I attended the US-Asia Expo this week and one of the main themes of the business leaders speaking there was that Arizona needs more public support to both attract new companies and to organically grow new companies here in Arizona - particularly in the technology, biosciences and renewable energy fields. Most there seemed to agree on the need for economic incentives from the state and municipalities in some form or another.
ASU has been leading this effort through their establishment of Skysong last year in south Scottsdale. Skysong is envisioned as a live-work tech incubator where start-up companies can interact with academics and area business leaders to organically grow Arizona-based tech businesses. It has unfortunately struggled to get out of the gate due to the economic downturn and big spending cuts by the Arizona legislature in their efforts to balance Arizona's budget (particularly the cuts to the Arizona Science Foundation budget). Nevertheless, the business leaders at the Expo seemed optimistic Skysong will prove to be an important resource in the coming years in growing the local tech community and creating new knowledge-based companies and jobs here.
Yesterday, Chandler also took a pretty big step forward in adding to the local resources meant to organically grow new tech, bioscience and renewable energy companies here in Arizona with the announcement that they are finalizing funding for a new multi-million dollar tech incubation center. The center is meant to provide the necessary facilities for start-up companies here in the Valley at a much lower cost than market rates. It will be located in a building originally build by Intel that will be leased and remodeled by the City of Chandler and then leased at low rates to start-up companies. In particular, it will have advanced wet-lab facilities that are necessary for (but often unavailable to) bioscience start-up companies.
Chandler is home to Intel, which attracts many highly skilled professionals in engineering, math and science. Having resources like this new incubator available may help retain some of that talent in the Valley when they decide to branch off on their own as entrepreneurs - instead of moving away to other cities more known as tech and bioscience centers.
This new incubator and Skysong combined with the many knowledge-based workers brought to the Valley by the chip industry will hopefully kick-start the growth of new tech, bioscience and renewable energy start-up companies to the point where a critical mass exists and the Valley becomes better known as a destination for these types of companies.
ASU has been leading this effort through their establishment of Skysong last year in south Scottsdale. Skysong is envisioned as a live-work tech incubator where start-up companies can interact with academics and area business leaders to organically grow Arizona-based tech businesses. It has unfortunately struggled to get out of the gate due to the economic downturn and big spending cuts by the Arizona legislature in their efforts to balance Arizona's budget (particularly the cuts to the Arizona Science Foundation budget). Nevertheless, the business leaders at the Expo seemed optimistic Skysong will prove to be an important resource in the coming years in growing the local tech community and creating new knowledge-based companies and jobs here.
Yesterday, Chandler also took a pretty big step forward in adding to the local resources meant to organically grow new tech, bioscience and renewable energy companies here in Arizona with the announcement that they are finalizing funding for a new multi-million dollar tech incubation center. The center is meant to provide the necessary facilities for start-up companies here in the Valley at a much lower cost than market rates. It will be located in a building originally build by Intel that will be leased and remodeled by the City of Chandler and then leased at low rates to start-up companies. In particular, it will have advanced wet-lab facilities that are necessary for (but often unavailable to) bioscience start-up companies.
Chandler is home to Intel, which attracts many highly skilled professionals in engineering, math and science. Having resources like this new incubator available may help retain some of that talent in the Valley when they decide to branch off on their own as entrepreneurs - instead of moving away to other cities more known as tech and bioscience centers.
This new incubator and Skysong combined with the many knowledge-based workers brought to the Valley by the chip industry will hopefully kick-start the growth of new tech, bioscience and renewable energy start-up companies to the point where a critical mass exists and the Valley becomes better known as a destination for these types of companies.
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