Aerospace opportunity tied to the airport gave this region a clearer view of the 00:15:04.193 --> 00:15:10.900 - future and what that looks like and what success looks like. This project reinforced the importance 00:15:10.900 --> 00:15:17.607 - of infrastructure, site readiness, workforce development, utility capacity, community coordination, 00:15:17.607 --> 00:15:18.814 - speed, certainty, 00:15:18.946 --> 00:15:25.525 - risk mitigation, and expertly telling our community story. We were not ultimately selected, but let's 00:15:25.525 --> 00:15:32.169 - not overlook what we've learned. I think that's really important. The lessons learned is Monroe County 00:15:32.169 --> 00:15:38.749 - can be part of a serious conversation about major investments, particularly for emerging technologies 00:15:38.749 --> 00:15:45.328 - in the aerospace, defense innovation, and future focused growth across many of our traded sectors. So 00:15:45.328 --> 00:15:47.070 - let's take a step forward. 00:15:48.482 --> 00:15:55.658 - Successful communities are not defined by perfection. We're defined by preparation. Economic success 00:15:55.658 --> 00:16:03.189 - is a team effort. Everyone in this room has something to contribute. And prepared communities win because 00:16:03.189 --> 00:16:10.080 - they understand their assets, recognize their gaps, communicate clearly, and invest accordingly. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:16.830 - Opportunities are at our doorstep. Business, government, education, workforce, utilities, why? 00:16:16.994 --> 00:16:24.108 - because communities, we win together. Collaboration is a must across all our partners in the economic 00:16:24.108 --> 00:16:31.292 - development ecosystem. A company evaluating the community wants to understand infrastructure, utility, 00:16:31.292 --> 00:16:38.476 - workforce, training capacities, housing, incentives, permitting, transportation, quality of life, site 00:16:38.476 --> 00:16:46.078 - control, environmental reviews, and long-term community support. Companies and their senior leadership teams 00:16:46.562 --> 00:16:53.421 - favor prepared communities. And I want our members and partners to hear this clearly. It's about readiness, 00:16:53.421 --> 00:16:59.835 - about action. It's about alignment, momentum, and the deliverables. And the deliverables aren't just 00:16:59.835 --> 00:17:06.567 - land. It's about the documents go about that. It's about our story, how we tell that, how we communicate, 00:17:06.567 --> 00:17:13.235 - and how we articulate that. Readiness creates competence. Companies invest where they find transparency, 00:17:13.235 --> 00:17:15.966 - responsiveness, alignment, and the ability 00:17:16.386 --> 00:17:22.870 - to solve problems when they arise. That's readiness. Site readiness is not simply about whether land 00:17:22.870 --> 00:17:29.611 - is available, it's about whether a company can trust the timeline, understand the utility path, evaluate 00:17:29.611 --> 00:17:36.160 - infrastructure requirements, and navigate permitting. Roadway access is important, development costs, 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:42.773 - and have the ability to move forward with confidence. When companies compare communities, it is asking 00:17:42.773 --> 00:17:45.726 - direct questions. Some of the more basic ones 00:17:45.826 --> 00:17:52.698 - but are very important is, will the site work? Can the utilities serve it? Can the development timeline 00:17:52.698 --> 00:17:59.438 - be met? How difficult is the permitting path? What's our land use, zoning requirements? Can workforce 00:17:59.438 --> 00:18:06.111 - and talent attraction meet the needs? Can the public and private partners move together? And can the 00:18:06.111 --> 00:18:12.851 - company reduce uncertainty and increase their strategic advantage, serve their customers, and compete 00:18:12.851 --> 00:18:15.230 - globally by choosing this location? 00:18:16.738 --> 00:18:23.280 - The last question matters. Our job collectively as a community is to reduce development risk and help 00:18:23.280 --> 00:18:29.693 - companies understand that we will work together confidently alongside them to accomplish collective 00:18:29.693 --> 00:18:36.106 - goals. The more certainty we provide, the more risk we remove for site decision makers and the more 00:18:36.106 --> 00:18:42.648 - competitive we become nationally. And we certainly saw that with that last project. We are already in 00:18:42.648 --> 00:18:45.726 - the business of preparing for what's next. How? 00:18:46.210 --> 00:18:52.764 - I'd like to talk about that. The City of Bloomington's Will Serve letter for the Monroe County Airport 00:18:52.764 --> 00:18:59.191 - is a meaningful step in that direction, and it's a forward step. It's not just a technical document, 00:18:59.191 --> 00:19:05.046 - it's a readiness signal to site selectors, to companies, to developers, existing employers, 00:19:05.046 --> 00:19:11.409 - and defense-related industries, and that this region understands competition and is taking critical 00:19:11.409 --> 00:19:14.782 - steps to win. The move says Bloomington is preparing 00:19:15.362 --> 00:19:22.639 - Monroe County is preparing and the region is thinking ahead. We're also encouraged by progress connected 00:19:22.639 --> 00:19:29.570 - to the Ellisville sewer expansion efforts and the federal support moving through Congresswoman Erin 00:19:29.570 --> 00:19:36.848 - Houchin's office. That's another critical, meaningful step moving forward. Sewer may not sound exciting, 00:19:36.848 --> 00:19:42.046 - but is often viewed as the backbone of investment in economic development. 00:19:42.370 --> 00:19:49.487 - infrastructure readiness that demonstrates how serious communities take business retention, expansion, 00:19:49.487 --> 00:19:56.397 - and attraction. Road, water, sewer, broadband, aviation access, permitting shape, whether community 00:19:56.397 --> 00:20:03.790 - can support business growth here. Communities are drawn and companies are drawn to our talent and educated 00:20:03.790 --> 00:20:10.078 - workforces, the quality of life. We have Indiana University, Ivy Tech, Crane, the airport, 00:20:10.210 --> 00:20:16.900 - and our innovation ecosystem, the mill and the forge, their leaders in their space, not to mention the 00:20:16.900 --> 00:20:23.590 - culture, the arts, plus a whole lot of other things that add up and matter. We are community preparing 00:20:23.590 --> 00:20:30.541 - for what's next today. We're not just talking about readiness, we're delivering it. The BEDC will continue 00:20:30.541 --> 00:20:37.491 - to convene, coordinate, advocate, identify gaps, and connect the dots between business needs and community 00:20:37.491 --> 00:20:38.270 - capacities. 00:20:38.402 --> 00:20:45.394 - Opportunities favor preparation, and preparation is required from all of us. Thank you. Now, on to the 00:20:45.394 --> 00:20:51.640 - really exciting part of the show here, and I want to introduce our next guest here and make 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:58.700 - this introduction. Probably needs no introduction. Everyone knows he's back by popular demand. Mr. Phil 00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:05.625 - Powell, he is the executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center. Phil Powell has been in 00:21:05.625 --> 00:21:07.390 - business and the economic 00:21:07.778 --> 00:21:13.992 - faculty member at the Indiana University Kelly School of Business for 29 years, and he serves as the 00:21:13.992 --> 00:21:20.268 - executive director of the Indiana Business Research Center. Without any further ado, I'm going to get 00:21:20.268 --> 00:21:26.974 - Mr. Powell up here for his high-power energetic review of our economy and the region. Thank you, Mr. Powell. 00:21:40.162 --> 00:21:47.773 - How we doing? Before we move on, I know our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow citizens who were 00:21:47.773 --> 00:21:55.162 - impacted last night. So if you were impacted, we're thinking about you and we're here to help. This 00:21:55.162 --> 00:22:02.624 - is the time when B-Town really rises to the occasion. So I get this question a lot. Phil, how are we 00:22:02.624 --> 00:22:06.910 - doing economically? How's Bloomington doing economically? 00:22:07.650 --> 00:22:12.891 - Well, I can have a lot of answers, but you got to go to the data, right? Here's my bottom line. How 00:22:12.891 --> 00:22:18.289 - is Bloomington doing? We're hanging in there. We're hanging in there. And when I talk Bloomington, I'm 00:22:18.289 --> 00:22:24.001 - talking about Greater Bloomington, I'm talking about Monroe County, talking about our friends in Ellisville, 00:22:24.001 --> 00:22:29.347 - all around the region here. So what does the data tell us? And I'm going to give you some high flying 00:22:29.347 --> 00:22:34.693 - data here. I'm not going to go too detailed, because I want to get... And then I'm going to give some 00:22:34.693 --> 00:22:36.894 - perspective on perhaps how we think about 00:22:37.218 --> 00:22:43.347 - how the region or the county needs to move forward in terms of economic development, just a framework. 00:22:43.347 --> 00:22:49.536 - Because there's a lot of great things to leverage here. There's a lot of great opportunities. And we're 00:22:49.536 --> 00:22:55.665 - hanging in there. Actually, the county's doing better than... You may have heard me speak in November. 00:22:55.665 --> 00:23:02.270 - At that time, we were really very scared. The data was very... There were a lot of dark shadows from the data. 00:23:02.370 --> 00:23:09.141 - But actually, Bloomington is hanging in there. I'll give you some data. So for example, our unemployment 00:23:09.141 --> 00:23:15.912 - rate right now, right? At the state level, we're at 4%. In Bloomington metropolitan area, 3.8%. So we're 00:23:15.912 --> 00:23:22.748 - less than the state, right? And again, higher education, this has been a challenging 18 months for higher 00:23:22.748 --> 00:23:29.390 - education. And I've also, I'll bring up some, one good place to compare us to right now is our friends 00:23:29.390 --> 00:23:31.518 - at Purdue and Tippecanoe County. 00:23:31.714 --> 00:23:39.435 - And we're doing better in some areas and doing not as good with our broilermaker friends. But also, 00:23:39.435 --> 00:23:47.233 - more importantly, employment growth. For the last year, employment here has grown 4x what we've seen 00:23:47.233 --> 00:23:55.032 - in the state. Now, it's not fast, but we've seen about 1% growth in Monroe County for the last year. 00:23:55.032 --> 00:24:01.054 - At the state, it's only been about 0.2, 0.3%. So again, we're showing some... 00:24:01.506 --> 00:24:08.791 - pleasantly surprising resilience in this economy. And it has to do with an increasing diversity of what 00:24:08.791 --> 00:24:15.935 - is driving our prosperity here in our backyard, here in Beatown. What are the biggest drivers of that 00:24:15.935 --> 00:24:23.640 - employment growth right now? Well, healthcare, employment's up 7%. Now, part of that is sort of a bittersweet 00:24:23.640 --> 00:24:30.014 - story because we've seen a lot of closures in healthcare facilities in the uplands region. 00:24:30.242 --> 00:24:37.222 - And so what's happening is that consolidation is happening here in Monroe County with our regional hospital 00:24:37.222 --> 00:24:43.878 - and the great resources that IU Health and other providers provide. So we saw 7% growth in healthcare. 00:24:43.878 --> 00:24:50.535 - Manufacturing, we Hoosiers love to make things, right? We love to score touchdowns and become national 00:24:50.535 --> 00:24:56.998 - champions, but we also love to make things. Manufacturing in Monroe County is up 3%. So doing well, 00:24:56.998 --> 00:24:59.518 - and that's in spite of, you might say, 00:24:59.938 --> 00:25:05.866 - I heard about those layoffs at Novo Nordisk. And yes, so you gotta understand folks that businesses 00:25:05.866 --> 00:25:12.091 - right now are navigating this whole issue of the relationship between technology and labor, right? We're 00:25:12.091 --> 00:25:17.545 - gonna have some announcements of retrenchment like we had at Novo Nordisk. We're gonna have 00:25:17.545 --> 00:25:23.473 - some announcements like we did at Simtra in the same industry of expansion, right? Don't take these 00:25:23.473 --> 00:25:27.326 - single announcements as some sign of economic apocalypse, right? 00:25:27.970 --> 00:25:33.546 - Businesses are expanding and retrenching, they're adjusting to this new reality called artificial 00:25:33.546 --> 00:25:39.292 - intelligence. Our economic models at the Kelly School of Business suggest that the last two quarters 00:25:39.292 --> 00:25:45.096 - of 2026 are gonna be a lot better than the first two quarters. We're seeing a lot of uncertainty come 00:25:45.096 --> 00:25:51.013 - out of the market as we solve some of these larger geopolitical and policy issues. That's really what's 00:25:51.013 --> 00:25:54.654 - been holding our national and our local and state economy back. 00:25:55.394 --> 00:26:01.738 - We expect a much, we talked about risk. The risk that we've been seeing have been more policy related 00:26:01.738 --> 00:26:08.082 - than they have been fundamentals. If I had more time, I would reassure you that the national economic 00:26:08.082 --> 00:26:14.427 - fundamentals are quite strong when we look at debt and capitalization. There's a lot of good news out 00:26:14.427 --> 00:26:20.895 - there that doesn't make it to the surface. So we're not expecting a recession. We're actually expecting 00:26:20.895 --> 00:26:24.254 - a better second part of the year than the first part. 00:26:24.674 --> 00:26:31.112 - Where we have perhaps two other points I want to make on the employment side in Monroe County and in 00:26:31.112 --> 00:26:37.678 - Greater Bloomington is that we actually saw shrinkage while we saw growth in healthcare manufacturing. 00:26:37.678 --> 00:26:44.243 - We've also seen 13% growth in construction. 13%, right? Anytime you see growth in construction, that's 00:26:44.243 --> 00:26:49.598 - good for future prosperity. Part of that we see across the street over here, right? 00:26:50.850 --> 00:26:56.738 - So growth in manufacturing, growth in healthcare, growth in constructions, those are both good signs 00:26:56.738 --> 00:27:02.568 - of our economic backbone getting a little stronger. Where we did see some shrinkage, which was kind 00:27:02.568 --> 00:27:08.632 - of surprising, was we actually saw a shrinkage in accommodation and food services of about 2%. Now part 00:27:08.632 --> 00:27:14.636 - of that is a pullback. We've seen American households sort of pull back in some of their travel during 00:27:14.636 --> 00:27:16.094 - the second half of 2025. 00:27:17.826 --> 00:27:25.123 - Also, you might say, well, Phil, our biggest employer is in educational services, right? Indiana University. 00:27:25.123 --> 00:27:32.353 - Educational services is about 20 to 25% of our economy here in B-town. Here's the good news. In educational 00:27:32.353 --> 00:27:38.981 - services, we saw 1% shrinkage in educational unemployment, which is actually given the challenging 00:27:38.981 --> 00:27:46.077 - environment of higher ed and even K through P through 12 education. That's actually a pretty good number. 00:27:46.077 --> 00:27:47.550 - In Tippecanoe County, 00:27:48.834 --> 00:27:55.101 - at the home of Purdue, whereas we saw 1% shrinkage, they saw 3% shrinkage. So Indiana University, the 00:27:55.101 --> 00:28:01.552 - wonderful institution of which I've been a part of, quickly on 30 years next month, is hanging in there, 00:28:01.552 --> 00:28:07.696 - and is making sure that we're delivering the value and the employment and the jobs that we need for 00:28:07.696 --> 00:28:14.209 - this community. And while we did see some shrinkage in educational services, and it's not just IU, that's 00:28:14.209 --> 00:28:17.342 - our friends at Ivy Tech, and also in P through 12, 00:28:18.722 --> 00:28:26.262 - But while we did see 1% shrinkage in educational services employment, actually total wages paid went 00:28:26.262 --> 00:28:34.474 - up 5%. So in terms of economic stimulus, dollars on the table, we're still delivering in terms of educational 00:28:34.474 --> 00:28:42.313 - services. And a lot of that is IU. So good employment growth, low unemployment. It's like, Phil, there's 00:28:42.313 --> 00:28:47.614 - some good news here. You kind of seem a little rosier than I expected. 00:28:48.418 --> 00:28:55.254 - Where's our Achilles heel? And you've heard me preach about this. While we have seen aggregate growth 00:28:55.254 --> 00:29:01.955 - in income, while we have seen aggregate growth in employment, what the average worker is making per 00:29:01.955 --> 00:29:08.657 - hour of work, which economists would argue is the ultimate measure of prosperity in a community, is 00:29:08.657 --> 00:29:15.358 - what do you make per unit of work? What do you make per unit of effort? Or average hourly earnings? 00:29:15.618 --> 00:29:23.566 - Our average hourly earnings in Bloomington, and I double and triple checked this this morning. Our average 00:29:23.566 --> 00:29:30.994 - hourly earnings in Bloomington, Monroe County has shrunk 4% in the last year. The average worker in 00:29:30.994 --> 00:29:38.867 - our community is making 4% less than they did a year ago. That's on average. And that's in an environment 00:29:38.867 --> 00:29:44.958 - of 4% inflation. So that's an 8% reduction in real wage. Compare that to Indiana, 00:29:45.762 --> 00:29:54.101 - Where mine is 4%, the state is, the average Hoosier worker went up 4%. For the average Hoosier, their 00:29:54.101 --> 00:30:02.767 - wage is kept up with inflation. And in Tippecanoe County, they're up 8%. So in terms of what we're making 00:30:02.767 --> 00:30:10.942 - per hour, this is an Achilles heel for our economy. We need an economy that generates higher wages. 00:30:11.874 --> 00:30:18.606 - And we know that. We know the problems that I mentioned have been here are structural. You know what 00:30:18.606 --> 00:30:25.471 - the quickest way to increase the average wage is? Let's retain our graduates from campus. Let's create 00:30:25.471 --> 00:30:32.469 - an environment where they want to live and work here. The average college graduate in the United States, 00:30:32.469 --> 00:30:39.334 - based on survey data, 60% of them, their first preference for where they want their first job is where 00:30:39.334 --> 00:30:40.734 - they went to school. 00:30:42.018 --> 00:30:49.310 - So the focus that we're seeing, the increased focus that we're seeing from IU on retaining our college 00:30:49.310 --> 00:30:56.460 - grads, that's one way to help that wage issue. Because college grads get paid more, they bring value 00:30:56.460 --> 00:31:03.610 - to the economy, and the faster and more we can retain them, the better we can raise the average, but 00:31:03.610 --> 00:31:08.990 - also create high incomes, which multiplies the economy and lifts all boats. 00:31:09.442 --> 00:31:17.182 - So while income and what we make per hour has been our Achilles heel, and this is where we really need 00:31:17.182 --> 00:31:24.772 - to work, and it is that average hourly earnings statistic is what I would encourage our leaders here 00:31:24.772 --> 00:31:32.361 - in the room to look at and monitor. But if you heard me in November at our future cast that we do, I 00:31:32.361 --> 00:31:38.974 - was really bullish on our growth in private business, our growth in the private sector. 00:31:39.138 --> 00:31:46.398 - Right? And there the news continues to be good. Our growth in terms of number of businesses, whereas 00:31:46.398 --> 00:31:53.586 - it grew in the state only about 1%, it's grown in Monroe County by about 2%. So our creation of new 00:31:53.586 --> 00:32:00.990 - businesses, our creation of new commercial establishments is happening at twice the rate of the state. 00:32:03.874 --> 00:32:10.712 - And even more impressive is that we've seen employment in the management of companies and enterprises, 00:32:10.712 --> 00:32:17.550 - that's up 8%. And I would say that's a shout out to what we're seeing from Amplify Bloomington. That's 00:32:17.550 --> 00:32:24.520 - a shout out for what we're seeing from the high quality incremental growth we're seeing out of the Trace 00:32:24.520 --> 00:32:31.358 - District. If you were at the IU Founders and Funders Network Summit last month, very inspiring, right? 00:32:31.906 --> 00:32:39.090 - And we're highlighting some of the great resonance, right? Yeah. More businesses like this, right, that 00:32:39.090 --> 00:32:46.136 - are connected to the university, that are connected to this ecosystem that the university's building, 00:32:46.136 --> 00:32:53.251 - but in partnership with phenomenal investment and energy from our partners outside the university here 00:32:53.251 --> 00:32:58.846 - in the community. And what that does, folks, what that does is that tees up what 00:32:59.906 --> 00:33:07.611 - as one economist, as me, would suggest is a way to frame how we approach economic development. We have 00:33:07.611 --> 00:33:15.541 - challenges, right? There's price of housing. I've mentioned wages. Also, we struggle with economic equity 00:33:15.541 --> 00:33:23.172 - here in the county. We're outliers in those variables. But if you want to focus on moving the needle, 00:33:23.172 --> 00:33:25.566 - here's a way to think about it. 00:33:25.954 --> 00:33:34.866 - If you study the way that communities and cities and metropolitan areas are growing, what's happening 00:33:34.866 --> 00:33:43.777 - is, is that they're focusing on specific points of geography in your region. If you look at the story 00:33:43.777 --> 00:33:52.863 - of how metropolitan regions evolve and change, it starts from specific points in those geographic areas 00:33:52.863 --> 00:33:54.174 - where you have 00:33:54.498 --> 00:34:01.168 - smart, creative, innovative people coming together and talking and interacting and working together 00:34:01.168 --> 00:34:07.838 - and living together and drinking beer together and watching college football games together, right? 00:34:07.838 --> 00:34:15.108 - This is what we call creative collision. Even in this 21st century technology economy where we've celebrated 00:34:15.108 --> 00:34:21.912 - remote working, it's the actual creative collision, the actual act of people being in the same space, 00:34:21.912 --> 00:34:23.646 - in the same neighborhood, 00:34:23.874 --> 00:34:30.849 - in the same office working together that is driving innovation and is driving the fastest economic growth. 00:34:30.849 --> 00:34:37.629 - So as we think about Bloomington, as we think about Monroe County, as we think about the uplands, let's 00:34:37.629 --> 00:34:44.344 - think in terms of these points of creative collision. The trades district, the airport, the convention 00:34:44.344 --> 00:34:50.863 - center, right? There's other places... I'm not giving justice to all the points of geography in the 00:34:50.863 --> 00:34:51.710 - region here. 00:34:52.066 --> 00:34:58.927 - But what happens is, is that creative collision generates innovation. And that innovation creates businesses. 00:34:58.927 --> 00:35:05.290 - It grows businesses. It elevates incomes. And what happens is, is that the region changes and evolves 00:35:05.290 --> 00:35:11.714 - from the inside out. That is how the metropolitan areas and the cities and towns that are growing fast 00:35:11.714 --> 00:35:18.014 - are looking at it and they're growing. They don't think about it just in terms of how do we fill our 00:35:18.014 --> 00:35:19.262 - vacant lots, right? 00:35:20.194 --> 00:35:29.406 - It's people that drive economic development, and where people are coming together, it happens. We also, 00:35:29.406 --> 00:35:38.353 - so we want to think in those terms geographically. Also, I want you to see my great institution, IU, 00:35:38.353 --> 00:35:47.300 - as this phenomenal source of economic value. And in the 21st century economy, university research is 00:35:47.300 --> 00:35:50.046 - playing more and more and more 00:35:50.210 --> 00:35:56.509 - of a role. So whatever hose that we've got hooked up to Indiana University, we want to take that off 00:35:56.509 --> 00:36:02.932 - and we want to make it bigger, thicker, and put it in there, or hook up more hoses. Because university 00:36:02.932 --> 00:36:09.169 - research begets intellectual property, it begets innovation, it begets entrepreneurship. And as you 00:36:09.169 --> 00:36:15.967 - know, one of the pillars of the IUB 2030 plan is service to our state, which means service to our community, 00:36:15.967 --> 00:36:19.646 - which means what? Elevation of prosperity for Bloomington. 00:36:23.042 --> 00:36:29.721 - And when we talk about innovation from university research, that commercial activity around the country 00:36:29.721 --> 00:36:36.463 - always nests itself in an innovation district. And that's what's happening here in downtown Bloomington, 00:36:36.463 --> 00:36:43.142 - especially with the Trace District. And we're starting to see the fruits of that investment. And I just 00:36:43.142 --> 00:36:49.628 - quoted you some numbers. Again, new business growth, twice the rate of the state, where 8% growth on 00:36:49.628 --> 00:36:50.334 - high level 00:36:50.754 --> 00:36:56.851 - managers and entrepreneurs that have come into the city. The trades district is part of that. The university 00:36:56.851 --> 00:37:02.444 - is part of that. Other parts of the city are part of that. But again, leveraging IU in terms of not 00:37:02.444 --> 00:37:08.037 - only the graduates, we want those graduates to stay here, but also the university research of which 00:37:08.037 --> 00:37:13.630 - President Whitten and her team and the campus team here in Bloomington have really doubled down on. 00:37:14.818 --> 00:37:21.970 - And while we faced a challenging higher ed environment, IU continues to increase its research dollars 00:37:21.970 --> 00:37:29.051 - and increase the connection that it makes in terms of economic impact. The last thing I'll leave you 00:37:29.051 --> 00:37:36.273 - with, which will set us up for the panel, and again, let me back up. If we confuse university research 00:37:36.273 --> 00:37:43.355 - with business creation and innovation, that's an exciting environment, right? That's how we keep our 00:37:43.355 --> 00:37:44.126 - graduates. 00:37:45.314 --> 00:37:51.782 - Also an important part of that, and this is a challenge I gave to the region and the BEDC a year ago, 00:37:51.782 --> 00:37:58.187 - and that is one missing element of that is we need about, I would argue, we need about a half dozen, 00:37:58.187 --> 00:38:04.528 - we need to recruit about a half dozen dynamic companies from the outside. I'm not talking about the 00:38:04.528 --> 00:38:10.996 - big guys like Microsoft or pick your big company, right? Go out and recruit those mid-sized companies 00:38:10.996 --> 00:38:13.342 - that are growing really fast, right? 00:38:13.954 --> 00:38:20.516 - because it's the midsize, it's the newer midsize companies that are on the cusp of their industry, that 00:38:20.516 --> 00:38:26.951 - are growing fast, that are going to be the source of what can make Bloomington even more competitive. 00:38:26.951 --> 00:38:33.324 - But we've got to bring those companies in, and it gets back to the great elements of the recruitment 00:38:33.324 --> 00:38:39.822 - strategy that you heard from Val and Clark. Lastly, what would I challenge us to do? I would challenge 00:38:39.822 --> 00:38:43.166 - Bloomington to answer the state's call to invigorate 00:38:43.426 --> 00:38:52.572 - execute and promote a regional uplands economic strategy. In March, the Governor, Governor Braun and 00:38:52.572 --> 00:39:01.990 - Secretary Adams announced a billion dollars in tax breaks for the bio heartland strategy out of central 00:39:01.990 --> 00:39:04.254 - Indiana. Central Indiana 00:39:04.930 --> 00:39:10.956 - came together. The mayors of the region came together. They put together the Bio Heartland Strategy. 00:39:10.956 --> 00:39:17.220 - They made a choice to focus on one set of industries. And they put together a plan. Luckily, the Indiana 00:39:17.220 --> 00:39:23.425 - Business Research Center and the Kelly School of Business, it was a privilege to be part of that study. 00:39:23.425 --> 00:39:29.629 - But they came together and they said, we're going to plant our flag on animal plant and human sciences. 00:39:29.629 --> 00:39:34.462 - And everything that goes into that, including food and health services delivery. 00:39:36.194 --> 00:39:43.705 - And what we did is we pulled the data and I got to be a part of this. We had mayors around the table 00:39:43.705 --> 00:39:51.587 - and we took the data and we identified in that nine county region which of 200 sub industries each county 00:39:51.587 --> 00:39:59.247 - had the opportunity in. And it built a win-win. And so the same opportunities here in the uplands. And 00:39:59.247 --> 00:40:06.014 - we're happy to be part of that if you'll so invite us in terms of IU and the Kelly School. 00:40:07.810 --> 00:40:14.774 - But this emphasizes that our state is calling upon the regions to be better versions of themselves. 00:40:14.774 --> 00:40:21.877 - To step up, make that vision, and move forward, and the status says, hey look, we're there to support 00:40:21.877 --> 00:40:28.980 - you. We're there to support how you define how you're gonna be a better version of yourself. And this 00:40:28.980 --> 00:40:36.083 - effort builds upon the relationships and the cooperation and the coordination that you saw with Ready 00:40:36.083 --> 00:40:37.406 - One and Ready Two. 00:40:39.298 --> 00:40:46.704 - It also helps to solve the problem of how in any region you've got big players, right? But then you 00:40:46.704 --> 00:40:54.110 - can solve this issue of how do we work together so that everybody wins? That's what we've been able 00:40:54.110 --> 00:41:01.664 - to establish in central Indiana. It's not just about Indianapolis, but it's also about Tipton County, 00:41:01.664 --> 00:41:07.070 - which is 0.5% of the regional GDP. We found industries in Tipton County, 00:41:08.098 --> 00:41:15.695 - that are now part of the Central Indiana Strategy sitting alongside IU Lab, which is a $150 million 00:41:15.695 --> 00:41:23.519 - investment in life sciences. So with that, I want to move into a discussion of maybe how to put on the 00:41:23.519 --> 00:41:31.116 - table how Bloomington can activate some of these thoughts and ideas. And so it's a privilege for me 00:41:31.116 --> 00:41:36.510 - to introduce our two panelists. And I have the privilege of moderating 00:41:36.706 --> 00:41:43.996 - some great questions which I hope provoke your thought process. First, I want to introduce Josh Richardson. 00:41:43.996 --> 00:41:51.083 - Josh has served as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation since October of last year, 00:41:51.083 --> 00:41:57.900 - doing a great job. And I actually got to work with him in the role he had held before that, and that 00:41:57.900 --> 00:42:04.853 - was commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. And before joining IEDC, Josh had 00:42:04.853 --> 00:42:06.270 - a very decorated and 00:42:06.402 --> 00:42:15.380 - prestigious career at DWD and transformed how we manage our workforce here in Indiana. Josh is an IU 00:42:15.380 --> 00:42:24.268 - grad, has his law degree from McKinney School in Indianapolis, and before that, he's a cardinal. He 00:42:24.268 --> 00:42:33.246 - got his bachelor's degree at Ball State. But without further ado, I'd like to introduce President of 00:42:33.246 --> 00:42:35.646 - the IEDC, Josh Richardson. 00:42:36.834 --> 00:42:52.887 - I tell you what between walk-up music and following Phil Powell I'm gonna have to dig really deep not 00:42:52.887 --> 00:42:58.238 - to let the energy level drop here 00:42:58.306 --> 00:43:03.263 - So again, it's great to be here in Bloomington with you all. I try not to use lines that are overused 00:43:03.263 --> 00:43:08.317 - that you've all heard before, but it is super exciting to be here in the home of the national champion, 00:43:08.317 --> 00:43:13.273 - IU Hoosiers. This would have been two years ago, a year ago, I would have had to check notes and say, 00:43:13.273 --> 00:43:18.182 - well, that can't be right, but today we get to stand here and celebrate that all together, so that's 00:43:18.182 --> 00:43:23.138 - wonderful. As Phil has mentioned, president of the IEDC, a role I've been in for six months, but I do 00:43:23.138 --> 00:43:27.998 - think it's important to talk about that background. Almost 20 years of history in state government, 00:43:28.066 --> 00:43:33.746 - I worked in Governor Daniel's office early on in my career, but early on in the Braun administration, 00:43:33.746 --> 00:43:39.371 - there was a real recognition of the link between workforce development and economic development. The 00:43:39.371 --> 00:43:44.995 - fact that Indiana's future in economic development would be limited if we cannot produce the type of 00:43:44.995 --> 00:43:47.390 - workforce and talent that would be needed. 00:43:48.034 --> 00:43:53.235 - to attract businesses to our area. Here in this region of the state, you have a huge advantage there. 00:43:53.235 --> 00:43:58.486 - Phil talked a little bit about the opportunity and the potential and the need to retain our graduates, 00:43:58.486 --> 00:44:03.738 - talked about the use of research, but I will tell you that when we pitch businesses, when we encourage 00:44:03.738 --> 00:44:09.142 - them to come to Indiana, we really use in every single pitch that we do the higher education institutions 00:44:09.142 --> 00:44:14.241 - that we have within our state because of their ability to produce workforce talent. So it certainly 00:44:14.241 --> 00:44:18.014 - is an asset in this region, but an asset across the state for us as well. 00:44:18.402 --> 00:44:24.686 - When I came into this role, I came in with a couple of really high-level directives from Governor Braun. 00:44:24.686 --> 00:44:31.090 - One is to focus on jobs and wages as the measure of our economic success. While that sounds really obvious 00:44:31.090 --> 00:44:37.433 - on its face, I will tell you that as an agency like mine, the IEDC is unique. We're a competitive agency. 00:44:37.433 --> 00:44:38.750 - We want to win deals. 00:44:39.586 --> 00:44:44.621 - But it's also really important that as we do that, we remember why deals matter. Yes, we want to be 00:44:44.621 --> 00:44:49.958 - business friendly here. We want to move at the speed of business. We want to have the kind of environment 00:44:49.958 --> 00:44:55.195 - that allows businesses to succeed. But the reason why any of that matters is because of the opportunity 00:44:55.195 --> 00:45:00.230 - that it gives Hoosiers to advance their lot in life and their careers. And so it's really important 00:45:00.230 --> 00:45:04.510 - to work on wages. As Phil's pointed out, Indiana over the last 20 years, really over 00:45:04.802 --> 00:45:10.611 - the last 40, if you look back further, then that has struggled to move on that per capita income as 00:45:10.611 --> 00:45:16.537 - compared to the rest of the nation. So at the IEDC, over the last year and a half, Governor Braun, in 00:45:16.537 --> 00:45:22.520 - the last six months with me, we continue to increase the average wage of incentivized jobs. The number 00:45:22.520 --> 00:45:28.387 - last year finished just under $40 an hour for projects that we had incentivized. So far through this 00:45:28.387 --> 00:45:30.014 - year, we're at $44 an hour. 00:45:30.178 --> 00:45:35.739 - we can tend to continue to push that number higher because that is the way that we make a difference 00:45:35.739 --> 00:45:41.411 - in a low unemployment state like the one that we're in right now. And I mean both the state of Indiana 00:45:41.411 --> 00:45:47.302 - and unemployment state more broadly. Employers are competing for talent and so as we incentivize projects, 00:45:47.302 --> 00:45:52.919 - we want to make sure we're bringing the kinds of high quality, high wage jobs that Hoosiers need. The 00:45:52.919 --> 00:45:54.846 - next priority and this has come up 00:45:54.978 --> 00:46:00.006 - I think with everybody who's been to the microphone today, is a greater focus on regional economic 00:46:00.006 --> 00:46:05.085 - development. This is important for a number of reasons. Others have made the case, and I think that 00:46:05.085 --> 00:46:10.317 - we'll talk about it more on our panel. You know, 20 years ago when the IEDC was created, by itself the 00:46:10.317 --> 00:46:15.802 - creation of a quasi agency that would move at the speed of business was fairly unique. It was a competitive 00:46:15.802 --> 00:46:21.034 - advantage for Indiana versus a lot of states in the nation that we were putting this focus on economic 00:46:21.034 --> 00:46:21.694 - development. 00:46:21.826 --> 00:46:27.194 - Well, fast forward 20 years later, success breeds a lot of copycats, and we've seen other states set 00:46:27.194 --> 00:46:32.615 - up methods of doing this. Ohio, just to our east, has devoted a lot of the revenues from their liquor 00:46:32.615 --> 00:46:38.036 - taxes to their economic development efforts, so they're very well-funded as they do this. But what we 00:46:38.036 --> 00:46:43.457 - find more and more is at a high level, while we can work to create the conditions that put Indiana on 00:46:43.457 --> 00:46:48.825 - the radar, ultimately, the business doesn't move to Indiana. They move to a location. They move to a 00:46:48.825 --> 00:46:50.366 - region. They move to a spot. 00:46:50.498 --> 00:46:53.662 - that has done the work that it needs to do to be prepared. 00:46:53.730 --> 00:46:58.948 - 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 00:46:58.948 --> 00:47:04.166 - discussion as we move through this, but really the work that you're doing here, to have sites ready, 00:47:04.166 --> 00:47:09.436 - to have identified the partners that are needed to act on this. I think we talked about this earlier, 00:47:09.436 --> 00:47:14.706 - the task force, as Valerie had said, that could turn on a dime. And I think it's a really nice way to 00:47:14.706 --> 00:47:19.924 - say it because when we do these economic development deals, it's not creating the task force because 00:47:19.924 --> 00:47:23.696 - there's a potential project. It's having a task force already ready with 00:47:23.696 --> 00:47:29.622 - identified partners that can turn and adapt to the needs of this business so that we can locate here. 00:47:29.622 --> 00:47:35.490 - Also, incredibly important to have a community that is rallied around what is our strategy, what are 00:47:35.490 --> 00:47:41.300 - we trying to attract. I think it's really easy and we want to be welcoming to all types of industry 00:47:41.300 --> 00:47:46.238 - and all types of business, but I think it's important that each region has a sort of 00:47:46.658 --> 00:47:52.499 - some sort of focus, some sort of strategy alignment around the idea of the advantages that your assets 00:47:52.499 --> 00:47:58.453 - give you and what you'll be able to do in terms of attracting business. So with that, I'll turn it over. 00:47:58.453 --> 00:48:04.123 - I'll move to the panel where I know we'll address more of these questions, but it's good to be here 00:48:04.123 --> 00:48:09.283 - with you today. Thank you, Josh. It's great to have you on the panel and look forward to a 00:48:09.283 --> 00:48:15.294 - great conversation. Our next panel member, who I've known really well since his days at IU, Trevor Fowdy. 00:48:15.746 --> 00:48:21.870 - Trevor Fowdy is Chief Operating Officer at the Applied Research Institute, or ARI, which is based here 00:48:21.870 --> 00:48:27.876 - in Bloomington. The mission of ARI is to unite America's technology ecosystem, connecting innovators 00:48:27.876 --> 00:48:34.178 - and governments with the resources and partnerships that power transformational ideas. Before ARI, Trevor 00:48:34.178 --> 00:48:40.184 - was part of the IU family. He served as Associate Vice President for State Relations here at Indiana 00:48:40.184 --> 00:48:43.870 - University. Trevor earned his bachelor's from Bethel College, 00:48:44.514 --> 00:48:55.688 - and is Masters in Public Affairs from the great O'Neill School, which has the number one MPA program 00:48:55.688 --> 00:49:07.193 - in the nation. So let's give it up for Trevor. Good afternoon. Great to be here. I always enjoy to come 00:49:07.193 --> 00:49:13.278 - back to Bloomington, see a lot of familiar faces about 00:49:13.378 --> 00:49:18.868 - 16 years ago now, I went to work for then Representative Todd Young in his Washington office, but came 00:49:18.868 --> 00:49:24.199 - back to the district quite a bit with him and spent a lot of time in Bloomington. Nine years ago, I 00:49:24.199 --> 00:49:29.529 - went to work at IU where I worked with Val Peña quite a bit in that office. And so when Val called 00:49:29.529 --> 00:49:34.967 - a couple of weeks ago and said, I need you to help us with this lunch. I know Val well enough to know 00:49:34.967 --> 00:49:40.297 - that that wasn't a question. And I said, all right, I'll be there. And I think everybody here knows 00:49:40.297 --> 00:49:40.990 - what I mean. 00:49:41.314 --> 00:49:47.458 - But it's great to represent the Applied Research Institute. We've been based here in Bloomington since 00:49:47.458 --> 00:49:53.601 - 2017. If you don't know what we do, I'll give you a real high-level overview, and then I'll talk about 00:49:53.601 --> 00:49:59.685 - one of our newest initiatives, which is part of the reason why I'm here today. But we were founded as 00:49:59.685 --> 00:50:05.710 - a nonprofit with a mission focused on crane. And essentially, how do we draw on the R&D capabilities 00:50:05.710 --> 00:50:07.678 - of IU, of Purdue, of Notre Dame, 00:50:08.194 --> 00:50:14.549 - to help Crane expand the program offices that they have and the research and work that they do to support 00:50:14.549 --> 00:50:20.544 - the military. So a lot of early work was in hypersonics, in microelectronics, fields like that that 00:50:20.544 --> 00:50:26.599 - Crane was interested in working on and had some expertise. Over time, that sort of expanded. Most of 00:50:26.599 --> 00:50:32.594 - the programs that we run now, we run several for either Crane or the Department of Defense directly 00:50:32.594 --> 00:50:37.150 - in different agencies. But it's really about how do we speed up innovation? 00:50:37.314 --> 00:50:44.236 - How do we speed up acquisition at the Pentagon so that great ideas can be transitioned to help keep 00:50:44.236 --> 00:50:51.366 - our country safe and to help keep the world safe? So we do that across a number of different programs. 00:50:51.366 --> 00:50:59.326 - Most of them fall into the category of tech scouting. So we have a special designation with DARPA called a Partner 00:50:59.810 --> 00:51:05.263 - partnership intermediary. We're the sole entity that has that with DARPA, but we do a lot of their tech 00:51:05.263 --> 00:51:10.927 - scouting around the countries with academics, with small businesses, helping them find interesting research 00:51:10.927 --> 00:51:16.433 - ideas and topics that they may want to bring in. We run a program for the Defense Innovation Unit called 00:51:16.433 --> 00:51:21.834 - OnRamps, and we run that nationally. There are currently seven or eight offices. We're adding a couple 00:51:21.834 --> 00:51:27.182 - more this year. That continues to grow. That program was really started in Silicon Valley, and how do 00:51:27.182 --> 00:51:28.126 - we bring big tech 00:51:28.418 --> 00:51:33.658 - to the Pentagon and to the federal government. And after early success with that program, they said, 00:51:33.658 --> 00:51:38.846 - we're probably missing lots of pockets elsewhere around the country. And so now we run that program 00:51:38.846 --> 00:51:44.033 - to help tech scout around the country for them as well. We ran a similar program for Crane up until 00:51:44.033 --> 00:51:49.377 - last year called the Midwest Tech Bridge. Some of the reorganization of the Pentagon, that program has 00:51:49.377 --> 00:51:54.565 - gone away, but we still help Crane through other programs, find commercial solutions to some of the 00:51:54.565 --> 00:51:57.470 - challenges that they're trying to address for the Navy. 00:51:57.666 --> 00:52:03.688 - We also run a series of procurement platforms. I won't spend a lot of time talking about those today, 00:52:03.688 --> 00:52:10.006 - but department-wide, the average time it takes to execute a contract is five months, 150 days. And through 00:52:10.006 --> 00:52:16.088 - our platform, which is really designed to help non-traditional contractors and small businesses figure 00:52:16.088 --> 00:52:22.346 - out if there's a demand signal, we're down to about a 35-day average and have regularly started executing 00:52:22.346 --> 00:52:26.302 - contracts in a week. So really exciting stuff there at a time when 00:52:26.434 --> 00:52:32.240 - the government's figuring, trying to figure out how to buy faster. But then about five years ago, we 00:52:32.240 --> 00:52:38.104 - started doing work for the state too, through IEDC. Josh has been a great partner since he's come in. 00:52:38.104 --> 00:52:43.911 - And we have a couple of national programs that we went after, but to be based in Indiana and looking 00:52:43.911 --> 00:52:49.947 - at key economic sectors in Indiana. So the first was a Microelectronics Commons Hub through the National 00:52:49.947 --> 00:52:51.902 - Microelectronics Commons Program. 00:52:52.194 --> 00:52:58.027 - That is based down near Crane, and that looks at how do we speed up innovation, how do we speed 00:52:58.027 --> 00:53:04.103 - up manufacturing. You'll notice a theme in a lot of this, how do we make stuff in Indiana in fields 00:53:04.103 --> 00:53:10.240 - like microelectronics, where we've not historically had a deep bench. And then we did another one in 00:53:10.240 --> 00:53:16.438 - biotech. John Fernandez helped lead that for us in looking at a regional tech hub program through the 00:53:16.438 --> 00:53:18.686 - Economic Development Administration. 00:53:18.882 --> 00:53:24.815 - John was the right person to help. He has a little experience with the EDA. But that's located 00:53:24.815 --> 00:53:31.123 - in Indianapolis and focused on how do we drive biotechnology manufacturing and workforce development 00:53:31.123 --> 00:53:37.557 - in Indiana. And again, part of that is focused on strong life sciences industry. There's also a thread 00:53:37.557 --> 00:53:44.302 - to national defense there as Crane increasingly gets involved in a program called BioMade that the military 00:53:44.302 --> 00:53:46.238 - runs focused on biotechnology. 00:53:46.626 --> 00:53:52.470 - And then this last year in January, we got a designation in the state through the Federal Aviation 00:53:52.470 --> 00:53:58.491 - Administration to manage a UAS test site. We are the ninth in the country, partnered with Jan, if you 00:53:58.491 --> 00:54:04.453 - don't know Jan Schuller-Hicks here in the back, make sure you get to know her. She does a lot of the 00:54:04.453 --> 00:54:10.651 - economic development work for IEDC in defense and around crane and in this area. She was a great partner 00:54:10.651 --> 00:54:15.550 - on that. We worked with them to design a program for a drone test site in Indiana. 00:54:16.578 --> 00:54:22.805 - And then we successfully won that. What's unique about our test site versus the existing test sites 00:54:22.805 --> 00:54:29.593 - is we were the first test site allowed to use military operational areas and military ranges. The Department 00:54:29.593 --> 00:54:36.256 - of War has made several investments in Indiana in the UAS space, and I don't think a lot of people realize 00:54:36.256 --> 00:54:39.806 - that. Camp Atterbury is where they do their prototyping. 00:54:40.034 --> 00:54:45.515 - The prototyping office sets their policy there. They do all their testing and demonstration events there. 00:54:45.515 --> 00:54:50.789 - And that's really the military testing evaluation side. Last fall, they also announced that the drone 00:54:50.789 --> 00:54:56.218 - dominance program office, which is part of a national effort, and the drone dominance program is focused 00:54:56.218 --> 00:55:01.441 - on the manufacturing side, that's run through crane. And they put a billion dollars through crane to 00:55:01.441 --> 00:55:06.611 - start to figure out manufacturing and supply chain. And so what we really pitched the FAA on was we 00:55:06.611 --> 00:55:09.662 - can piggyback on that and help with the commercial sector. 00:55:10.754 --> 00:55:17.301 - And testing evaluation is important. We think there's a lot of opportunity with IU and Purdue and Notre 00:55:17.301 --> 00:55:23.660 - Dame and industry that is increasingly locating here to do a lot of that testing and evaluation. But 00:55:23.660 --> 00:55:30.270 - ultimately, we have a bigger vision with the state, and that is for a component manufacturing ecosystem. 00:55:30.402 --> 00:55:36.222 - Historically, we've been very good at that. We do it in the auto industry. We've done it in the RV industry 00:55:36.222 --> 00:55:41.664 - and the boating industry. And a lot of that infrastructure is in place from our small towns that are 00:55:41.664 --> 00:55:47.106 - built around their tool and die or machine shops to some of the assembly factories. We think there's 00:55:47.106 --> 00:55:52.656 - a real opportunity here for the state of Indiana and communities around the state to contribute to the 00:55:52.656 --> 00:55:58.206 - growing use of drones. And so we're focused on the commercial side, but we also have access into those 00:55:58.206 --> 00:56:00.254 - military ranges through partnerships. 00:56:00.354 --> 00:56:11.676 - that will really allow for dual use ecosystem to grow up and take advantage of some of the things I'll 00:56:11.676 --> 00:56:22.778 - talk about. Thank you. Thanks, Trevor. There's some amazing behind the scenes stuff going on in your 00:56:22.778 --> 00:56:25.086 - area of defense that 00:56:25.282 --> 00:56:32.757 - we don't know about, so thanks for sharing that. Great to have this panel. I wanna ask a few questions 00:56:32.757 --> 00:56:40.596 - and take advantage of our two great guests to again, provoke some thought on how Bloomington moves forward. 00:56:40.596 --> 00:56:47.854 - Josh, I talked about how the state is ready to empower the regions, right? And we saw that with the 00:56:47.854 --> 00:56:53.950 - announcement in March. So my question to you is, you've got regions that are primed 00:56:54.146 --> 00:57:00.094 - and ready, and you've got other regions that perhaps are still working on that. From where you sit at 00:57:00.094 --> 00:57:06.042 - IEDC, what differentiates those regions of the state that are ready to go, ready to be empowered with 00:57:06.042 --> 00:57:12.223 - all the tools that IEDC has versus those regions that are not? It's essentially entirely about alignment. 00:57:12.223 --> 00:57:18.288 - It is about the assembly of the appropriate partners in the room. That's the workforce, that's the site 00:57:18.288 --> 00:57:23.070 - readiness, that's the business community, and pulling those folks together with a 00:57:23.234 --> 00:57:29.139 - clear strategic path towards what they want to accomplish. And so I think that the issue isn't that 00:57:29.139 --> 00:57:35.635 - Monroe County or Bloomington or the surrounding area has to be the best site in the nation for any particular 00:57:35.635 --> 00:57:41.777 - thing. It has to put itself in a position to win these deals in the competitive searches that companies 00:57:41.777 --> 00:57:46.974 - do across the globe for sites to locate. And I think you have a lot of assets to do it. 00:57:47.170 --> 00:57:52.691 - The question is, is can you get the alignment behind it? The nice thing about CERDA, just to contrast 00:57:52.691 --> 00:57:58.212 - it, is that RDA is made up of the mayors of all of the places in that nine county region. And so they 00:57:58.212 --> 00:58:03.624 - have a more streamlined governance, which I think has allowed them to move faster. I think everyone 00:58:03.624 --> 00:58:08.766 - can do that. And the issue is alignment. Awesome. And Trevor, building on that, right, is that 00:58:09.058 --> 00:58:15.184 - We've been blessed with great investments by the Department of War, by the federal government. There's 00:58:15.184 --> 00:58:21.132 - a lot of talk that the benefit of that's not just the direct investment, but it's also the dual use 00:58:21.132 --> 00:58:27.199 - technologies. The internet was a dual use technology. It serves the purpose of defending the country, 00:58:27.199 --> 00:58:31.422 - but then you have the spinoff spillover effect in terms of innovation. 00:58:31.554 --> 00:58:37.863 - through AI's work connecting research, innovation, defense, and industry, where do you see this specifically? 00:58:37.863 --> 00:58:43.828 - Where do you see the strongest opportunities for Indiana communities to turn emerging technologies into 00:58:43.828 --> 00:58:49.679 - long-term economic growth, especially in terms of the dual-use thought process? Yeah, great question. 00:58:49.679 --> 00:58:55.988 - I think we're really headed back towards an era, particularly on the military side, where defense production, 00:58:55.988 --> 00:59:01.150 - defense manufacturing matters. We saw that in World War II with the arsenal of democracy. 00:59:01.282 --> 00:59:06.226 - I think we're headed back to that for a lot of reasons, right? We've seen how drones are being used 00:59:06.226 --> 00:59:11.219 - and air superiority is no longer defined by stealth and precision like it was a generation ago. It's 00:59:11.219 --> 00:59:16.163 - who can get the most mass on target. And so what the countries that make the most and make the most 00:59:16.163 --> 00:59:21.206 - quickly are going to be the ones that control the skies. That's where we see a lot of opportunity for 00:59:21.206 --> 00:59:26.248 - the state, right, is to revitalize that manufacturing base. I think on the flip side, right, the part 00:59:26.248 --> 00:59:30.846 - of the story we don't always think about with World War II is what that meant for commercial 00:59:30.978 --> 00:59:36.958 - activity that happened after, right? There's no modern computing without some of the work that was done 00:59:36.958 --> 00:59:42.880 - by the military in World War II. Several other big technologies came out of that. We have a modern jet 00:59:42.880 --> 00:59:48.803 - industry and commercial aviation because of the work that was being done and so on. And so I think for 00:59:48.803 --> 00:59:55.070 - local communities, right, there's going to be some degree of manufacturing, but it's what do we manufacture? 00:59:55.202 --> 01:00:00.981 - And we spend a lot of time when we look at programs that we want to go after or when we advise the state, 01:00:00.981 --> 01:00:06.651 - talking about where is our right to win, right? What are the strengths that we have? So I'll use drones 01:00:06.651 --> 01:00:12.102 - as an example. It might be hard for Bloomington to compete with the West Lafayette because if I use 01:00:12.102 --> 01:00:17.554 - expertise and produce expertise on airframe or airworthiness sort of issues. But there are a lot of 01:00:17.554 --> 01:00:23.279 - important component parts, batteries. How do we get the right chemistries and batteries that last longer 01:00:23.279 --> 01:00:24.478 - or some of the chips? 01:00:24.578 --> 01:00:30.372 - that go into those, there are some of those components where Bloomington could organize around that 01:00:30.372 --> 01:00:36.340 - and really have been, we could partner with them through the test site to do a lot of testing on those 01:00:36.340 --> 01:00:42.309 - technologies. Awesome. This is kind of a question for both of you, given that we're running up against 01:00:42.309 --> 01:00:48.103 - the top of the hour here. You know, where you guys sit, you see the state, right? Josh, you're with 01:00:48.103 --> 01:00:53.086 - the governor and you see the state and where it can go, you see the potential, right? 01:00:53.218 --> 01:00:59.986 - And Trevor, where you sit, you see all the federal funding and perhaps how Indiana can be this very 01:00:59.986 --> 01:01:06.890 - sophisticated puzzle piece. But when there's discussion of Bloomington and Ellitsville, all the other 01:01:06.890 --> 01:01:13.929 - great communities in Monroe County, Indiana University, Crane, our airport here, which is really making 01:01:13.929 --> 01:01:20.765 - strides, our broader regional partners, which make up the ecosystem and the uplands as a whole, when 01:01:20.765 --> 01:01:23.134 - those conversations are happening, 01:01:24.162 --> 01:01:30.667 - In your mind, what are our strongest opportunities, our strongest assets, and how do you see us playing 01:01:30.667 --> 01:01:37.047 - a differentiatedly positive role in the story of Indiana prosperity? Yeah, well, so the nice thing is 01:01:37.047 --> 01:01:42.238 - here in this area, really I think they align with where Indiana's potential is at. 01:01:42.690 --> 01:01:47.674 - Here in this area, you're especially strong there. So one is in defense. The new investments that are 01:01:47.674 --> 01:01:52.658 - being made in defense, Indiana has a chance to be big winners from there. There are political aspects 01:01:52.658 --> 01:01:57.691 - to that, but also our strong history in manufacturing and support of the defense industry. And so with 01:01:57.691 --> 01:02:02.578 - crane being down here, Indiana has a chance to win. And disproportionately, I think this region can 01:02:02.578 --> 01:02:07.611 - play a role in that. The next is in life sciences. And I appreciate that you pointed this out earlier. 01:02:07.611 --> 01:02:11.422 - And while we talk about this life sciences initiative and the billion dollars 01:02:12.034 --> 01:02:17.357 - that we've pledged over the next decade to creating 100,000 jobs in health and life sciences. When we 01:02:17.357 --> 01:02:22.681 - talk about that with CERTA, that's largely from the organization, but that is a statewide initiative. 01:02:22.681 --> 01:02:28.370 - We're looking for wins in life sciences and health sciences across the country. And clearly, I use expertise 01:02:28.370 --> 01:02:31.710 - in health sciences and otherwise give you a real chance to win. 01:02:32.034 --> 01:02:37.886 - The last piece of that that I think that we all are aware of, the question of where this all turns out, 01:02:37.886 --> 01:02:43.625 - other than great walk-up music, how AI and what role the university can play in helping Indiana usher 01:02:43.625 --> 01:02:49.421 - in this next phase of the economy. I think it's really important that we do that, and we've rolled out 01:02:49.421 --> 01:02:55.217 - a program called NAI, because everything has to have IN in it. But this is a program with CICP to help 01:02:55.217 --> 01:02:56.286 - businesses connect 01:02:56.610 --> 01:03:02.302 - with education partners, with higher ed partners, to really look at how they can implement AI and automation 01:03:02.302 --> 01:03:07.524 - and stay ahead of the curve. Indiana's been a manufacturing intensive state, and while we've worked 01:03:07.524 --> 01:03:12.432 - to do things to diversify our economy, and we should, we also want to continue to be dominant 01:03:12.432 --> 01:03:17.915 - in manufacturing. So I think this region is well positioned to take advantage of the things that I think 01:03:17.915 --> 01:03:23.294 - Indiana as a whole should be taking advantage of. Trevor? I mean, Josh just took all the good answers. 01:03:23.778 --> 01:03:29.393 - I think he checked off everyone I had. The one area that I will mention that I think you're increasingly 01:03:29.393 --> 01:03:34.741 - going to see a lot of attention around this is one of the next big industry. We just had the SpaceX 01:03:34.741 --> 01:03:40.196 - IPO last week, right, is space. There are elements of that that is an offshoot of defense, but I look 01:03:40.196 --> 01:03:45.598 - at an investment that Indiana University made I think about a year and a half ago into a partnership 01:03:45.598 --> 01:03:49.502 - with Crane around microelectronics, but it wasn't just microelectronics. 01:03:49.666 --> 01:03:56.004 - it was radiation hardened microelectronics. And I think a lot of people miss that that really matters 01:03:56.004 --> 01:04:02.218 - for what we're putting into space with satellites. I think there are some components of traditional 01:04:02.218 --> 01:04:08.556 - aviation and airspace sort of work that translates into space. And I think a lot of that goes hand in 01:04:08.556 --> 01:04:14.769 - hand with some of the drone work. And so I think there's an opportunity for communities that have a 01:04:14.769 --> 01:04:18.622 - research institution to start looking at those areas as well. 01:04:18.786 --> 01:04:25.207 - on the front end of that industry. Well, folks, I hope you enjoyed the panel. I think the big takeaway 01:04:25.207 --> 01:04:31.691 - here that I think all three of us would give to Bloomington is that I'm going to come back to what Josh 01:04:31.691 --> 01:04:38.174 - said, alignment. As a region, getting alignment around two things. What makes us special and different, 01:04:38.174 --> 01:04:44.409 - because that's how you compete. Just like in business, regions compete by being different and being 01:04:44.409 --> 01:04:45.406 - differentiated. 01:04:46.818 --> 01:04:53.385 - around that, and then you double down on what makes you special economically, on the industries where 01:04:53.385 --> 01:04:59.889 - you have comparative advantages. And if we can coalesce a little bit better around that, we're going 01:04:59.889 --> 01:05:06.327 - to move at not only speed of business, but like the speed of light. So how's that for an optimistic 01:05:06.327 --> 01:05:12.766 - statement? Anyway, hey, we're national football champions. We can do anything, right? So with that, 01:05:13.058 --> 01:05:21.475 - Thank you for your time. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, Trevor. I'm gonna hand it back to our friends at... 01:05:21.475 --> 01:05:29.571 - I'm gonna hand it back to our friends at BEDC and Val. We actually have a few minutes for questions. 01:05:29.571 --> 01:05:37.668 - Oh, we do? If anybody has questions, please raise your hand. Carlos from Monroe County Airport. Hey. 01:05:37.668 --> 01:05:42.718 - How's it going? I just... With the folks that we have up here, 01:05:43.682 --> 01:05:52.222 - On the panel, I just thought I'd ask a natural question coming from the Monroe County Airport here, 01:05:52.222 --> 01:06:01.018 - just four miles outside of downtown Bloomington. Oh, there we go. I just made a note for myself. Given 01:06:01.018 --> 01:06:05.886 - that the Monroe County Airport sits in the Indiana drone 01:06:06.146 --> 01:06:14.485 - corridor that's currently being developed, we're kind of the de facto airfield for Crane, since Crane 01:06:14.485 --> 01:06:23.069 - doesn't have its own airfield. And we have this talk about merging, manufacturing, research, and testing 01:06:23.069 --> 01:06:31.408 - with the state, ARI, and the Monroe County Airport kind of sits right under all of that. Does anybody 01:06:31.408 --> 01:06:32.798 - see a pathway or 01:06:32.930 --> 01:06:39.525 - maybe a recommendation for what the Monroe County Airport leadership should be doing to have a place 01:06:39.525 --> 01:06:46.316 - at the table or provide a space for some of this to come together on our hundreds of acres of developed 01:06:46.316 --> 01:06:53.238 - land out there at the airport. Yeah, I think there's a great opportunity. The corridor that you mentioned 01:06:53.238 --> 01:06:58.462 - is a partnership between Crane and the National Guard to create a 250 mile long 01:06:58.850 --> 01:07:04.886 - what's called a beyond visual line of sight corridor. Right now, you can't do a lot of testing unless 01:07:04.886 --> 01:07:11.336 - you maintain visual line of sight, which means you can't test more than about a mile away. But increasingly, 01:07:11.336 --> 01:07:17.371 - the FAA is allowing with certain systems in place to do that over longer distances. And so that'll go 01:07:17.371 --> 01:07:22.046 - near Bloomington. It'll use the airport as one of the launch or landing sites. 01:07:22.818 --> 01:07:27.886 - With the test site itself, though, there's more that we can do. They're an important partner to us. 01:07:27.886 --> 01:07:33.055 - That's going to be one of our first offerings as a test site once we get the paperwork completed with 01:07:33.055 --> 01:07:37.566 - the FAA. But we'll also, as the test site, have the ability to partner with the airport. 01:07:37.666 --> 01:07:43.523 - To set up different airspace right that might be used for a different purpose that isn't primarily militarily 01:07:43.523 --> 01:07:48.848 - focused. Some of that may be related to work that IU wants to do it may be related to what industry 01:07:48.848 --> 01:07:53.534 - is interested in coming here, but I think you're right to look at developing that land. 01:07:53.922 --> 01:07:59.770 - because I think there is a real opportunity. And I think what really sets Indiana apart from most of 01:07:59.770 --> 01:08:05.675 - the test sites, which tend to be out western to southwest, is just the wide variety of use cases that 01:08:05.675 --> 01:08:11.638 - we can do, right? You could launch from Bloomington, and you could do public safety testing around the 01:08:11.638 --> 01:08:17.544 - campus. You could do agricultural testing in actual fields, or you could do the defense work. I think 01:08:17.544 --> 01:08:20.670 - maybe we have time for one more question. Chancellor? 01:08:22.594 --> 01:08:28.600 - I'm John Ciorciari. I'm the interim provost at IU Bloomington. Thank you so much for all your insights. 01:08:28.600 --> 01:08:34.780 - You talked about comparative advantage, and clearly one of the comparative advantages is our technological 01:08:34.780 --> 01:08:40.787 - prowess as a major research university. I spent my morning touring around labs in biology and chemistry 01:08:40.787 --> 01:08:46.909 - and learning about cutting-edge work our faculty and grad students are doing on everything from molecular 01:08:46.909 --> 01:08:49.854 - biology to computer chip processing speeds and AI. 01:08:50.306 --> 01:08:56.215 - But I wanna ask about a different aspect of where we have a comparative advantage, and that's in the 01:08:56.215 --> 01:09:02.183 - arts and humanities. We have a world-class school of music and school of art architecture and design. 01:09:02.183 --> 01:09:08.092 - We have fabulous museums and cinema and auditorium, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on where that 01:09:08.092 --> 01:09:14.353 - comparative advantage should fit into our thinking about what makes for a competitive regional environment 01:09:14.353 --> 01:09:19.326 - for business. So I love that question. You know, we talk about this a lot. The next, 01:09:19.874 --> 01:09:25.699 - So this next generation of business attraction is going to be focused on workforce. And so I've mentioned 01:09:25.699 --> 01:09:31.194 - that a number of times, but we run into this bit of a problem where businesses increasingly want to 01:09:31.194 --> 01:09:36.854 - go to locations where the workforce exists. Workforce increasingly wants to go to locations where they 01:09:36.854 --> 01:09:42.404 - have multiple job opportunities. The way to get a little bit ahead of that is through investments in 01:09:42.404 --> 01:09:46.910 - the quality of place. And so through our ready initiatives, ready one, ready two, 01:09:47.138 --> 01:09:52.551 - We've been able to invest in communities, but very specifically, through the generosity of the Lilly 01:09:52.551 --> 01:09:58.070 - Endowment, I think there's $35 million that we're able to devote to enhancing the arts in communities. 01:09:58.070 --> 01:10:03.483 - And so yesterday at our IEDC board meeting, we talked a great deal about this, of how we can add art 01:10:03.483 --> 01:10:08.949 - into these places. Because what we find is, again, when we do these pitches, what we would love to be 01:10:08.949 --> 01:10:14.522 - able to do is to tell these companies, we already have a pool of available workers that have the skills 01:10:14.522 --> 01:10:15.326 - that you need. 01:10:15.490 --> 01:10:20.686 - just never happens. But what you can do is if you can paint the picture about your community taking 01:10:20.686 --> 01:10:25.987 - steps to be the kind of place that they can see attracting this talent, that is a good way to sort of 01:10:25.987 --> 01:10:31.443 - bridge that gap. And the arts are a huge part of attracting talent. And so I'm really excited that we're 01:10:31.443 --> 01:10:36.847 - going to be making a historic investment in the arts in Indiana. And I hope that that will help us keep 01:10:36.847 --> 01:10:42.459 - this talent around. It does absolutely add to the innovation culture. And the innovation culture ultimately 01:10:42.459 --> 01:10:44.382 - is what we depend on to create jobs. 01:10:46.114 --> 01:10:53.520 - Great question. Well, folks, I'm glad we have some time for Q&A. We're gonna hand it back to our friends 01:10:53.520 --> 01:11:00.855 - at BDC, but thank you for your time today thinking about Bloomington, thinking about our neighborhoods, 01:11:00.855 --> 01:11:08.543 - and thinking about our region. Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Let's give another round of applause. 01:11:08.543 --> 01:11:11.646 - Phil Powell, Josh Richardson, Trevor Fowdy. 01:11:12.834 --> 01:11:20.510 - Thank you for the thoughtful conversation. Thank you, Phil, for giving us a little bit of hope after 01:11:20.510 --> 01:11:22.942 - your dismal speech in November. 01:11:23.138 --> 01:11:30.137 - So thanks for that. But more importantly, I think what we've seen is there is a lot of opportunity out 01:11:30.137 --> 01:11:37.000 - here and there continues to be that option for us in this region, for Monroe County, for Bloomington 01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:43.795 - in particular, things we're seeing in Ellitsville, the airport. So, you know, we have a lot of work 01:11:43.795 --> 01:11:50.794 - ahead of us today, so we can be ready for tomorrow, but I think that there is just huge enthusiasm for 01:11:50.794 --> 01:11:53.104 - it. So I do appreciate that. I do 01:11:53.104 --> 01:11:59.359 - want to thank our sponsors but one thing I want to do there are two folks that we left off the list 01:11:59.359 --> 01:12:05.803 - and because we left you off you get an extra extra shout out but we have representative Dave Hall here 01:12:05.803 --> 01:12:09.118 - he joined us so thank you so much Dave appreciate it 01:12:09.282 --> 01:12:15.353 - And then also County Commissioner Jody Madeira is here at the back of the room. So thank you again for 01:12:15.353 --> 01:12:21.541 - also coming. So just wanted to make sure that we did acknowledge that. Once again, we cannot do anything 01:12:21.541 --> 01:12:27.435 - without our partners and we appreciate each of you being in the room and helping us do that. Before 01:12:27.435 --> 01:12:32.798 - we adjourn, I do want to let you know that we have our next meeting. We take July off like 01:12:33.122 --> 01:12:39.887 - all of Bloomington does, so we will not be having a meeting in July. But on Wednesday, August 19th at 8 a.m., 01:12:39.887 --> 01:12:46.160 - we will be featuring Scott Bullock from the Applied Research Center, also known as the ARC. And he is 01:12:46.160 --> 01:12:52.372 - offering subsequent tours that we can sign up for at that time to also see the ARC. This is gonna be 01:12:52.372 --> 01:12:59.198 - a real opportunity, because I will tell you once it opens, it will be much more difficult to get into the ARC. 01:12:59.266 --> 01:13:06.700 - But that we are hoping that a lot of you get a chance to be able to see that our next BEDC all member 01:13:06.700 --> 01:13:13.988 - meeting which will be Wednesday, September 16th at 4 PM as well. That's usually a little looser and 01:13:13.988 --> 01:13:18.142 - more fun than some of the other more serious topics, but 01:13:20.034 --> 01:13:26.623 - Anyone who is interested in knowing and learning more about BEDC seeing where we're going. I know a 01:13:26.623 --> 01:13:33.212 - lot of you I had a question in the back just kind of say so what's going on with the CEO search. We 01:13:33.212 --> 01:13:35.518 - have if you haven't heard we have. 01:13:36.226 --> 01:13:42.408 - contracted with Jorgensen Pace. They are a search firm. They have had started their stakeholder meetings 01:13:42.408 --> 01:13:48.354 - going around. Many of you may have already been called. If not, several of you still will. We have a 01:13:48.354 --> 01:13:54.535 - great pool of candidates, they have said, that are coming this way. We have a fantastic search committee 01:13:54.535 --> 01:14:00.599 - that is being led by Paul Quick of Smithville. Stephen Bishop is on it, who is sitting there up in the 01:14:00.599 --> 01:14:06.192 - front row. So we have a lot going on there. We hope to have a new CEO in place on September 1. 01:14:06.192 --> 01:14:11.445 - So we are excited about that. A lot of good things are happening in this community, in this county, 01:14:11.445 --> 01:14:17.119 - in this area, thanks to you all. So thank you for being here today. We appreciate again our guest speakers. 01:14:17.119 --> 01:14:22.110 - We look forward to having greater discussion in the future. Thank you. Have a great afternoon.