Project 3P

Future Economy Council Meeting #29 - (November 17, 2011)

2011-11-20T21:22:00.001-08:00

Future Economy Council Meeting #28 - (October 20, 2011)

2011-11-20T21:21:00.001-08:00

(Coming Soon)

Future Economy Council Meeting #27 - (September 15, 2011)

2011-11-20T21:19:00.001-08:00

(Coming Soon)

Future Economy Council Meeting #26 - (August 18, 2011)

2011-11-20T20:58:00.001-08:00

Future Economy Council Meeting #25 - (June 16, 2011)

2011-11-20T20:57:00.001-08:00

Future Economy Council Meeting #24 - (May 19, 2011)

2011-11-20T20:55:00.001-08:00

Future Economy Council Meeting #23 - (April 21, 2011)

2011-11-20T20:54:00.001-08:00

(Coming Soon)

Future Economy Council Meeting #22 - (March 17, 2011)

2011-11-20T20:52:00.001-08:00

(Coming Soon)

Future Economy Council Meeting #21 - (February 17, 2011)

2011-03-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Dan St. Louis is a member of the Future Economy Council and the head of the Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC). He, along with Donald Duncan, Conover's City Manager, gave a presentation about the relocation of the MSC to the Conover station Development.

We have discussed both of these developments in the past, but this is a thorough presentation, in which Dan and Donald describe what the mission of the MSC is and what future goals of the MSC will be. The MSC is a public-private partnership that enables business and government to come together and share costs of expensive testing, which reduces costs to do business and allows these businesses to put out a better product at a lower cost. This will help create jobs for our region.

The mission of the Manufacturing Solutions Center (MSC) is to help US manufacturers increase sales, improve quality and improve efficiency to create or retain jobs.

This is accomplished by:

* Enhancing and improving products through research and development
* Assisting in creating prototypes for new, innovative offerings
* Analyzing new materials to enhance structure and programs
* Testing products for reliable content and quality
* Training personnel for lean manufacturing processes and supply chain efficiencies
* Providing a forum for rollout of new 21st century technologies
* Providing hands-on guidance for international marketing, sales and military procurement
* Providing photo-realistic renderings and visualizations
* Creating 3-Dimensional rapid prototypes in a variety of materials
* Industry advocacy

Bringing manufacturing into the NEW ERA of changing technologies, global marketing and production innovations.

The next presentation was given by Dewey Harris, Assistant County Commissioner. The presentation was a reiteration of a presentation that he gave back in November. the difference is that he is now working in conjunction with the City of Conover to help get the message out about the Development of the Conover Station. Below is the presentation that he gave about Mobile Governance back in November:

The above was a discussion based on the Conover Station. Donald Duncan originally spoke about this development with our group in September - A Conversation about Conover Station and Economic Development . I hope that you will take time to look at this all ecompassing developnt. which is a bright spot in our community.

Future Economy Council Meeting #20 - (January 13, 2011)

2011-02-15T00:25:00.000-08:00

Terry addressed an update of the Western Piedmont Council of Governments information delivered to us last year by Taylor Dellinger. Not a whole lot of information has changed pertaining to the numbers.

Danny gave updates about the Legislative Issues conference that would take place on 1/20/2011. He then addressed the upcoming Chamber Annual Meeting that is designed around Creativity and Innovation. He addressed the unveiling of Catawba County’s Portal Website that Houston Harris played a major role in designing around Live, Work, and Play. One message and one marketing brand designed around start something here, it is the greatest place to begin or begin again.

March 11, 2011 – a big Economic Strategic planning session at the Simulated Hospital to develop a jobs plan for Catawba County using the facilitation and technology of the Collaborative Labs of St. Petersburg College. They will be a satellite branch of this facility at the Former Ryan’s Steakhouse where the Manufacturing Solutions Center was initially going to be located.

Danny went into the Brainstorming process in association with Tom Shea. Houston touched on the Creativity Institute at the McColl Center in Charlotte. It was a six week process involving innovative artists who are nationally recognized. Exercises enabled individuals to use art to communicate a thought and go through the creative process. It wakes things up in you that may have been asleep for a while. This enables you to bring those things out. Houston went into his Free Range Chicken Thinking Theory in association with this process.

Danny spoke about the Innovation 2010 conference held in October and Andrew Hargadon’s Presentation. It isn’t about the idea. It is about taking an idea and connecting it with other things that may already exist and that is what creates value. As I interjected, one of the things that is going on around here is that we aren’t looking to our past resources and how we can put those together for future needs. That is the mash-up process. The Higher Education consortium that put this event together developed under the ideas and theme of what the Future Economy Council had asked them to do.

The Edison Project has come out of talks with CVCC and they will engage in an event in April or May. The Chamber will also form a competition for later in the year. These applications will be taken until May. It will be narrowed down by August and an event will take place in September that will award a cash prize and pro bono services to help get the idea off the ground.

Terry brought up the subject of Social Media involving his endeavors with the government. He stated that this fits into the Mobile Governance model. London, England has utilized this for economic growth. Smart phone technology can be utilized with government databases and integrated to make information more efficient and purpose driven. Terry states that we need to know what people need.

Weak Signals – Rick Smyre’s Weak Signal report based upon World Wide basis. Terry asked about weak signal opportunities and challenges associated with Catawba County. I stated that this is the reason why we need to have more dialogue between FEC sessions. We decided to move forward with a Linked In site as a path of least resistance.

Houston reintroduced his discussion of a website that will allow ideas to build momentum and move forward. You post a problem and it must be accompanied by your idea of a solution. There will be a voting mechanism associated with this and this process would allow for the building of a consensus. It is Houston’s desire that this to be a regional process.

Terry added that there is a similar system in place in Manor, Texas. It is a sort of gaming format with 4 levels associated with scrutiny and feasibility. Houston stated that this could be done in three weeks, if the arrangements were brought into line to move forward. Terry stated that there is an opportunity here in association with land-use and competing in the social media and citizen interaction arena. How do we get ideas funneled into a mechanism that people can start using. This would be used to study issues about business, government, social, and cultural issues.

Harry went into a discussion that we had had recently involving the issues of tolerance and receptivity towards cultures and diversity. The world is evolving and if we are going to be a world wide culture, we are going to have to be open to opportunities from a lot of different areas. People look at this area and wonder if we are really receptive. Are we going to be able to get into a global mindset in something less than a generation? We don’t want to see a vibrant Hickory 30 or 40 years down the road, we’d kinda like to see something happening quicker. We’re all middle –aged white men. How do we expand this? How do we get to where when people look to Catawba County they see a welcome mat and an open door?

Terry went into numbers presented by Taylor in the past and the areas that were most successful over the last several years. Wlimington, Raleigh, and Asheville were looked to as areas of cultural diversity that have succeeded.

We had a discussion about the surveys that have us at the bottom of the rankings. I asked Danny about his participation in the Gallup-Healthway study. He basically told us that they had given him an overall view of wellness and asked him to help find other people in the community to discuss how they personally defined wellness. I stated that we need to climb in the numbers. I believe that we need to re-engineer these numbers. I spoke about a weak signal being the fact that with the increased costs of higher education that you may see a contraction in the UNC system as fewer people are able to enroll.

Steve Ivester spoke about the App State regional campus and his anxieties about the fact that this seems to not have taken hold. Danny stated that the local campus is up to 800 students and it is doing great. Harry stated that he doesn’t think it is education per se. He believes that the local issues that we face involve culture. We have the right business climate. The ancillary things related to culture and wellness are negatively impacting the area. How do we change the culture about opening up the welcome mat?

Ivester talked about the Hickory Small business Council and the fact that in many ways we don’t even realize that they exist. I interjected that they have not yet come up with their ideas that they want to put into the public arena. They are holding everything close to the vest until that happens. Alan will participate in anything outside of that entity and is willing to grab ideas.`

Danny talked about the Economic Development opportunities surrounding the Manufacturing Solutions Center and the Practice Nursing Facility and opportunities involving the housing of these students and fulfilling their living needs. Terry mentioned in Savannah, Georgia they are utilizing hotels for dorm space and it is uplifting these areas.

We also talked about the possibilities of teleconferencing in the future. We also talked about the formation and flow of topics under the Linked In site.
We came to a conclusion that we need to incorporate more people into the group. We also have chosen that we need to make it easier for people to participate. We definitely want to bring younger people and more cultural diversity in the group.

Kevin Spencer wanted to know what the focus of the group is. Are we trying to completely remake ourselves or are we looking to remarket what we have? Harry stated that we are talking about and/both. I stated that we have a trade war going on in this world. Kevin interjected that part of that is coming back and he added some of the successes that he has had in placing these companies. I added that we do need to look at the issue of fair trade and we should not completely dismiss manufacturing and some people think we should get completely away from manufacturing. I am not saying that we have mandated that. Kevin interjected that that seems to be the consensus that manufacturing has brought us to this point. Manufacturing has killed us.

I added that I don’t think that it is healthy, when I look at what Jim Rice said back in the 1970s, he said we needed to diversify the area and we never did. We lucked into the cable and it took up the place of the hosiery and stuff that was leaving and it took up some of that capacity in the 1990s, but as soon as that left, it left this big canyon that we have to fill here. We have got to have communication with our leaders in the State and federal government that it is more than just talking points. We need to fight to bring fair trade and manufacturing back to the united states and we will benefit from that.

Harry responded to the issue of both/and. We need to get people to look at Hickory, like we are doing with this portal website. We must do that and we cannot fail to do that, but that is not enough. We have good business fundamentals. But, sometimes we shoot our foot with some things. In a diverse world we are not going to have everything in common with our neighbors . We have got to say that if you want to bring something a little different that we are open to that within certain rules.
Dan St. Louis added that he is getting tons of inquiries from businesses around the world that want to relocate here. He can’t keep up with them. We are starting to build something and we do need to market ourselves better. We don’t want to give up what we’ve got. We aren’t as bad off as we think we are.

Danny finished by stating that he is trying to make stuff happen, because we lack visionary leaders with the government. Is it the Chamber’s responsibility to do this? There is nobody doing this and that is frustrating. There is no sense of urgency here to fix anything. We have hit rock bottom and we couldn’t go any further down. We have to keep the faith and make sure that we stay together and broaden the group. We lost Facebook, not because of our quality of life, but because we are a tier 2 and not a tier 1 (Economic Develop Incentives with the State of North Carolina).

I asked again that e form a mission statement to take to the public. Some simple message that we can give to the public about what we are all about. Danny added that he can’t understand why the top Business Executives won’t participate in this group.
Harry added that we are looking at two separate things business and area. We are talking about the Future Economy Council of Catawba County. We are thinking about Catawba County. The younger people he has spoken to don’t give a hoot about Catawba County. They are more interested in their work and lifestyle than they are about Catawba County. We have to make our area more amiable to these people, because businesses can locate (and operate) anywhere. The ancillary things need to come together and they are up to the standard that people want to have.

Ron Valentini added that when you are putting information out there to get input from the citizenry, what is even more important is whoever is receiving that information, are they open to something they don’t believe in, but yet they are receptive? I think that is important. If a person is willing to make themselves vulnerable, open and receptive to… that might work, as opposed to being closed minded. Terry added that economics have opened people’s minds and government is now having to work together to provide services. The climate has changed.

Future Economy Council Meeting #19 - (November 3, 2010)

2010-11-08T10:53:00.000-08:00

Terry opened the meeting by pointing to the above map and speaking about the storm that occurred the week before. No one was taken to the hospital as a result of this storm. The red dots are results where property was damaged. The red dots show the path that the storm took. There were tractor trailors that were fully loaded and were turned over and pushed 1,000 feet.

Danny addressed the group and spoke of a trip that he took with Dr. Garrett Hinshaw of CVCC to St. Petersburg, Florida to meet with Collaborative Labs at St. Petersburg College. An event will be held in January associated with the Collaborative lab staff.

On November 10, 2010, an event focusing on innovation will be held at CVCC. Partnership for Innovation in Education (PIE) is sponsoring a showcase of business innovation and creativity called “Innovation 2010: Business Resources for Success.” The half-day seminar is from 7:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. at Catawba Valley Community College’s Multipurpose Complex. CVCC is a member of the PIE partnership.

Danny then addressed the Brainstorming sessions that have taken place so far in association with the Chamber of Commerce and The Entrepreneurial Roundtable Group. He also addressed the issue of the Portal Website being established by Houston Harris and Pixelspace. We should see what it will look like at the beginning of the year. He also spoke about the new exposition starting at the beginning of the year called Schmoozapalooza. This will take place twice per year. It will be a fun event. The annual chamber meeting in February will identify and recognize the most creative and innovative companies in Catawba County. He needs help in identifying these companies. These companies have a story in association with their uniqueness and he wants these stories to be told. This will be a positive event for the area.

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Dewey Harris Presentation on Mobile Governance:

Over the last few years you, who know me, have been made privy to my frustrations detailing the lack of a relationship between government and the citizenry. I have expressed the anxieties I feel I have witnessed in the association between a government operating in favor of special interests and lacking forthrightness and an unengaged, ambivalent public looking for short answers and simple solutions.

Rick Smyre introduced the subject of Mobile Governance to the Future Economy Council and myself in late May and Early June of 2009. He wrote a detailed article entailing the meaning of Mobile Governance, which I introduced on the Hickory Hound at that time -THE WEAK SIGNAL OF MOBILE GOVERNANCE by Rick Smyre.

Dewey Harris, the Assistant Catawba County Manager and a member of the Future economy Council gave a thorough presentation and discussion of the progress that has taken place over this issue during the last 18 months. Dewey has worked in association with Rick and there is hope that UNC-Wilmington and other institutions will come on board to institute this process and program. Pilot Programs will be established to initially stake a flag into some key complex issues where local governments might have trouble communicating with the public and implementing important tasks and processes, because of the lack of trust that has become rooted in our current system of governance.

Here is Dewey's presentation made on November 3, 2010:

Here is a favorite quote of mine from Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn espoused on June 18, 2009, which makes a statement about what the Future Economy Council is trying to achieve and its relation to the governance issue.

When people say, "who is the beneficiary?" I can't go to someone and say give me $10,000 and you will get this in return. This is not that investment. We are selling the invisible. If we continue to take this economy in the direction that we have always taken it, we aren't going to get anywhere. The Economy has totally changed. What we had prior to 2000 is gone. We have to reinvent ourselves. If we don't do that, then we are in big trouble. It is the thinking of elected officials, business, and education of changing the way we do things and that investment can't be shown. The community better embrace it and understand it.

We can't even get our local officials to read a document about Mobile Governance that Rick wrote. There are (forward thinking) investment ideas out there, that no current elected official will look at, but people who are prone to understand this and reach outside of their comfort level and try to embrace it, all of a sudden, an idea that a traditional thinker will not do, we might. Those ideas are achievable.

Future Economy Council Meeting #18 - (September 16, 2010)

2010-09-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

A Conversation about Conover Station and Economic Development

Conover Station -- An Economic Development and Multi-Modal Transportation facility.

Donald Duncan is the City Manager of Conover. Danny Hearn stated that (the Chamber) wants to bring us creative economic development, entrepreneurial driven projects that can give us some optimism and some positive news to look forward to. This project, that is being presented, is something that Conover has been working on for several years.

Don stated that this is a very large project that they have been working on for five years. At that time, when Don took the city manager job, they had no idea what they would do with the Broyhill building. Today they have $5.7 million in grants that are dedicated to this project. Last week they presented to the North Carolina Green conference.

Currently the Conover site is the lead project for the North Carolina Brownfield’s projects. He stated that none of this was planned and this has been hard work. They have had more failures than successes, but they have turned the failures into assets. The goal has been to turn every liability into an asset, into cash assets, increase property values, or turn properties into something no one ever thought they could be.

Don showed a 3-D rendering of a project that was designed by the 1996 Atlanta Olympic committee. This sketch up concept cost tens of millions of dollars. This Olympic Committee was represented by many members who were not technologically savvy. The average age of these individuals was 55 years old. This was a crude walk-through of what the Olympics stadium would look like when it was finished. The members of this Olympic Committee were in awe of what they saw from that crude 3-D rendering.

People could never visualize large scale developments such as this on paper. These types of Visual Media (3-D Renderings) help to sell things. This shows what they have done with the properties associated with the Broyhill property. This had such an effect on people that Don had to calm the people down, because they were so excited by the prospects of what could be done with this property. The problem is that sometimes the media is the message and you have to be careful with that. Sometimes people don't realize what they're buying into.

What they started out what with was a 27 acre site that backs up to Conover's downtown. The site has a footprint of approximately 400,000 sq. ft. Most of these properties come from the early part of the 20th century. It was cobbled together. There were 650,000 sq ft of total building beyond that footprint. There were stone foundations and multiple floors. These buildings were uniquely put together utilizing technology from the early part of the 20th century.

Don stated that Broyhill was a good environmental steward and the sites were very clean. There were buried tanks in the ground that were removed in the early 1980s when the EPA wanted this taken care of. There is some ground contamination and they are currently handling that with a $200,000 cleanup grant from the EPA. They're using new innovative technologies to attempt to remedy this and to remove any of the ecological problems on the site.

The site has a creek that is bisecting the middle of it. 20 years ago they would have covered it up and put a plant on it. They are going to utilize the creek as a water feature and they will utilize the property for storm water. The storm water basin will be used for the downtown area and encompasses 70 acres. This is a liability that has been turned into an asset. The city will own the storm water treatment facility and this allows the full use of all of the property. Tax dollars will maintain this. This would have been wasted land, but instead it will be utilized as a park. There will be walking trails and a passive park. This will be a 3 1/2 to 4 acre park.

The whole site will be integrated into the neighborhood that surrounds it. Modern construction and modern development techniques and standards will be utilized to bring together this site, the neighborhood that surrounds it, the industrial area across Highway 16, and downtown Conover.

What do you do with 1800 feet of railroad? There is a lot of railroad infrastructure located at the site. There used to be a parallel track located on the side. There is a switch where you cross Highway 16 and there is a WPA bridge on the south side of the property, which is architecturally significant.

The Western Piedmont Passenger Rail Committee supports passenger rail and the possibility of bringing it back to the area. Hickory has sold its depot and there is no designated spot located in the Catawba County area. Conover has worked in conjunction with this group to put together a plan to present to the State Department of Transportation. This led to Conover being designated as a stop on the Western North Carolina rail line. Catawba County is the most populated area in the western North Carolina area besides Mecklenburg County. The Department of Transportation is fully supportive of this idea.

Nothing has been done that is antagonistic towards any other community in this area. Work still needs to be done in conjunction with the owners of the railroad. This is not something that will be done overnight. No one knows when the rail could possibly come into existence. There is the possibility that this could come into existence in the next 10 years, because of the stimulus money that has been spent to enhance rail options in the state of North Carolina. Asheville is the number one requested stop in North Carolina by tourists in studies done by Amtrak.

The largest military concentration in the world is located in southeastern North Carolina. The military needs to be able to get goods and military personnel in and out of that area. Every dollar they get spent in western North Carolina will be spent in eastern North Carolina. The goal is to make the ports stronger and have a more expeditious way to move people and equipment in and out of North Carolina. Gov. Perdue is completely behind us.

Stimulus money says that all of this has to be engineered and studies have to be done before the high speed rail is finished. Environmental work is being done on both the eastern and western side of North Carolina. If money is available this will entail 5 to 6 years of time for construction. You're looking at a minimum of 7 to 8 years for this to occur. The state legislature has passed laws to help facilitate development of properties along the rail lines. The railroads are required to respond to any development proposals within 90 days of their submission and this is required by law. If they do not ,then you are allowed to do what you need to do on the property in question as long as you are not inhibiting rail traffic.

I (Thom Shell) asked if this was all existing track that needs to be reconditioned? Don answered yes. This must be upgraded for higher speeds. Freight will run at 50 to 55 mph. Passenger rail will run in the 70 mph range. On the western side of Conover freight will run at 35 mph, while passenger rail will run at around 55 mph. There are topographical issues that prevent high speed rail. Past the Old Fort (NC) area you can only go 15 to 20 mph.

I asked if this was a passenger and industrial link or the western side or just an industrial link? Don stated that this was mainly meant for freight rail. The idea is to have two or three passenger trains available per day for this proposed rail service line. They do not want passenger trains interrupting freight rail. This is looked at as an expensive proposition, but with a cost of $150 million, the cost is less than $1 million per mile. This compares favorably with development of projects on the highways and interstates that cost 10+ times that amount.

Jay Adams pointed out interstates carry a lot more people. Don stated that there are commuter possibilities between Old Fort and Salisbury. From Conover to Raleigh you could be in Raleigh and 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Jay pointed out that this could be a good tool for businesses located on the western side of the state. We want to have our (Industrial) plants dispersed. The rail corridor is a great way to move people and materials between facilities. Don pointed out that there has not been much investment in the rail system since World War II. We have gone from the greatest rail system in the world to the worst rail system in the world in a period of about 30 years.

I asked if there was a vision of this possibly becoming a commuter line in the near future? Don stated that he didn't believe that there was a possibility in the near future. Not until the passenger line is completely reinstituted. In the long-term this might happen. This will not be possible for short trips, but this is a possibility to Raleigh or Marion or Old Fort.

I asked if there was any possibility that there could be a direct connector to Charlotte? Don stated that that is the question that is most often asked. He pointed out that there are existing lines that run through Maiden and there are lines existing in Gaston County to Belmont and into Lincoln County. These lines have been abandoned and property owners have been uncooperative. The Carolina Thread Trail is looking to procure this right of way. He does believe that this is a key. He stated that he does hope that this will happen. He stated that the State has not put enough money into this and Norfolk- Southern has abandoned the tracks.

I asked if the key contingency was the price of fuel? He stated yes. This is the major factor. When we see $4 a gallon people will be screaming for more rail. Rail is just one component of the Conover (Broyhill) site.

Don showed pictures of the main existing infrastructure on the site, this especially includes the Warlong building, which was built at the beginning of the 20th century. This was the most sound building on the site. There is a lot of history to this building. Don went into the specific architecture of this building.

When viewing and discussing the techniques of how these buildings were originally built, Houston Harris asked if we have lost the ingenuity to just make things happen?

Don showed many features of the site, which includes a walkway with a pedestrian bridge and this is dead even with the track and leads to a rail platform. He does not know when this will be done, because the state will build all of these at one time. Money has been designated by the state for this.

Over $2 million will go into the process of renovating the Warlong building. One-third of this building will be utilized as a waiting area for future passenger rail. This building will also have a section devoted as a library. This will be one of the nicest libraries in Catawba County. Another part of this building will be devoted to the transit authority of the area. That is what makes this building a multi-modal facility. People need a way to get around when they get off of the train. This will be a fixed route bus system. There will also be a community facility in the building. This can be utilized for conferences, receptions or other public needs. The community room expands into a patio area.

The Manufacturing Solutions Center hopes to eventually be located at this site. Those developments are still open ended because of funding issues that are currently being addressed. Don stated that they don't want to promise something that they are not going to be able to deliver. The idea of a partnership between the city of Conover, CVCC, and the Manufacturing Solutions Center is to get the facility (MSC) out of the educational environment and make businesses realize that the focus is on business. They want to do things at the speed of business to help business. There is an advantage with the library for research issues and this is proposed to be associated with N.C. State University. The community center can also be used as a conference facility for purposes related to the Manufacturing Solutions Center.

There is also a residential aspect to this community. But, under current circumstances the market is flooded and currently this is only a fallback plan. What he is trying to accomplish is a more viable downtown. People say that Wal-Mart killed downtown, but Don stated that he believes the interstate system killed downtown. The idea is for this to be a development where people can take a 10 minute walk and go utilize multiple services. They are just trying to get back to what existed 100 years ago.

Jay Adams pointed out the great product that Conover has to offer. He talked about the terrific assets and a community that is optimizing those assets; and he complemented Conover on taking the negatives and turning them into positives. He stated that in his business that this type of mindset creates enthusiasm on both sides of the equation.

There will be a new website which will be launched next month. Michael Neely is the developer of this site. Don basically stated that there is no idea that they have not listened to and no possibility that they have dismissed. They are willing to listen to any and everyone about anything that is proposed.

I asked about what appears to be loose reigns and I stated that it appears that they have not been micromanaged. What created this environment in Conover? Don stated that there is a lot of give and take and it takes a lot of vision and a lot of different personalities have to get along. The city's team has had to learn to understand the needs of one another. There has been a lot of changeover on the Conover City Council. He stated that this was neither good nor bad, but the previous Council did not want to put the money into what it would take to be a developer. They did not want this development to be a drag on the town. The present council wants this development to be a gift to the city and a help to the city.

The political connotation of this development is that if it fails everyone attached to its neck is in the noose. Many people (governments) don't want to take that sort of risk. There has already been a changeover on Conover City Council, not all of it related to this issue, but maybe some of it. This could lead to more turnover if it were to fail. Many average citizens do not understand the site.

The city has not hired professional PR people to promote this site and its development. Don has taken it upon himself to go personally address small groups to bring them into the loop on this issue. The average citizen cares mostly that taxes are kept low and the city delivers services that are expected to be provided smoothly and efficiently. Other than services, this is the number one priority of the city of Conover. As long as those services are running smoothly and efficiently this is the number one focus.

Patti Thompson stated that she had to admit that she had never heard about this until she attended a graduation presentation in which it was addressed. She stated that she was excited about this project, but she thought it was a mall and she really didn’t understand what the entire project encompassed, it is still somewhat of an intangible.

Jay stated that the real activity will come when you interface with the development community. They will create the housing, office buildings, and retail. They are excited when that they see things such as this. It is about making the connection. Don asked, “How many communities are willing to take on this type of liability?” As a municipality, Conover has had a lot of leverage with regulatory agencies. This has helped a lot. Regulatory agencies are used to dealing with private developers and not with public entities.

I stated that economic development does not happen in the past or present, it happens in the future. Don said he disagreed. It starts today. You will not see the fruit of the labor until 5 or 10 years later. He talked about the Apple development. He said that it took Duke Power damming the river and the loss of industry in order to have the excess energy capacity available that is needed for this facility. So it took 100 years for the circumstances to be right for this development take place. He talked about the IBT (Inter-Basin Transfer). This is not the huge deal today, that it will be in the future.

Most governments will not take the risk that is necessary for this sort of development. He joked that this was kamikaze approach. Don stated that it is a necessity not to overstate what they are doing with this site.

Kevin Spencer talked about the hurdles that Conover has had to jump. He pontificated about, “…can you imagine if an independent entity were to try and do something like this, not a city.” Jay stated that Don has plowed a garden to create economic development. Kevin stated that an individual would not be able to do this. A business would not be able take on this kind of risk. Jay stated that businesses appreciate when they see this. Kevin said we have got to overcome that and stated that there is not another community in this area that would be willing to do this. Businesses will say it ain’t worth it. Jay laughed and stated that his attitude was, “Let’s go to Conover.”

The success of Conover will force other communities to take a look at what Conover is doing. Don asked that we not compare Conover to their contemporaries. He stated that government's responsibility is to take the obstacles out of the equation. That is what government is for. Don stated that you can have all the vision in the world, but if you don't take action then it is nothing but a dream.

Future Economy Council Meeting #17 - (August 20, 2010)

2010-08-20T20:59:00.001-07:00

Future Economy Council Business address - Danny Hearn spoke about the fact that someone will help to submit a grant to the Golden Leaf Foundation in hopes of developing an Entrepreneur Center such as the one in Dublin, Ohio. Tom Shays will help with this. Dr. Jane Everson addressed the mini Emerging-Issues forum that will take place as a one day event on November 10, 2010 (7:30am-2:30pm).

Danny and Scott Millar (and there counterparts in Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, and Watauga counties) helped to develop an agenda that has a lot of input from both business and industry. There will be a showcase of 16 businesses that have done something innovative in partnership with one of our local Higher Educational Institutions. Andrew Hargadon will be a keynote speaker. He is a business professor dealing in innovation from the University of California at Davis. Registration will begin on September 1, 2010 - the registration is limited to 400 people.

Lenoir-Rhyne will hold a creativity forum on September 8, 2010 at 7:00pm involving Creative Communities at Work Transforming Local and Regional Economies.

VisionAire Aviation Presentation (The VisionAire Vantage - Aerospace Industry beginning a future in Catawba County). The inset link is a more detailed full length article I authored after previously meeting with the VisionAire team at their office for three hours. I hope that you will read it. In my opinion, this aircraft is a golden opportunity to move our community towards innovative technology. This would be a significant step towards our desire to brand this area as a community of ingenuity and innovation. The initiation of the design and manufacturing processes would bring instantaneous scientific notoriety to the area. We would definitely be taken seriously as a community on the move towards the cutting edge of future technologies.

Mr. Jim Rice and Mr. David Okenfuss gave a 30 minute presentation. This presentation was a pared down version of what you will have read in the article above. After the presentation, Mr. Rice took questions from the group.

Patty Thompson asked about the FCC's certification? Jim addressed the steps involved to obtain FAA Certification. Involving building aircraft and having them tested and broken down. Steve Ivester asked about the past failures of the company including the Ames, Iowa plant, a wing-drop issue, and a landing gear issue? Paraphrasing, Ivester asked why now, why should this be expected to work now? I hope that you will listen to Mr. Rice's full detailed explanation of these issues.

Mr. Rice addressed how the aircraft's structural issues were dealt with and resolved.
He then spoke of the timing of Investments. This all occurred during the fluctuations of the High Tech Bubble Economy. Many of investors dried up during this period, because they had lost liquidity due to their losses involving the dot.com bubble. The company had to take alternative measures to procure capital, which they were doing during 2001. He tells a personal story about what happened on September 11, 2001, as he was in a conference room and the Airliners flew into the World Trade Center. Not one investor has ever sued over their investments.

He addressed the bankruptcy that the company was forced into. Tom Shays asked about whether the company was still privately held? Mr. Rice stated that he was currently the only shareholder and asked about the 30 month build cycle? Mr. Rice addressed how the intellectual property would and needed to be secured. He spoke of his vision about the trauches of capital that would be guaranteed at certain milestones. He states that this was a mistake he learned the last time. It is just too hard to obtain capital as the process goes along.

Eco-Complex presentation by Jacky Eubanks the Catawba County (North Carolina)Planning Director.

Jackie addressed the future vision of the 321 corridor and the role that it will play in the culture of our local area. He mentioned the successful milestones reached thus far entailing Lincoln County's industrial park, Google, Apple, Appalachian State, and the Eco-Complex.

He talked about past initiatives over the last couple of decades. He talked about how the challenges of these plans and recommendation is that we need to dig a little deeper. Try to take these initiatives and put measurable guidelines and timelines that will enable the community to be more business friendly. He spoke in-depth about the infrastructure needs that will be designed and developed.

Jacky spoke of the need for mixed-use development to reduce sprawl. Opportunity sites will require flexibility and more choices. He spoke of how the government is working to help preserve farmland. The transportation needs and design that will help with Industrial development. He went into the development of an interchange at Rocky Ford Road. To gain a secondary outlet that will help move traffic around the Eco-Complex more efficiently.

Jacky spoke about the challenges of the municipalities in delivering infrastructure and trying to develop aggreements that will prevent overlapping and the ensure that jurisdictions are working in Harmony.

Jacky next talked about the properties in the area that have cultural significance and the desire to promote travel and tourism to the area. He also talked about natural resources and the Carolina Thread Trail. He talked about the volunteer agricultural preservation program that has been developing. He spoke of the desire to develop these opportunities.

Maps were shown with nodes that will try to densify certain areas and reduce sprawl through Mixed-Use Development. The key is to have infrastructure in place to take advantage of future possibilities. He spoke of the synergies that are meant to take advantage the current positive trends and keep that momentum going. He next went into an overview of the Eco-Complex specifics and the green economy. He also briefly talked about Apple.

Eco-Complex Questions and Development
I (Thom Shell) asked about mixed-use development cooperation involving multiple entities. Steve Ivester asked about access roads and industrial development possibilities involving the 321 corridor.

Terry announced that the next meeting will take place on September 16, 2010. Danny announced the Health Forum at the SALT Block that will take place on September 1, 2010.

Future Economy Council Meeting #16 - (June 17, 2010)

2010-08-20T20:58:00.001-07:00

Coming Soon

Future Economy Council Meeting #15 - (May 20, 2010)

2010-08-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon

Future Economy Council Meeting #14 (4/15/2010)

2010-04-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

This meeting was was held at the NC Center for Engineering Technologies. We had a special guest speaker, Dave Baldwin, President of Aquarian Technologies Systems in Lexington , Ohio. Dave is a nationally recognized facilitator and author of a new concept of using “interlocking networks” and self organizing systems for economic and community transformation. Dave is at the cutting edge of implementing new ideas and methods to help prepare communities for the on-going transformation of an economy and society that is constantly changing. Baldwin feels that one of the keys is to try a new approach by letting the community have ownership of and responsibility for the process and the results.

Terry Bledsoe opened the meeting by discussing the reasoning behind the creation of the Future Economy Council, what it is all about, and what collaborative efforts that have taken place in relation to other groups throughout the community. Terry introduced Dave as an Expert from outside of our community that would discuss ideas that have been talked about by the Future Economy Council.

Rick Smyre next spoke in introducing Dave Baldwin who he met at the World Future Society Conference several years ago. He stated that Dave is very involved in biotechnology and building networks around economic development. Dave is focused on taking diverse people with diverse ideas and understand that we are shifting from an age based on standard ideas, hierarchies, and predictability to a world of webs, networks, and multiple choices, as well as becoming comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.

Dave began by speaking about how Technology has given us the ability to connect with others instantly. Networking is not about collecting business cards. It is about relationships, intentions, and using the network. He stated that you have to have a context about network development. Why are you creating this network? He categorizes his business as a microenterprise. He states that that is where the economy is going to grow. He helped start a seven county biotech consortium in northeast Ohio. They are looking to attract a biotech workforce and preparing asset and attraction strategies to attract people who want to start biotech companies in Ohio.

Dave talked about his consultant relationship with Dublin, Ohio, which is on of the Seven Intelligent Communities of the World - (in 2010 those cities are as follows) - Arlington County, VA; Dublin, Ohio; Dundee, Scotland; Eindhoven, Netherlands; Ottawa, Ontario; Suwon, South Korea; Tallinn, Estonia. This is based on capacity and use of broadband. They want Dave to develop network connections in Dublin.

Communities bring Dave in to build, grow, and sustain networks. These communities are looking to extend connections between communities to resources that they never thought were necessary or available to them. These networks are brought in in the spirit of innovation and growth.

NEXT BIG ECONOMIC CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
IT & Innovation Foundation in Washington, DC. There are industries that are gone and aren't going to come back. Our strategies for investing in these is not appropriate. This foundation has identified a new economy and they have created new indicators of prosperity and growth in dealing with where the economy and world are headed.

They state that the U.S. economy and, by extension, state economies, face at least five key challenges over the course of the next decade. How well they meet these challenges and turn them into opportunities largely will determine whether the national and state economies will be growing and robust in the next decade or stagnant:
* Achieve the promise of the digital revolution
* Ride the next wave of innovation
* Build on the transition to a low carbon economy
* Take advantage of the new globalization
* Build on more balanced regional growth

Overall, the report uses twenty-nine indicators, divided into five categories that best capture what is new about the New Economy:
* Knowledge Jobs
* Globalization
* Economic Dynamism
* Transformation to a Digital Economy
* Technological Innovation Capacity

Dave mentioned a company involved in this new economy that is centers around Biomimedics and Biomimicry.

Biomimicry - Biomimicry is the science and art of emulating Nature's best biological ideas to solve human problems. The Biomimicry Institute promotes learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs.

20th Century Innovations - (From: 21st Century Innovations by Eugene S. Meieran, Senior Intel Fellow at Intel Corp in Chandler, AZ as they appeared in “Grand Challenges for Engineering” of the National Academy of Engineering)
Electrification, Automobile, Airplane, Water supply and distribution, Electronics, Radio and television, Agricultural mechanization, Computers, Telephone, Air conditioning/refrigeration, Interstate highways, Space flight, Internet Imaging, Household appliances, Health technologies, Petrochemical technology, Laser and fiber optics, Nuclear technologies, High-performance materials.

21st Century Innovations - (From: 21st Century Innovations by Eugene S. Meieran, Senior Intel Fellow at Intel Corp in Chandler, AZ as they appeared in “Grand Challenges for Engineering” of the National Academy of Engineering)
Energy conservation, Resource protection, Food and water productions and distribution, Waste management, Education and learning, Medicine and prolonging life, Security and counter-terrorism, New technology, Genetics and cloning, Global communication, Traffic and population logistics, Knowledge sharing, Integrated electronic environment, Globalization, AI-interfaces and robotics, Weather prediction and control, Sustainable development, Entertainment, Space exploration, Virtualization and VR, Preservation of history, Preservation of species.

*** Dave stated that the above issues pose challenges, but they also hold the key to growth, prosperity, and a lot of excitement. Are we chasing the past or investing in the future?

Ideas of a Smart World
(“Smart World: Breakthrough Creativity and the New Science of Ideas” by Richard Ogle. Harvard Business School Press 2007)

An idea space is a domain or world viewed from the perspective of the intelligence embedded in it, intelligence that we can use – consciously or not – both to solve our everyday problems and to make the creative leaps that lead to breakthrough. Creative leaps arise not from exclusively internal operations of the individual mind (genius or otherwise), but from navigating the ideas of the smart world we have built for ourselves; locating the powerful, structured forms of intelligence embedded in them; and analogically transferring these to new spaces.

*** Dave stated that A lot of ideas come from the world through "collective intelligence." Networks promote "speed of change" and an ability to share information and an accumulate and build on information that the world has come to know without having to think it or learn it all by ourselves.

Critical Community Conversations
In many communities, it’s hard to find any effective civic process. There are no places where people come together routinely to discuss issues of common concern, like building a new community center or improving our schools. As we move our communities and regions to the Second Curve economy, we will need more vibrant, flexible and focused civic processes. We will need new ways of coming together to explore complex issues. We will need new places where we can routinely convene to explore new opportunities. We will rely on trusted conveners to help us. We will need new networks, yet building these networks should not be haphazard.

In the command and control world of the First Curve, conversation is regarded largely as a distraction…First Curve leaders often think of conversation as “just talk”. On the Second Curve, conversation plays a much more central role. Through conversation, we make sense of what is happening. The complexity of the change defies easy understanding… We need to test our assumptions and make adjustments… We have no way to ask the world to slow down or stop while we engage in a deliberate and lengthy strategic planning process. (“New Models of Economic Development” White Paper Version 0.5 by Ed Morrison, Director of I-Open – The Institute for Open Economic Networks. May 2006)

***Dave stated that we have been doing this through the FEC. In the past we focused so much on productivity and efficiency. In the 21st century, we need to talk to one another and build our communities. Community and economic development have blended. We need to build relationships through networking. In the past conversation was viewed as a distraction.

Bridging Disparate Worlds
Technology brokers have discovered how to bridge the disparate worlds they move among outside their boundaries, and how to build new ventures from the technologies and people they come across. In the process, they have developed four intertwined work practices that help them do this:
1)Capturing good ideas
2)Keeping ideas alive
3)Imagining new uses for old ideas
4)Putting promising concepts to the test

***Dave talked about the disparate worlds that he is involved in and how he is educating himself about these different industries and how it makes him valuable to other entities, because of what he has to offer.

The 4 Laws of Networks
1) Luck = consciousness x transparency
2) Innovation = learning x diverse connections
3) Influence = credibility x location
4) Network growth = introductions x generosity

*** Dave stated that he and his colleague Jack Ricchiuto (Designing Life) are designing community development strategies and structures for participation. The old way was very cloistered and secretive, because of hyper-competition. Networking Science shows that it is best to collaborate, because there are many ways that we can collaborate without competing.

Effective Networks - Boards are becoming tired structures for organizational change. They don't involve the richness of the other parts of the network and don't respond fast enough to the changes in communities and organizations that we are seeing.

Five general patterns are observed in all effective networks:
1. Birds of a feather flock together - nodes link together because of common attributes, goals
or governance.

2. Diversity is important. Though clusters form around common attributes and goals, vibrant networks maintain connections to diverse nodes and clusters. A diversity of connections is required to maximize innovation in the network.

3. Rich Connections - Robust networks have several paths between any two nodes. If several nodes or links are damaged or removed, other pathways exist for uninterrupted information flow between the
remaining nodes.

4. Some nodes are more prominent than others – they are either hubs, brokers, or boundary spanners. They are critical to network health. Roles emerge because of position and personality.

5. Most nodes in the network are connected by an indirect link in the network. A-B-C-D shows a direct link between A and B, but indirect links between A and C and A and D. Yet, the average path length in the network tends to be short. There are very few long paths in the network that lead to delay and distortion of information flow and knowledge exchange.

*** Knit the Net - Intentional strategy - Valdis Kres & June Holley
Experience shows that most communities start as small emergent clusters organized around common interests or goals. Usually these clusters are isolated from each other. They are very small groups of 1-5 people or organizations that have connected out of necessity. If these fragments do not organize further, the community structure remains weak and underproducing. They are working with communities to make them recession proof by weaving networks to grow local sustainable economies.

Network Weaving - Master Capacity Building
Strength of Weak Ties & Innovation - As the weaver connects various individuals, organizations and clusters, these entities connect to each other loosely. A new dynamic is revealed here – the strength of ‘weak ties’. Weak ties are connections that are not as frequent, intense, as strong network ties that form the backbone of a network. Strong ties are usually found within a network cluster, while weak ties are found between clusters. As clusters begin to connect to each other, the first bridging links are usually weak ties. Over time weak ties may retain their structure by bridging separate clusters or they may grow in to become strong ties binding previously separate groups into a new larger cluster.

Bridging ties between clusters are also important in innovation. New ideas are often discovered outside the local domain. To get transformative ideas you often have go outside of your group. A successful formula for creating ties for innovation is to find other groups that are both similar and different than your own. Similarity helps build trust, while diversity introduces new ideas and perspectives -- Connect on your similarity, and profit from your diversity.

Meta Networks - Are large networks of networks; That are multi-centered – having no single center of control; Yet bound together by trusted relationships and shared values, goals, and experiences. Multi-Centered - No Center of Control - Illusion of Control. We are moving away from Hirarchies and from command and control organizational strategies. Out of chaos and complexity will come order if you allow it to self-organize.

- Duncan Work - Inventor/designer of social software for the Internet; organizational consultant. former Chief Scientist for LinkedIn. Bio: http://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanwork.

What are the effects of Darkness in Networks - Dark Networks exist, but they are invisible to us, because we have not met the people we need to meet. Fragmentation of the network that impedes flow of ideas and resources. Making more mistakes than would be made in a ‘brighter’ meta network. Delay, excess cost and effort, or failure to deliver needed money, talent, knowledge and ideas that are vital for success.

Questions
Steve Ivester asked about Capital and its effects on this system? Dave discussed asset mapping and community economic development. How do we define wealth and assets and the ability to get things done that don't cost as much through connections, through bartering and volunteerism. Looking at new indicators of wealth. Coming up with a local stock exchange. Coming up with a different way of fostering capital. Changing jobs and technologies that are available to the community.

Rick introduced Keva.com as a way to access capital. PayPal was about developing capital outside of the Central Banking system. He also talked about Instant Manufacturing and Boutique Manufacturing around the world as part of the emergence of the Creative Molecular Economy that will help deal with the issue of capital not being defined in the traditional way.

I (Thom Shell) asked about strides that have been made in Dave's community? Dave talked about Open Source Economic Development and asset mapping involving things like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and advanced manufacturing. There are a lot of assets that have been available in the local community that businesses didn't know were available. He talked about how they have identified developed a supply chain. It's about agenda setting and capacity building. No one is excluded. This system is not ignorant of capitalism. It celebrates it.

Future Economy Council Meeting #13 (3/18/2010)

2010-04-18T21:31:00.001-07:00

1) Custom Manufacturing
a) The issues of commitment and focus
b) Generation and Vetting of ideas
c) How do we get ideas out to the community?
d) Fostering, Mentoring, and Incubating Ideas
e) The Hyper Competition problem amongst local companies in our community - Would the suggested Real Time - Virtual software that was proposed be implemented as a partnership or independent entity?

2) Demonstration of Applications (Such as the proposed Real-Time - Virtual - CAD Rendering Manufacturing)
a) Connections - Do we have existing connections or will we have to cold call?
b) What is the value of internet bandwidth?
c) Houston stated that eventually the bandwidth becomes a utility ((Allows something (creation and implementation?) to happen).
d) At this point in time this software needs to be focused as much as possible on Google applications.
e) This has the possibility to show Google where their apps are lacking -- and maybe a local could help in that proprietary design process?
f) This is a proof of concept / pilot product
g) Steve Ivester mentioned the Solid Works User Group - They should definitely be involved!
h) Manufacturing Solutions Center should definitely be involved.
i) We need to move from Competition to Collaboration (This may demonstrate how to do that).
j) Ivester addressed transitional processes, such as the IBT allowing the cooperation between Hickory and Lenoir to occur.
k) Collaboration will help the community create energy amongst its human resources.

*** Further dialogue on this item - We need to help Dan St. Louis to write a grant proposal to the Gold Leaf Foundation for the Custom Furniture idea. Every idea from the FEC should not be funding driven. We have to get the components to agree to participate before we can present a unified front to go get a grant. There are so many technologies to integrate in that business model that we really need an integrator.

We have to have the players that are willing to commit the hours to get this off the ground. Are we trying to create a business or an industry. Dan (a public interest) facilitating this will create an industry. This will benefit everybody. Private interests creating this will create a business. In the end, there will have to be knowledge experts who can hold the various strings and there always has to be someone holding those strings or in the end it will start to unravel.

A problem we (the FEC) will always wrestle with is that we aren’t a skunk works for private enterprise. We don’t have R&D guys. We have no teeth (Capital). We rely on the kindness of others.

3) The proposed Economic and Science Fair
a) I stated that we need some outlandish marketing to bring attention from the community
b) Jay mentioned a Great Balls of Fire event that took place in Lenoir - We can do hokey well.
c) Danny mentioned the possibility of an emerging issues event
d) I say go for it. We need to get the community to be more passionate about our plight.

*** Further dialogue on this issue has brought about the possibility of a symposium coming to fruition involving leading Technologists and local entrepreneurs in the field of graphic design and computer information systems.

4) Houston mentioned the fact that negative issues always get the headlines in the HDR
a) I (Thom Shell) will be the first to admit that sometimes I contribute to that, but I try to do it in a thorough and factual manner.
b) All of us who have made contributions have had them chopped to bits, at points in time, which can change the contextual meaning.
c) Our group needs to be more proactive on this issue by discovering methods to facilitate Intelligence Operatives (Fact Finders) to get the whole story.
d) If we gather the intelligence, then we can put out a cohesive message.
e) Cohesive is better than optimistic, because it brings the literate and caring public into the equation and will allow them to buy-in to processes.
f) Terry needs to get onto Hal Row. A huge platform is irrelevant. It is one of the few opportunities we have. We need to take advantage of it.

Future Economy Council Meeting #12 (3/8/2010)

2010-04-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

Today, March 8, 2010, I attended a meeting of the Future Economy Council that discussed the Google effort on a multi-faceted level.

A few new notes
I asked if they (Google) want to facilitate laying the wire, but they don't want to manage the wire? Paul Baird (Consultant) stated that they are building a utility and will operate the utility. How long until they turn it over to anyone else is anyone's guess. I asked if was open ended, are there no timetables or capacity? Kim Hudson (consultant) stated that they may choose one community or they may choose five. They are very non-committal about how quick this will turn around and what their long term plans are. They are interested in how they might be able to utilize Google Apps by implementing this network. I asked if there had been any one-on-one communications with Google? Kim stated no and Google has specified that they don't want any personal contact. There are around 2,000 communities applying for this implementation.

Shane Pitman asked about what Google's interaction will be with local internet providers. Houston stated that was the point, to end the chokehold, drive up competition and drive down the price. Shane asked about the management of the wire and Paul stated that Google has not stated that they would hand off the management, that is just the assumption. This is a digital utility, like a road. This will not be a public-private partnership. Google will choose where it will be built, they aren't looking for any incentives or help. They will choose it for their own purposes.

Installations to the home will be contracted. As far as the connection between Hickory and Lenoir, Google will lay their own cable or lease the space from someone else. Duke Net and Century Link are alternatives to leasing. Parameters are 50,000 to 500,000 population and they want a broad spectrum of socio-economic demographics. This could be Google's development effort for the next 100 years. The RFI (Request For Information will include Right of Way issues. This is another Experimental Lab for Google. This will highlight Caldwell and Catawba Counties, between the 321 corridor linking Hickory and Lenoir. It will be Google's choice how and where to lay the fiber along that area. Telephone poles are owned by Duke Energy and they lease space on the poles.

Thoughts
Google needs to know that this community is in the process of creating a new kind of social leadership structure that supports continuous innovation and understands the importance of a systemic community transformation initiative. This Broadband initiative would not be about satisfying individual needs. It would be a building block utilized to progress local society culturally, as well as technologically.

It might be silly for us to think about what Google wants out of all of this and some statements were made that it is irrelevant, but in the end we as humans are curious by nature and for us to come full circle and feel comfortable about this idea and its issues, we have to be able to wrap our minds around the process. We have to at least think we know what someone else is thinking, even if we truly don't have a clue.

Rick Smyre talked about the Semantic Web and the ability to have artificial intelligence that utilize voice synthesis. These are going to be concepts that come to fruition in the next 5 years. We don't need to look at the structures in place today. We need to look at the existing week signals in our area, because these signals will come to fruition in the next 5 years. We need to identify what is emerging. This is one of the reasons why the United States has fallen back.

Houston stated that if we get this, we don't have to worry about branding, because businesses will be banging on our door. Jay Adams stated that that is very important to brand this area as a place where innovation can occur. He then talked about the idea of utilizing the existing rail line for this broad band corridor that lies between Hickory and Lenoir. You have 5 communities and vacant buildings that can be utilized.

Here are some terms and ideas discussed and generated by the group, its mentors, and associates:
1) Augmented Realities
2) Smart Houses (Home Automation) and the Smart Grid
3) 21st Century healthcare involving monitoring, diagnoses, and treatment via nanotechnology
4) Support for home-based businesses
5) High-Def and 3-D Entertainment
6) Enables Home-Based Individualized Education in a Virtual Classroom
7) Enhanced Mobile Technologies by integrating them with the Cloud and the Smart Grid.
8) Enables 21st Century Mobile Governance and Direct Consensus Democracy

Steve Ivester asked if he were doing product development for companies in Beijing or Sweden, and sending digital drawings, does this provide part of the solution or all of the solution? Houston Harris stated that potentially the choke-hold would be on the other end and that's a good thing. Mick Berry stated it's not about the bottleneck. It's not about technical analysis. It is about thinking big. What do you think you can do if you have this kind of Broadband Capacity and you need to articulate that.

I mentioned about the fact that we don't have an affordable (State supported) medical University on this side of the state. We could utilize this capacity to send 3-D images back and forth to Chapel Hill or East Carolina. It could be used for virtual classrooms. Steve Ivester interjected about remotely directed 3-D surgery. Amy Powell talked about a Doctor in California who has 6 other doctors who travel and he instructs them remotely.

We next talked about information systems, smart traffic systems, security issues, 3-D, and virtual reality.

Harry Hipps asked how Google is going to assess this once this is in place, if we are picked? Is Google's interest technical? He further stated, "I am sure that they would like to see good economic development, but I can't see this as there basic motivation."

Houston Harris stated that it is about ideas. They are a creative center and he believes they feel they have tapped out their own ideas and now they want fresh ideas to come in from the public and Google can worry about managing the company. It was stated that this is "Crowdsourcing."

I asked how many of these Gig networks are in the United States and Worldwide? Houston stated there may be a few metro-nets and Terry Bledsoe stated that there may be a few in Europe. That led me to ask if this would make us an incubator? Which led everyone to answer a resounding yes. If we are an incubator, then this starts out a process of spreading the web. Shane Pitman stated that we shouldn't be so naive that they aren't monitoring the data. They are looking not to improve the infrastructure. They are looking to improve their own products and services. Kim Hudson stated that 99% of their revenue is from advertising.

Terry reeled us back in by stating that we aren't here to figure out Google. We need innovative ideas to submit to attract Google here. Leave the marketing to the consultants.

Shane Pitman talked about Bloom Grocery and their use of RFID chips on the groceries and customer based scanning - Supermarket Tech & Ease. Jay Adams talked about the possibilities of a Grocery Store along the Rail Corridor that doesn't have a parking lot, because a home based scanner can be used to scan the groceries you run out of during the week. The information is stored in a database and the products can be picked and delivered to you at a depot on the rail line near where you live and where it will be available for you to pick up. People will be willing to rely on barcodes for inventory of household products.

Jay talked about the rail corridor and how it is densely populated and it connects Hickory and Lenoir, and it does have Google on it. MDI is about distribution and Logistics, so we can at least discuss the feasibility of the idea. Steve Ivester concurred that is a reason we can move the peg forward.

Houston talked about how a restaurant, such as Backstreets, can utilize a service such as this to keep inventory and I added that this could also be coordinated with your cash register. This would automatically coordinate the order between the restaurant and a purveyor, such as IFH. John Bates stated that Walmart has been doing that for 15 years - EDI. The question is can this be taken down to a micro scale? The consensus was that we could.

Kim stated that she would like to show the augmented use of Google applications from people in this area. She wants people to become fans of Facebook. They want people to please plop ideas onto the site and they utilize these for the official "Request For Information" that will be submitted in a couple of weeks. We are encouraged to think about ways to advertise on Google.

Steve Ivester stated that he believes that we have existing manufacturers that can help us succeed in innovation of 21st Century healthcare involving monitoring, diagnoses, and treatment via nanotechnology. He cited Moose Industries and various world-class doctors we have in the area.

I took the conversation in a bit of a different direction by talking about Real-Time Manufacturing and the capability to coordinate it with the Manufacturing Solutions Center at CVCC. Why can't we have people throughout the United States sending those Micro ideas in here and letting Dan St. Louis and the people down there help develop those products.

Steve Ivester stated that he doesn't have any trouble listing a dozen industries of the future where we already have weak signals in place. We are an area of innovation, but we have been knocked down by textiles and furniture. The seeds are there for more innovation.

Jay Adams suggested we do a scavenger hunt to search for areas of innovation and come back to discuss true areas of innovation and we can grow it from there. Houston talked about the branding piece. The start-up, incubator, growth area is where we need to focus, because our biggest companies have left the area. We can rebuild the area with smaller companies that will grow.

A message from Catawba County's Information Director Terry Bledsoe (The Chairman of the Catawba County Future Economy Council): It's Simply "Magic"

Below are links to the history of this movement according to the Hickory Hound:
BROAD BAND!!!
City of Hickory - Thinking Big with a Gig
I have a Dream - A 21st Century Hickory
Woogle - How You can Help Us Get Google Ultra High Speed Broadband
3,040 Facebook Fans of the Woogle Initiative - Team Woogle meets with FEC
3/9/2010 - Woogle Town Hall meeting tonight done. Onto Lenoir Thursday night
Google - Come make History in Hickory!!!
Hickory's Diaspora - Bring Home the Scattered Seeds
Team Woogle's Final Push - Before Hickory City Council - 3/23/2010
Google Request for Information website - Help spread the word
Please don't forget about the Woogle initiative

Future Economy Council Meeting #11 (1/20/2010)

2010-01-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

This was the 11th monthly meeting of the Future Economy Council and it was held on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. Click the link at the beginning of each segment to go to audio download site.

Intro - Terry Bledsoe opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, then Danny Hearn addressed everyone. Danny talked about the Town Hall event that will be taking place next Tuesday at the SALT block. The U.S. Chamber is spending money to educate people about free enterprise. The Chamber is talking about the need to create 20 million jobs in the next decade (7 million to make up for the recession + 13 million for growth). Scott Millar will be giving a forecast of what he sees happening in 2010. Danny will be making a presentation about the economic stability package, and Patrick McHenry will be there.

Danny next addressed everyone about the Master Capacity Builder series before turning the floor back over to Terry. Terry talked about various projects members of the group are working on. Houston Harris is working on the Creative Molecular Economy, Bill Parrish is working on the Future Forward Workforce, Thom Shell (myself) working on the Global Rural Network, John Brzorad on Master Capacity Builder training, Dewey Harris with Mobile Governance, and Jay Adams with National Commercial Real Estate Network.

Houston, Bill, Dewey and myself gave a topical overview of the beginning stages of each one of these efforts. Simply stated, the common threads are that we are defining concepts, sharing ideas, and assessing assets.

Rick went over the reasoning of these projects. What is being developed is to get one person behind each of these emerging ideas representing 10 to 15 States. They will come together around a set of ideas. By having these nodes, we can interchange ideas through various regions, thereby empowering each region.

Part 2 - Terry talked about an experience he had recently in which he had made a connection with a group in California. The participants were IT directors from Billion dollar companies. The discussions revolved around Pattern Based Strategy; which looks at Weak Signals and Trends, moving forward with it and adjusting paths as you go through. Catawba County has been doing this, without knowing it, for years.

Rick stated that connections with other places are at the heart of helping bring back ideas to the local community and be a part of a large idea, this is an important part of leadership.

Terry introduced Houston Harris for a discussion about a Branding Campaign. Danny Hearn stated that we've got to make the stability plan simple so that the community will understand it. The itinerary is 1) Jobs 2) Branding/Marketing and 3) Workforce Development. Danny believes that Houston has a wonderful concept. He also stated that we have assets like Pat Appleson who has a studio that rivals any Radio-Television studio he has ever seen that can do filming and so on for the website.

Part 3 - Houston gave a metaphor for the area comparing it to someone who is lonely and needs a companion. We need jobs. We need a reason for people to come here and work. We don't have enough people living in the area. People are moving away from here and leaving us behind. He compares what we need to do to someone that is visiting a dating website. The people in this room have decided to stay here. What do we do to expand our network?

This Branding is about defining our personality (profile). If we put our profile online, what are we trying to attract? This is much like what is done on a site like match.com. Decisions have to be made. What image are we looking to project? We should be honest. What are our political slants? What is our ethnic origin? We need to think, not only what is going to attract someone in the region. There are many people out there and we want to get them into the relationship so we can find out what we like and what we don't like and adjust our message accordingly. To be able to adjust our message accordingly, we need a system that allows us to have quick and speedy responses. Some people might only be attracted to the area for one reason (low taxes or ready/trainable workforce). We don't know what is going to create an attraction. We have to put the message out there. We will have people in charge of each of the signals to say what we stand for.

So what is the Greater Hickory Metro? What is the personality? What are we trying to say to make that connection. Houston displayed the graphic below. Each swirl can develop its own swirl and nodes. The connecting nodes allow us to interconnect. What do we do with the crossroads to allow that to happen (find the common ground). The more overlaps, the more energy.

We need to stop thinking regionally. We want the effect to be regional, but we can't be thinking just regional. We need to think outside of the region with the benefit being that the results are inside the region. We are empowering the region through National (and International) connections.

Below is a paper that demonstrates the theoretical implementation and structure of the Branding Entity and the body of people they will answer to. This body needs representatives of the major players in the area. That will allow these groups to connect in the best, most efficient, ways possible. This allows everyone to create a tactical map as well.

Below is page 2 of Houston's presentation. The silos represent live, work, and play industries. These representatives will be people who have the time, energy, and sphere of influence to represent these interests. This will mostly be a review team. We need action. This needs to be a working body. They will pass the goals off to a development team to develop the tactics. Think about people you know that can be effective in developing these pieces.
Part4 - Danny asked about there possibly being more components than live, work, and play. Houston stated that there are subcomponents. What he doesn't want to do is create so many buckets that the visitor will be overwhelmed. We need to make it simple for them, so that they can see it and get it without thinking, because the minute a visitor thinks we have lost them.

I asked about the definitions and paradigms of each one of these. I work in the restaurant/ hospitality industry; so what I consider work, someone else would consider play. Maybe if we can list some words topically to define live, work, and play, people would understand it better and it wouldn't be an arbitrary process where one person considers live to be one of the other two or a combination. Houston stated that we need to think about it from not our own position, but from the position of the person we are trying to attract. If we are trying to attract someone else, what do we try to say that will help attract that person. If an individual doesn't like what we are projecting, then we move on to the next target. What are we trying to attract? who are we looking for?

We are going to have a limited budget, so where do we put our energy. The work silo should probably get the most budgeted emphasis, because it will help the other processes. It creates jobs, which creates demand, which creates the need for people to move here, which creates the need to build more restaurants and attractions (play). Jobs will be the drive.

Houston described a portal website that will be one of the major cornerstones of this initiative. People will see it and be directed to Live, Work, and Play. It will help get you to information that is already available. It will not replace information (he doesn't want to take ownership or replace information). He hopes that this will inspire entities that are linked to it, to better organize their information. Everyone will have a logo (button) that will be a unifying thread. This gives you a membership to a larger group, while still respecting the individual brand. This creates a force and energy. You don't have to explain as much. It keeps people from having to think too much. This is about one-on-one dialogue.

This site will not convert sales or guarantee a relationship. It just starts the conversation. This gives you the opportunity to decide the level of bandwidth appropriate to your conversation (interaction).
Photos copyright: ©2010 Pat Appleson Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Used By Permission

Part 5 - This will help entities to front-end load the relationship. The flow is Suspect > Prospects > Full Relationship. This is a contact funnel. John Bates brought up points about the networking graphic Houston introduced. The strings won't have the activity islands where they are intersecting yet, as you put the council together, you need to have people that are synthesizers who can see where the strings intersect that are potential islands. Houston responded that that is why this is bigger than one person. Mr. Bates stated that there is a tendency that when a person represents a string that they focus on their own interests. A third party will say, "you two are talking about the same thing."

Houston stated that that is a component of transparency, which allows connections. That doesn't mean they are always valid. These are all puzzle pieces. These are three dimensional functions where all of the pieces are connected like a star chart. This is a cluster.

Taylor Dellinger said he had two thoughts. One, do we know what people (or industry) outside of the area think about us? Houston answered that he doesn't think we do know that. Taylor stated that to have an effective marketing campaign, we need to do some research to see what people from other communities think about us. What do they like and what do they not like. A perception survey. Houston stated that from a marketing campaign that you can paralyze yourself by worrying too much about what they think about us, because your real energy should be focused on what you want them to think about us. At the end of the day it is about our profile (persona). It is our job to get that out. It may conflict with what they think, but it doesn't matter as much that they link together.

John Bates stated that if they conflict, then we will have (to dedicate) some energy to overcome that preconception. His preconception before he moved here was furniture and Nascar. Houston said, while the knee-jerk might be to think about how to change that, maybe we should focus on how to enhance them. The energy to tear down the house might be wasted. I stated that this is about positive self-esteem and we can't talk about what we don't want to be, because that puts us into a negative context and we spend all of energy focusing on what we don't want to be and we never get around to what we want to be. That is what we are trying to project to these other people. We are trying to attract somebody so that we can become more complex.

Ken Elliott stated that we need to look at Nascar and furniture like facets. We need to bring the other facets (of the community) up. Once people look at us more intensely, then the other facets come forward.

Terry stated that we have been quick to limit ourselves to labels. He talked about his teleconference from the other day. When he stated he was from Hickory, these people (who were from a very technical background) were like "who, what, where." When he mentioned Commscope, they knew exactly what he was talking about. When he mentioned Catawba County they said they had heard of it before. When he mentioned Apple, they were like, "Oh Yeah." Terry stated that he wasn't sure we could pick a label. Houston stated that we shouldn't. Houston talked about the last City Council meeting and that they were talking about creating another group (Hickory Small Business Task Force) to report to the EDC, that is doing the same thing as the FEC, he couldn't recall the name. He was asking himself why do we need to keep creating all of these groups?

I mentioned that when I look at my web log from my blog, I start thinking about why is this person looking at my blog?

Part 6 - We need a contact to find out why this entity is looking at the site. Does it have to be the business or government entity, that because of natural curiosity tries to find out why this person is looking at our site? Or can we have a connection to go to to ask why this entity is looking at our site? Sort of like a Private investigator.

Houston stated that there will be a component like that. The Chamber is an Authorized visitor center, more people visit us from online that by any other method, if you get here and you fill out this form, then it comes right into the Chamber's network as a visitor's center. This becomes a filter or controller to direct the question to the right person. This gives the Chamber a reason to help with that. That can help with Customer Relations Management or Visitor Relationship to where everyone will have access to it. This will help create connections through Business Intelligence and queries to show who may have visited certain pages. The tools are there. We just don't want the technology to drive it. We want to drive the technology.

Taylor asked about the funding for this sort of project and hours and time. This has been attempted before and we still don't have it. The city and county managers stated that they would grant seed money for this. Businesses will also be need to help fund it. Houston stated that the structure needs to be planned, before we go forward. He is worried that the plan will come together, but no action will be taken on it.

I asked if businesses were going to have a button on the site. Houston stated that he believes that it will be more like an online directory where the business can purchase a listing, but he doesn't want that to be the only funding source. I stated that you don't want buttons cluttering up the site. Houston stated that this is not for the purpose of being a Yellow Pages. He envisions it more like being a Rotary Soccer Event donation. The business isn't doing it with the intent to generate business. It is a donation (method) to facilitate this function -- doing something good. The entry fee will be so low that it will help pay the hosting cost. The business goes in with the idea that this will not generate business. It is about showing that we are all on the same team. It is about the bigger picture.

Part 7 - Danny talked about some money coming from the Tourism Authority, because of a hotel-motel one-cent tax increase, which states that a certain percentage has to go marketing. It was stated that the decision makers believe that their only concern is putting heads in beds. I asked if they (the decision makers) don't understand that people aren't going to make a choice to move here based on a website. They are going to have to actually come here to make that decision -- that puts heads in beds.

Pat Appleson stated that someone has to tell them that the website exists before they can do anything. Have we addressed that? Houston stated not in this. That is on the fourth page. This site is about search engines and cross-linking. Pat talked about the State of Michigan's marketing plan. That is similar to what we need to do. Pat also wanted to address our new brand, "Greater Hickory Area," are we still going to call it that? Steve Ivester stated that we are calling it Greater Hickory, but it is clearly just Catawba County. No conversation here has gone beyond Catawba County. We have converted people in the Unifour to focusing on what Greater Hickory is the better brand, but we are clearly just focusing on Hickory. What about the people in Caldwell and Burke? What is the plan here?

Pat stated that he doesn't care about them. He then talked about why he moved here from Miami. He stated that we need to get out of the state and ask why they would want to move here. He talked about the lack of coordination of local governmental websites. He then talked about the problems he had with licensing his business. He was impressed with this material, because he believes that this proposal will address the issues that affect small business.

Houston stated that yes this will address Pat's issue, but we (the FEC) can't address it here. It will take the Council that runs the Branding entity to do that. Pat stated that the EDC doesn't come to him and he understands that. Houston stated that as part of the plan we can't make a determination here. Should it be radio spots, he doesn't know enough to say yes or no. The Branding entity will look at the budget and determine how they get the most traction to get the most people looking at us.

Terry closed out the session.

Future Economy Council Meeting #10 (12/17/2009)

2010-01-18T18:37:00.000-08:00

The following FEC meeting was held at the Chamber of Commerce on December 17, 2009.

Part 1 - Terry Bledsoe introduced Norma Owen and members of the FEC introduced themselves. Terry talked about wordle and the image it produced from the text of a grant proposal submitted last summer.

Terry turned the session over to Danny Hearn who made a presentation about the FEC's role in the Stability Plan put forth by the Chamber and the EDC. He announced that the Beaver Foundation gave $5,000 to the FEC. He also thanked Kevin Spencer for a $1,000 donation that helped get the FEC off the ground. Danny went into the Master Capacity Building schedule.

Danny next went into the stimulus/stability package and the things that have happened in the last year. He stated that we have a lot of good things happening, but a lot of times people aren't discussing things with one another. This is all about having 3,4,or 5 things that we can be on the same page about, going forward. (We have presented this previously).

Part 2 - Danny Hearn talks about Scott Millar's strategies for 2010, such as the branding of the Apple-Google data Corridor. Once again he addresses the Manufacturing Solutions Center. He also goes into the aspects that were discussed by Hickory's Small Business Job Growth Team.

Jay Adam's discusses the Small Business Job Growth Team and that the consensus is a thought that the committee be reformed with people from outside of Hickory. What is reformed will serve Hickory, but it will be a system that other communities can duplicate. He states that he isn't concerned with overlapping of activities of entities. He believes there should be interaction and he resists the segmentation he has seen in the past.

Steve Ivester said he has discussed an idea that the city has a unique interest in the Greater Hickory concept. He sees a person being hired to Work with the EDC to push that concept and that branding. This would develop a regional outreach.

Danny Hearn says that the City of Hickory has to drive this and communities in Catawba County have to be comfortable with us. We need to invest in events happening in other communities in our region. Further thoughts were expounded about Hickory's centrifugal force and other communities not wanting to get lost in that. There was also a statement that Hickory has done things in the past that created this animosity. It was also stated that the City of Hickory is not the place to advance ideas in the four county region. They do not advance outside of the box ideas. Where is the sense of urgency.

Part 3 - Steve Ivester talks about how he was excited by the possibilities of the Appalachian State Partnership, but others stated it was nothing new. He stated that at the Intra-City visit he didn't come away with that feeling at all. He thought it was something new and exciting. Dr. Jane Everson stated that was part of the frustration of moving slowly. It took 5 months to put up billboards in this area to promote Appalachian's interests in the area.

I stated that I would like to see people from Burke, Caldwell, and Alexander county come in and visit with this organization (the FEC). We are less formal than our local halls of governance. That is where the abrasiveness comes in. Doug Rongo stated that he believed there were more people in Catawba County who were upset that Lenoir got Google than there were from Caldwell County when Maiden got Apple. People in this room don't care where businesses locate.

Harry Hipps stated that he is astounded that we don't have deeper relationships with Charlotte. We are talking about it here and they are doing it there. We aren't going to outCharlotte, Charlotte. Jay Adams stated that we could be the best part of Charlotte. Harry stated that he doesn't understand why we aren't looking that way. We need more initiatives and contacts looking that way.

Jay Adams discussed the heavy traffic patterns in Charlotte. Charlotte could be a great incubator for us. Ivester stated that Charlotte markets itself effectively. Jay stated that we aren't taking advantage of our advantages. He was amazed that Charlotte wasn't looking up Highway 16 for relief. Houston asked if that made us like people looking for scraps. Doug Rongo asked about the quality of life of people commuting in their cars 2 1/2 hours every day.

Terry Bledsoe asked about the role of the FEC ande how it fits into the roles the Chamber has. Houston asked if the FEC can be the lubrication to accomplish these goals and if so can we extend an olive branch to the outside counties to allow them to be a part of this group if they would. Terry stated that he believes this committee has the freedom to do a whole lot of things. We just don't have the financial resources to do a whole lot of things. We can extend welcomes and rebuild bridges. I stated that that may open up more avenues to those needed revenues.

Part 4 - Rick Smyre addressed the group. He stated that one of the key issues is that we are shifting into systems and constant change. Connection is important. This group is transformational connectors. Interlocking networks must be comfortable with new ideas.

Systems of change allow a shift of reality. Realities must be dealt with in the long run and short run. You can't quantify things that don't exist. When you build a national network, it is for the purpose of branding an emerging idea. Houston Harris's business is designed around the Creative Molecular Economy. He went into the tree economies again (Industrial, Creative, Organic). We have to have connections because of the complexity. This helps to build an emerging brand. This is a bottom-up development. In a systems age, a brand is not just one thing.

Ideas that help a community shift over often come from outside of the community. By 2040, 40% to 50% of people will work out of their homes, right now that is 9% to 11%. Economic Development will be different. During the transition time, we must begin to attract creative people to the community. We need a workforce that will help us deal with increased technology.

Part 5 - Norma Owen from Dallas, Texas is involved in what is called the Future forward workforce. She made a presentation to the group. She stated that she was glad to hear the term resiliency used. Her focus is within developing human capital in an area.

In Wake County, they developed a program rooted in career transition. What she saw happening is that technology was changing so fast that they were having to rapidly reinvent themselves. She saw three levels of people being able to cope with the changes happening. Level One meant people had to become globally aware. Some high level (qualified) individuals had no idea about the changes that were going on around the globe that were changing (had effect on)their work locally. The second level allows people to become contract aware. You are no longer an employee, people will have more of an entrepreneurial mindset. People must know how they can contribute to creative businesses and help them compete. The third level is about self-awareness and being able to brand yourself. She creates systems that allow people to take advantage and cope with the changes that are happening. People don't know how access what is available.

People must have capacities and capabilities of complexities that are way beyond just finding a job. There is a next level of digital literacy and awareness. There is a new way of networking interlocking networks. You have to be able to connect disparate ideas and be able to take them into a new arena. You have to exponentially increase people's ability to learn.

Rick then went into the tie-in of the Future forward Workforce and Master Capacity Building. The idea of the Future forward Workforce is to take it to another level and augment the assets we have in place. Norma talked about career transition and being an advocate for community resources. She stated that people were from all levels. Wake Tech funded the project in Wake County. They helped individuals become marketable.

Part 6 - Terry closes out the session.

Future Economy Council Meeting #9 (11/19/2009)

2009-12-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

The following meeting was held at The Granary, which is Houston Harris's building that houses his businesses Pixel Space and InterOpsis. There are also other businesses located within this structure. The building is on Main Avenue across from Lenoir-Rhyne University.This is a beautifully restructured building. It is a wonderful metaphor for what Hickory was and what it can be transformed into.

Below I give a brief summary of what direction the meeting took. For specific details you will need to download the audio and listen. These are excellent, and in many ways, cutting edge discussions. I think that when we look back at these times, in the future, that we will see that many seeds were sown during these discussions and that these discussions bore the fruit of the future. But in the end, time will tell and it is our task to carry these ideas to fruition.

Part 1 - audio
Introductions were made. Terry Bledsoe had some opening comments. He talked about the Master Capacity Builder program. He stated that he believed the FEC has begun to mature and gave examples how. He talked about being at the Economic Development Corporation's meeting the previous week. At that meeting it was stated that 41.8% of all private investment in North Carolina in 2009 has come to Catawba County this year. He also had some information about business closings in Catawba County, in which he stated 6 businesses have closed in the last two years -- some people were stating that these were not valid statistics. Nathan Huret stated that the numbers show that businesses have reduced (employment), but not left. Steve Ivester stated that people are concerned, but not defeated. Terry stated that the EDC is focused on industry, but they are looking for other opportunities for development. Nathan stated that the EDC is looking for emerging trends and they would like for people to contact them with/about interesting opportunities and/or articles.

Part 2 - audio
Dr. John Brzorad talked about Agriburbia and introduces the topic. Rick Smyre addresses the positives of local food production. Doug Rongo and myself (Thom Shell) talk about the economic and capital infusion of foreign investment into the local area. Harry Hipps talks about new energy investment in our local area. Terry Bledsoe speaks about the Agricultural resource Center and saving local farms. Dr. Brzorad talks about building a relationship with the farmers in the area. Steve Ivester says we will have to change local zoning and tax policy. Houston Harris asks how do we support this? Harry Hipps talks about what is being done in Polk county and Nathan states that Rutherford county is doing the same thing.

Part 3 - audio
Houston Harris started talking about his businesses Pixel Space and InterOpsis. He stated that it is very difficult to say what they are. They touch IT, Marketing, sales, Infrastructure/Workflow deliverable engagements... He spoke about how he deals with part-timers and free-lancers to do the job. He needs networks of people who have certain skills. They touch people and projects everywhere. He explains the global nature of his business.

Pixelspace is about interaction architechture. They create brochures, create IT projects consisting of measurables, create web pages, resource mode. Houston's businesses operate in a 24-hour environment. They use traditional and new media channels to get messages out and create interaction points. Ultimately they have to identify who they are talking to, how are they going to attract them, how are they going to inform them... Once they identify prospects, then they turn to sales.

Part 4 - audio
InterOpsis is about what a company's web operations should be doing. How to increase web presence, increase conversions, generate leads, improve visitor experience, are you setting the right tone, are you communicating with your customer properly. Houston stated that they use many analytical software tools for measurables to find the "sweet spot." You need high level stakeholders to buy into this in order for it to be effective. InterOpsis does not require you to use Pixelspace.

Houston talks about how his building "the Granary" works. He wants to fill the gap for people who need a a professional space, but don't want to break the bank (affordable). He states that it is not an incubator, because they aren't subsidizing businesses. They are a communal (shared space) arrangement. This building allows people to have a personal space to have meetings, without having a huge expense.

Part 5 - audio
The Granary - The goal is 3 phases. Number one is to get the exterior upfitted and get more parking. Houston's companies are an anomaly, because only about 10% of his clientele are from Hickory. The Granary will be home to multiple diverse businesses, but he currently has space available and will be further developing the building as needed. Houston also talked about his dealings with the city on grants and on license fees. He stated that Entreprenurs work in the gray area and the city operates in a process of black and white.

Part 6 - audio
Steve Ivester spoke about the semantics of manufacturing and Value Added Goods. Value Added Services are as valuable as anything else. Danny Hearn stated that we want to identify and create more Houston Harris's and Michael McNeely's. How do we go about that? Houston spoke of mentoring and stated how important it is to be around people with experience. He talked about collaboration and connections and developing skills, being open and sharing. He wants to be able go see people face-to-face and sometimes that is hard to do in a global operation, such as his.

He had some excellent ideas about the bandwidth of personal communication and relationships and chemistry. I stated that there is a lot of fear around here, because the new world is not built around structure, so people feel a sense of loss. Houston agreed, but also stated that creative people don't like structure and they need to have someone with structure around them to keep them focused. I stated that I believe that the (regimented) structure is going to have to be broken down. Houston says that he believes that it is going to break down automatically, life does that. It's about learning to adapt and being willing to adapt. Terry stated that what Houston stated about face-to-face interaction and the global world seem to be conflicts, how does he do this? Houston stated he just does it. He does what he has to do. I asked about the effectiveness of teleconferencing. Jay Adams talked about learning to listen and choose your words carefully. You figure it out as you go and it's hard to capture what the techniques are. Houston said a lot of it has to do with the age of who you are communicating with. The younger person trusts the new system and the older guy wants to look you in the eye and see if you are full of it.

Houston talked about "Free Range Chicken thinking." He says he wants to be the oldest rooster in the yard. Their life is different from a coup raised chicken, they want to survive. They are lean, they have to move fast, they've got to find some food, they've got to run from that ax, eventually they will get caught, but the free range chicken has an attitude about survival. They adapt and try new things. Thinking is about finding those things and keeping your brain in this mode of what's new -- I can't be afraid of this.

Rick Smyre close - audio
What Houston has expressed is the Creative Molecular Economy. How does Catawba County we develop a brand as cutting edge to the rest of the country? We need to seed the concepts. Rick discusses this and ties in what we have said into the principles of developing connections, collaborative efforts, the creative molecular economy, and Master Capacity Building.

Future Economy Council Meeting #8 (10/15/2009)

2009-11-19T20:01:00.000-08:00

This is the audio and a short summary of each of the segments that constituted this meeting. As usual this was a very good discussion.

Part One Audio Link

In Part One of this meeting Terry Bledsoe addressed the issues of Broadband and the Stimulus Funds (American Recovery Act). There is $4.7 billion available to be divided between infrastructure, public computing centers, and sustainable broadband adoption.

Question 1 - What is the definition of Broadband? 768 kb/sec

Question 2 - Are you only seeing the ones (bids) out of North Carolina? Terry explain that they saw the initiative pertaining to NC and the group of states that NC is associated with.

Question 3 - Is this going to be an enhancement of capacity or is it going to be about getting those with only landline access an increase to what the state calls Broadband? That is e-nc's main initiative, to get people some sort of "Broadband" access.

Question 4 - Do the authorities understand the need (in the near future) for increased capacity? There isn't a huge pot of funding available to alleviate the problem.

Question 5 - So we are going to have to do this on the local level? Most likely. Houston Harris stated that that isn't a bad thing. I stated that I believe we have more control that way. Steve Ivester stated that he had spoken with a CEO from Corning who stated that the municipality can build the system and bidding out access to capacity. This is the European model.

Question 6 - If someone wins an award are they obligated to spend the money by a deployment time or can they spend it as they wish? There is a requirement of deployment and implementation in two years.

*** Danny Hearn gave an intro about the Intra-City Visit, the visit to the Centennial Campus, the relationship with our local Manufacturing Solutions Center, the ASU-Partnership and a possible Millennial campus located here, Education Matters, and Relocation Marketing and Population Growth. Here is a link to the entire Intra-City Event Proceedings.

Part Two Audio Link
Part two starts out with Dr. Sid Connor discussing the beginning of the Millennial Campus. His explanation was excellent. Steve Ivester talked about the New Definition of Campus. Danny continued on with the Apple-Google corridor issue. Houston asked about ancillary businesses that can be related to Apple. Talked about the incubator and possible associations with this corridor. Danny says we can't wait to for the next big announcement. Growth can come from the Pixelspace's and Michael Neely's of this community. Further, Danny talked about the Manufacturing Solutions Center and introduced Terry's presentation of the FEC that took place at the Intra-City Visit.

Terry went over the presentation from the Intra-City Visit. Here is a link to Terry's Presentation made during the Intra-City Visit.

Part Three Audio Link
Terry continues on with the presentation. One question was about can you manage your people in 140 characters or less (Twitter)? Houston made an excellent point about the bandwidth meeting the need and you need to make sure that they match up. The more options and accessibility, the better.

We have a lot of talent here in Catawba County that we need to find out about and utilize. How many businesses started up in someone's basement or garage. We need to look at more than Economic Development to do this. What are we doing to encourage creativity? Is there a willingness and passion to learn factored into our culture? Something does attract people to Catawba County, what is it? How do we get some kids back and how do we raise incomes some?
Doug Rongo talks about "How do we change the ambition and skill of the workforce?"

Part Four Audio Link
The last segment starts out with Houston talking about options and opportunity. We got into an excellent discussion about underemployment and the step-up process. We have people who are working jobs that they are overqualified for. If they can step-up and find a job that better matches and/or utilizes their skill set, then it allows those unemployed people who have lesser skills ( lower qualified) to have a job. We need to create a step-up process, that is the reason I want to see the High Skilled jobs come to Catawba County.

Terry says that leadership needs to take the adice of sharing, partnerships, advice, and working together. They have the advantages and need to take all of this and move forward.

Rick Smyre talked about the Master Capacity Building studies and how it will be offered.

Future Economy Council Meeting #7 (9/17/2009)

2009-09-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

In this meeting we split into 5 groups and dealt with various questions posed by Terry in an e-mail mail out sent to us a few days before the meeting. I have sequenced the audio in the chronological order in which the groups addressed the questions, topics, and weak signal issues posed to the council from issues we have been studying.

Future Economy Council
September 17, 2009
Discussion Group Topics

“There is a force for change that’s basically invisible using old ways of seeing. It’s a force we have to let collide with and even destroy our old ideas about how the world should be before we can hope to make any sense at all” Age of the Unthinkable, Ramo

The FEC is a group that is working to develop transformational leaders (master capacity builders) in Catawba County able to understand and utilize the skills of building capacities for transformation.

Objectives:

1) To develop new ways of thinking about the future
2) To be able to identify trends and weak signals
3) To be able to ask appropriate questions
4) To be able to listen for value and find new connections
5) To be able to connect diverse ideas and people for continuous innovation
6) To understand how to create "innovation networks"
7) To design and evolve parallel processes
8) To be able to identify and utilize new and emerging patterns
9) To be able to think systemically at a higher level of complexity
10) To be able take appropriate individual and team risks to develop new ideas and methods

Below you will find information presented at our August 19th meeting by Taylor Dellinger, WPCOG and Scott Millar, EDC. Please discuss that data with your group through the eyes of a Master Capacity Builder, keeping the objectives above in mind. The last bullet is a quote from the Age of the Unthinkable, please also discussion this quote and be ready to present to the group. -

Opening Statement Audio Link by Terry Bledsoe with Danny Hearn

Group 4 - Audio Link (4:55)

• Birth rate is generally flat.
• Quality of life is a big driver in any community.
• Still ranked last in educational attainment. Is that a factor of our schools, a young
population that is not returning here after college, lack of attracting business
requiring higher skills, what influences this factor? Will the fact that Apple is coming
here change this? If we continue to attract businesses like Apple will the
educational attainment level rise to match it? Is there a willingness and passion to
learn factor in our culture? Some feel that the reason educational attainment is so
low is that we are failing to retain our areas best and brightest.
• Part of the comment above was prompted by the fact that the Hickory MSA 18-44
population has only grown by 45 since 2000 while the 45 + population has grown
by 18,589.
• Scott Millar was quick to point out that there was a huge disparity between the
persons sitting in the room and the average worker in Catawba County.

…The moment you hand power over to other people, you get an explosion of curiosity, innovation and effort. When you spread power instead of hoarding it, you discover benefits that you couldn’t have imagined in advance, and that sometimes run contrary to what you might have expected.

***Relevant Input - (Nathan) - Discussion centered around the younger demographic and how these group members ended up here. (Andrea) - Discussion of a 4 year major University. (Karen) - Flat Birth rate in some segments, but not in others. If a person has a lot of education, they tend to leave. Those that don't have education tend to stay. The lack of opportunity for those with more educational attainment is having a negative impact on those without educational attainment.

Group 2 - Audio Link

• In general, manufacturing jobs are making up a smaller percentage of the workforce
and services is making up a larger percentage since 1990. We still have a larger
manufacturing base than most of the country.
• Poverty rates are increasing, up 32%. Average weekly wage $662.
• Foreclosures have tripled since 2000.
• What did Apple like about the area?
o Our manufacturing attitude
o Culture of a hardworking workforce
o Quality of life
o Large track of land devoted to data centers, power, water, fiber.
o Could hire people from the area
• Scott Millar was quick to point out that there was a huge disparity between the
persons sitting in the room and the average worker in Catawba County.

…The revolution under way around us isn’t something we can choose to be a part of or not. It is largely unavoidable. Today there’s no choice. We’re participants, like it or not. It’s not as if we can wake up some morning and decide, “Okay, today’s the day I’ll start mashing up my life.”

Your life is already being mashed for you. The Internet, your derivative-laced retirement account, chemical compounds that sit in our food or our clothing, all of these are expressions of an unstoppable, infectious genius for combinations. The new tools we’ll need come from accepting that mashup energy changes the ecosystems around us and, as a result, changes us.

The nature of these networks is often not apparent until, awkwardly, they shift and fracture the world we thought we understood. It’s also been called a “risk society.”

***Relevant Input - (Dr. B) Talked about the need for an education base - particularly k-12. Talked about population outflow of people with valuable skills. (Taylor) addressed the American Community Survey and its importance. The ACS last year showed that 4 year degrees dropped, while the population increased. That is a red flag that says skilled labor is looking elsewhere. In 2000 we were 12th (in the state) in 4 year degrees, now we are 14th. (Dr. B) Do people choose to leave or have to leave?

(Steve Ivester) - Discussions at L-R have stated that computer students are out of here unless there is some sort of internships. (Group Discussion) about surveys and information to assess the situation.

Group 3 - Audio Link

• Diversification is a key to moving forward but it should be noted that in 1999,
Catawba County was thought to be a model for diversity. Could our success in the
1990s been the real cause of our decline? We were diversified and at full
employment in the 90’s and could not attract new business here because we did not
have the resource of a workforce to offer. Did that limit our ability to grow and
transition to modern industry from old school manufacturing (furniture and
textiles).
• From The Age of the UnThinkable : “ The world is not being paved over by a
smooth, universalized system. And that very ability to evolve systems that fit the
needs of different peoples and cultures and to encourage real diversity in thinking
will help us solve many of the problems we face.”
• Scott Millar was quick to point out that there was a huge disparity between the
persons sitting in the room and the average worker in Catawba County.

…Many of our problems today aren’t the result of too little information. Instead, they come from the challenge of sorting through a huge, and growing amount of data, all constantly changing, and much of it irrelevant or misleading.

***Relevant Input - (Steve Ivester) - The Monoculture of Furniture, Textiles, and Cabling.... Manufacturing... The Culture that one doesn't need to finish high school. Skilled workers aren't expecting their children to get an education... No fertile ground for entrepreneurship in the Monoculture. Education has to be part of the recruiting process. Educational programs need to be consistent with area needs. Charlotte Brand vs. Upper Catawba Brand (Peers vs Competitors). Take advantage of our manufacturing strength.... Apple and Target are opportunities. Import Substitution.

Group 5 - Audio Link

• It has been stated that our proximity to Charlotte helps our economy. Is that true
or are they actually hurting us?
• Hickory has lost its identity. We use to be known for furniture but no longer. How
do we market ourselves?
• There are a lot of vacant buildings in the area. What do we do with them? Does the
existing manufacturing buildings help the EDC or have they become a limiting
factor in our ability to grow? For economic development, is it better to have the
older manufacturing facilities or a clean piece of property? It was also mentioned
that just because a building is ugly, doesn’t mean it is empty. Many older buildings
are being used for storage.
• Scott Millar was quick to point out that there was a huge disparity between the
persons sitting in the room and the average worker in Catawba County.

…The fact is we can’t know if what didn’t work yesterday will work today; we can’t
predict the impact of our attempts to make change, and that is why we have to
keep trying. It’s tempting to feel that the forces at work now are so big that there is
no point in action at all. But in fact, the opposite is true. Even small changes can have
an impact on our future, and this is why we all must get involved.

***Relevant Input - (Dan) We need to be a lot more regional. How do we connect to work as a region or a group? If you are the best, they will find you. Need to be known as an open and connected region. We need to be using Ken's web conferencing and web sites. We need to be using Applachian partnerships conference rooms. (Ken) We tend to revert back to comfort and that works against us. Technology can open us up and help us compare with Charlotte. Creates a global economy.

Rick Smyre Comments - Audio Link - Critical Thinking is being redefined as we speak. Historically used to be Rational Thinking where you analyze information that already exists. New critical; thinking involves "How can you make connection between totally disparate ideas?" "Distributive Intelligence" - better build connections and understand the new culture. If you build these models and concepts of trying your young people and it's not what they see as important to their culture, then you are just spinning your wheels... You're looking to build an Economic Immune System.

Group 1 - Audio Link

• Since 2000 , the Hickory MSA has lost 35,000 jobs.
• Since 2000, Catawba County has lost 18,000 jobs.
• Current unemployment rate: 15.4% (New figure since meeting 14.6%)
• Wilmington has an employment change of 17.4% since 2000 as opposed to our
-18.8%. What are they doing differently?

Scott Millar was quick to point out that there was a huge disparity between the persons sitting in the room and the average worker in Catawba County.

…”I would warn against attempts to forecast novel technologies by the existence of building blocks already in place”, the economist Brian Arthur has written. In an era of new math, simply guessing at the shape of a combination of existing blocks tells you almost nothing about what might be built. The great thing about our future, and the terrifying thing, is that we can’t imagine what sums the new math will yield. This sense of so many possible combinations, of a limited dimensionality, presents us with a staggering level of complexity. Opportunities for spectacular innovation explode around us.

***Relevant Input - (Dr. Everson) - Strategies. Instead of moaning about the ones that have moved away, we have an opportunity to figure out a way to keep the college alumni here. We talked about Micro-Lending. We can target Appalachian and L-R students, who have stayed here, and give them small amounts of money and get out of their way. We need to let them go forth and do what they think is important. (Thom) - We hear about wanting to turn this into an entrepreneurial area and we have to build a bridge to that. It's not going to happen overnight.... having a Science Festival would be a tangible process. We have to have some tangibility or people will lose faith in us. This can help foster the entrepreneurial spirit and change our culture. People may want to then participate in our Renaissance.

Just what is Apple doing in Maiden?

2009-08-21T00:42:00.000-07:00

The Following articles are mainly from the blog Data Center Knowledge. The online source is listed before the Linked article Titles.

Data Center Knowledge - Apple: Maiden iDataCenter Will be 500,000SF - The new North Carolina facility will be nearly five times the size of the 109,000 square foot Newark, Calif. data center Apple bought in 2006 to support its growing infrastructure. Apple also operates a data center on its Cupertino, Calif. campus, and has used content delivery networks from Akamai (AKAM) and Limelight Networks (LLNW) to distribute content to its users around the globe.

The new Apple facility will be the company’s East Coast operations center. A document filed with the state indicates the data center will “take advantage of 3 hour time change on the East Coast to facilitate communications between European operations/sales and California for data transmission.”

(Comment from Finance Geek Blog) - With Apple having already announced their plans to build its new $1 billion data center in Maiden, North Carolina, folks I have spoken to inside Apple told me that once the new data center is completed, Apple plans to have a more active role in doing their own content delivery.

Data Center Knowledge - The Apple-Google Data Center Corridor -Google and Apple may be having their tensions at the boardroom level, as seen in this week’s news that Google CEO Eric Schmidt will resign as a director of Apple. But the two technology giants are aligned in another area: the merits of western North Carolina as a haven for massive Internet data centers.

Apple’s planned $1 billion data center in Maiden, North Carolina is just 25 miles from a huge Google data center complex in Lenoir. The proximity is not an accident, as the Google project in Caldwell County prompted economic development officials in nearby towns to begin pursuing data center development.

Data Center Knowledge - Apple Moving Quickly on NC Project - Apple is known for keeping its new technology secret prior to launch. So it’s not surprising that the company has had little to say about its $1 billion data center project in North Carolina. The new iData Center may not get the fanfare of a MacWorld keynote when it launches, but one thing is clear: Apple plans to move quickly to the construction phase.

“It’s my understanding that they want to have bulldozers on-site in mid-August,” said Scott Millar, execurtive director of the Catawba County Economic Development Corp. “They’re moving ahead rapidly with permitting and acquiring the land, with the intent of hitting the ground running.”

Data Center Knowledge - The iDataCenter and the Cloud - Some of our recent reporting on Apple’s $1 billion data center in North Carolina is being discussed around the web this week, prompted by an piece by Leander Kahney at The Cult of Mac that examines the likelihood that the new facility will power cloud computing applications. There’s additional discussion at Wired, Fast Company, Mac News Network and Apple Insider.

Cult of Mac - Interview: Apple’s Gigantic New Data Center Hints at Cloud Computing - One of the leading theories about the size of the NC project is that Apple is planning future cloud computing services that will require lots of data center storage. Cloud computing is a hot trend, and I’d be surprised if Apple isn’t thinking hard – and thinking differently – about cloud computing. Many cloud enthusiasts say that cloud computing will eliminate the need for data centers. In reality, the only thing will change is the owner of the building. All the applications and data that are moving into the cloud will live on servers in brick-and-mortar data centers. The companies that are building the biggest data centers tend to also have the biggest cloud ambitions

Cult of Mac - Apple Hires Top Green Hardware Expert For Data-Center Ops - Apple is getting serious about getting green. To make sure that its massive new data-center is energy efficient, Apple has just hired a top eBay executive and leading expert in the “greening” of cloud computing facilities.

Apple has picked up Olivier Sanche, eBay’s Senior Director Data Centers Services and Strategy, according to the Green Data Center Blog. Based in San Francisco, Sanche has helped make eBay’s massive global operations carbon neutral since 2007. Most recently, he helped oversee the construction of eBay’s newest data-center, which will meet the highest green standards when it goes online in 2010.

Wired - Apple’s New Data Center Likely to Focus on Cloud Computing - Cloud computing huh? We noticed Apple’s iWork app was pretty lacking with no real-time online collaboration tools. A data center devoted to cloud computing would certainly fill that hole. But there still has to be something even bigger going on here, and your guesses are as good as ours. Add them in the comments below.

Fast Company - Is Apple Shooting for the Cloud? - Hence you could draw one final conclusion, and take this as yet another hint that Apple's fabled iTablet is on the way. It kind of makes sense--the iTablet's probably not going to have the same raw computing power and local storage as a fully-fledged MacBook, so a cloud-based solution for iPhoto, Numbers and the like (and maybe even your iTunes library?) would make excellent sense. It's just a thought, of course.

Apple Insider - Expert speculates Apple's new data center to be for cloud computing - While Miller's cloud computing possibilities are speculation, as Apple has not announced its intent for the $1 billion server farm, it's also possible Apple is simply looking to bolster its current offerings. When MobileMe first launched in July of 2008, it was riddled with problems. As a result, Apple gave subscribers an extra 30 days of free service. MobileMe now comes with a 60-day free trial, while the cost for the service, with 20GB of online storage, is $99 per year.

Wikipedia - Cloud Computing - is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them.

It is service-based.
It is scalable and elastic. I.e., it is able to add and remove infrastructure as needed.
It uses shared infrastructure to build economies of scale.
It is metered and users pay according to usage.
Most importantly, of course, it uses Internet technologies.

Newsweek - Computing Heads for the Clouds - Supercomputers today are used mainly by the military, government intelligence agencies, universities and research labs, and large companies to tackle enormously complex calculations for such tasks as simulating nuclear explosions, predicting climate change, designing airplanes, and analyzing which proteins in the body are likely to bind with potential new drugs. Cloud computing aims to apply that kind of power—measured in the tens of trillions of computations per second—to problems like analyzing risk in financial portfolios, delivering personalized medical information, even powering immersive computer games, in a way that users can tap through the Web. It does that by networking large groups of servers that often use low-cost consumer PC technology, with specialized connections to spread data-processing chores across them. By contrast, the newest and most powerful desktop PCs process only about 3 billion computations a second.

The Hounds Layman Opinion - All of what these guys are saying is true. Yes, this will help to create flexibility and integration of computing. You will have a form of a Computer System at home. It will be like your Desktop today, but also full integrated with the controls of an Entertainment Center (TV, Stereo, Electronic Gaming), a Knowledge Center (Library, Spreadsheets, Word Processor, the Web), and a Home Management system (Electricity, Temperature Control, Lights, etc.) Then you will have your PDA (Iphone, Blackberry, or whatever comes next) that the Cloud (This network of Supercomputer servers) will allow you to keep in touch with your personal data at all times. In my opinion, the next Generation of PDAs will take the place of any need of a laptop.

The problems going forward in the near term are Disk Storage and Bandwidth. The Cloud helps to deal with those two issues. Remember the article I wrote a few weeks ago about the Exaflood entitled BROAD BAND!!! (There is a great video in that article)? Cloud Computing is the cheap and easy way to deal with these issues in the near term. On Demand High Definition Video is going to take up a lot of Bandwidth and Storage Space. Personal Hard Drive Capacity will continue to increase, but true High Definition Video will eat up a lot of space on those Hard Drives.

It will be easier and increase portability by having Movies and Audio parked on a remote server at a Data center, such as the one in Maiden. These facilities will also be needed to deal with the exponential World Wide wave of demand that is coming as more and more people gain accessibility to computers. As one can see there is a need for this Data Center and I believe the ancillary benefits to this area will be tremendous.

Future Economy Council Meeting #6 (8/19/2009)

2009-08-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

The following is audio of the meeting on Wednesday morning. It will be posted until the next meetings audio. At that time I will make this audio at an on-line storage site where you may go and download it.

My reason for doing this. It is easier than typing the minutes, you will get the general context of the discussion, and this is the whole meeting in mp3 format. I have broken the meeting up into shorter segments. You may want to use the equalizer on your player and lower the High frequency (treble) audio range. There is some hiss in the audio.

Thank You Taylor Dellinger for your presentation and for joining the group. It will great to hear you address the FEC with a statistical and analytical context. Thank You Scott Millar for your presentation about what the Economic Development Corporation is all about.

Segment 1 - Terry Bledsoe calls the meeting to order and Introduces Taylor Dellinger. He shows a Power Point presentation about Job Number data, speaks about the role of Manufacturing in the area and how it relates to the current numbers. He then moved into a segment addressing our population. Taylor's Power Point Presentation.

Segment 2 - Taylor Continues on and talks about "Growth Driven by Jobs" and speaks about Wilmington, North Carolina's growth. Scott Millar makes a statement that Hickory may have been hurt in its efforts to diversify, because we were at full employment in the 1990s. Houston harris asks "What has Wilmington Done?" "How do we work towards getting all of our entities on the same page?" Dewey Harris addresses Wilmington's assets and being the Principal City in its MSA. Jay Adams asks, "Is Charlotte sucking energy away from Hickory?"

Segment 3 - Taylor addresses losses by job sector, other Economic Trends, Poverty, and the foreclosure issue in the area.

Segment 4 - Taylor addresses Educational Attainment and Retail sales in the area.

Segment 5 - Scott Millar begins making his presentation to the group. He recommends the book Talent is overrated. Scotte then goes on to define the Mission of the EDC, its positioning in the Metro, what the plan of attack is, and how being part of the Charlotte Reginal partnership is a good thing.

Segment 6 - I ask the question about the possible use of existing Brownfield sites for Multi-Jurisdictional Parks. Kevin Spencer asked about the Marketing of the area by the EDC to potential industries. What do potential industries like and what do they want that we don't have here?

Segment 7 - Scott Millar talks about Branding and Identity. Collaboration and Integration of Entities. Scott talks about Data Centers (Apple and Google) and how it will help with Marketing and Identity. Steve Ivester asks if this is going to bring connectivity to the region.

Segment 8 - Scott talks about the possible pursuit of Alternative Energy, Biomedical Equipment, and making stuff. Terry closes out the meeting.

Future Economy Council Meeting #5 (7/21/2009)

2009-07-21T22:26:00.000-07:00

The following is audio of the meeting today. It will be posted until the next meetings audio. At that time I will make this audio at an on-line storage site where you may go and download it.

My reason for doing this. It is easier than typing the minutes, you will get the general context of the discussion, and this is the whole meeting in mp3 format. If I find the time, I will type up the highlights of the minutes of the meeting. You may want to use the equalizer on your player and lower the High frequency (treble) audio range. There is some hiss in the audio.

FEC Meeting Audio 7/21/2009

Below is a list of those who participated in the discussion and the times in the audio that their comments appear.

Terry Bledsoe - 1:45, 10:24, 16:18, 31:20, 33:00, 36:29, 1h0:37, 1h3:20, 1h5:20, 1h12:35, 1h14:47
Danny Hearn - 2:53, 26:22, 1h7:08
Houston Harris - 15:01, 17:46, 19:36, 20:33, 25:12, 30:15, 31:54, 35:00, 1h0:03, 1h4:03, 1h14:12
Thom Shell - 16:29, 30:23, 31:08, 33:25, 35:24, 36:02, 1h10:35, 1h12:55
Harry Hipps - 18:40, 19:48, 28:48
Dewey Harris - 22:24, 1h2:45, 1h13:49
Karen Foss - 27:15
Doug Rongo - 28:21, 30:42, 34:09, 35:17, 35:47
Rick Smyre - 36:55

BROAD BAND!!!

2009-07-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

I am going to try to relate to you here the essential reasons why we must see an investment made in the expansion of Broadband Capacity in our area. I know that I am not going to be able to get through to some people who look at this article, because of the complexities of the information involved, but I will try to make some of the information understandable to laymen. By the way, I am no expert in relation to many people I know.

What does the internet do? Before the internet, Physical computing was limited to networks that were usually linked locally and typically on-site. During the late 1960s, several research programs began to explore and articulate principles of networking between physically separate networks of computer systems. Subsequently, the different programs led to efforts that allowed computers to communicate with specific internetworks, but these systems were disjointed until 1982. In that year, standard protocols were adopted to bring these networks together. During the 1980s and 1990s, the internet was commercialized and several for profit Internet Service Providers sprang up. We now live in an age Instantaneous Communication, as a result.

The World Wide Web - On August 6, 1991, CERN, a pan European organization for particle research, publicized The World Wide Web project, a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks. The Web was invented by English scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

Todays Internet and the relation to our technological needs - The Discovery Institute's The Technology and Democracy Project has an interesting site. Their mission "supports technology as the key engine for economic growth and seeks to free its natural advancement from the burdens of undue government regulation."

In their article titled Estimating the Exaflood: The Impact of Video and Rich Media on the Internet – A ‘zettabyte’ by 2015? they state, "An upsurge of technological change and a rising tide of new forms of data are working a deep transformation of the Internet’s capabilities and uses."

Wall Street Journal Article: Unleashing the Exaflood

Wikipedia: The word exabyte is the basis for the term exaflood, a neologism created by Bret Swanson of the Discovery Institute in a January 2007 Wall Street Journal editorial.^[20] Exaflood refers to the rapidly increasing torrent of data transmitted over the Internet. The amount of information people upload, download and share on the Internet—known as internet traffic—is growing (due in large part to video, audio and photo applications) at an exponential rate, while the capacity of the Internet, its bandwidth, is limited and susceptible to a "flood" of data equal to multiple exabytes. "One exabyte is the equivalent of about 50,000 years of DVD quality video."

How does this relate to the Hickory Metro Area? - This is a real opportunity. We must buy into the process of expanding our local broadband capacities and get on the cutting edge of this issue. As you can see from the information above, the need will be there. With the positioning of the Google (Lenoir) and Apple (Maiden) data centers, here in the Hickory Metro Area, we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on this opportunity. Video is a driving force in the necessity to expand capacities. Ever expanding video demands include entertainment, advertising, video conferencing, medical imaging, and technical diagnostics.

Perspective. The Numbers don't lie - I will try to put this into perspective and this should be easy to understand for most. This link will take you to a Windows Media article entitled Understanding HD Formats. I read this article to see how much storage capacity was needed for 1 hour of HD video. The numbers are all in the compression, but for the most compressed HD video you will need 11 gigabytes. Of course this will sacrifice quality, especially as the picture is magnified and/or you increase the frame rate. 1080p HD video at 24 frames per second (this is currently considered full HD) will require 328 gigabytes for 1 hour of video.

Currently there are two main types of storage media that can handle this amount of data capacity, Hard Disk drives which are becoming affordable at 1 or 2 terabytes (terabyte=1,000 gigaytes or 1 million megabytes) and blu-ray optical discs, which are the size of a CD (or DVD), and can hold 50 gigabytes on the Dual Layer version. A 1 terabyte Hard drive can hold a little over 90 hours of fully compressed high definition video, but only a little over 3 hours of full HD uncompressed video. Are you with me? We are going to have to see an exponential expansion of our computing technological horizons, in the near future, if we are going to realize this potential.

My stepfather was the Data Processing Manager of Catawba County back in the early 1980's. The computers took up the bottom left side of the Catawba County Library building in Newton. Of course that system is no longer there, because the information that was assembled by those monstrous tape reels on those huge mainframes will probably fit on a flash drive on your key chain these days. That should give you some real perspective.

Remember the days of the old 14.4 kb/second modem. It would take right at 1780 hours of continuous downloading using those modems, that were a benchmark less than 20 years ago, to download 1 hour of compressed HD video. That is 74 days. That means it would take 148 days (nearly 5 months) to download most movies. And 1 hour of Full uncompressed HD would take 53,076 hours to download. That is 2,211 days to download, which is a little over 6 years.

Todays typical download connection rates are 3 to 5 mb/sec to the home in the Hickory Metro Area. Saying 3 mb/sec is the standard, then it is 208 times faster than that old 14.4 modem. That means that 1 hour of compressed HD video can now be downloaded in 8 1/2 hours, but it would still take 10 1/2 days to download that full HD uncompressed video. You can see that we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go in a short time frame in dealing with technology that is already here.

Businesses can typically purchase Cable, DSL, and other current technology packages that will boost their download capabilities to 30 to 50 mb/sec. That is 10 times faster than what is available to the home, but the costs are prohibitively more expensive. At those download speeds, that 1 hour of compressed HD video can now be downloaded in a little over 50 minutes, and the Full HD uncompressed video would now take 1 1/2 days to download. But, what you must realize is that these companies would have to concentrate all of their broadband resource capability on this one task to accomplish this goal.

Think about a doctor, in the near future, wanting to send a High Definition MRI or Cat Scan of one of his patients to a colleague over the internet. Can that doctor or patient afford to wait days for that information to be uploaded and downloaded from different locations? That is the kind of importance we are talking about.

The Hound wants your attention: We have current businesses here, in this area right now, that are going to need us to expand this capacity. Alan Jackson and Pat Appleson are two businessmen in our area that are going to need this capability to be able to compete in their fields. Alan owns the Jackson Group and his business specializes in Research and Marketing utilizing Multimedia for both Public and Private entities. Pat Appleson is the owner of Pat Appleson Studios. Pat's company is a full service broadcast production company, which provides services that create commercials for ads on radio and television and in other multimedia forums. Pat (and I am sure Alan also) has equipment that he cannot fully utilize, because we don't have the broadband infrastructure that can handle his equipment's full potential. I would hate to lose two great businesses, in this area, because these gentlemen can't compete in their industries. And soon that might happen, if we don't upgrade our Broadband Network.

Terry Bledsoe, Catawba County's Information Technology Director, has talked about the need to reinvigorate our local Broadband Infrastructure. He has talked about Wilson, NC's High Speed Broadband Network. Wilson has built a Broadband Infrastructure that currently allows for 100 mb/sec connections to the home and 1 gb/sec to businesses. That is basically 30 times faster than the Hickory Metro's Broadband Infrastructure. While this is not the be-all, end-all address of our Information and Technological needs, it is certainly a guidepost and map that we can learn from.

Video is only one computing capacity that has and is expanding at exponential rates. There are also a multitude of needs from the automation of industry to communication for personal and public entities to control of corporate and public information systems and the expansion of educational opportunity. These are just a few of the necessities we must address in order for our community to move forward into a positive future.

With invention and innovation, we cannot possibly envision every need on the horizon. Think of how far we have come since the web became functional in 1982. Think of what this area was then and where we are today. I doubt that you could imagine that whole industries would virtually be wiped off of our map. Here is an opportunity, our opportunity, we must seize it!!!

Broadband Mapping Link of North Carolina

2009-07-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

In some of my daily newspaper reading I came across an article related to NC broadband. It mentioned a site that has recently updated maps of the state, counties and particular locations related to broadband access.

Now, I do not know the definitions they are using to call it “broadband,” but figured it might be interesting for some of the group to view.

Here is the website – click on the mapping tab for different options.

Have a good day,

Nathan Huret
Existing Industry Coordinator
Catawba County EDC

FEC Mission Statement ideas

2009-06-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

You can post with your name or anonymously. I would like to see a thorough vetting of ideas about what the FEC's Mission should be. No idea should be considered too big, too small, or belittled. Let's mash up our thoughts and come up with something tangible we can sell.

The comment button is below.

Future Economy Council Meeting #4 (6/18/2009)

2009-06-21T10:44:00.000-07:00

I will go over this meeting chronologically, In my mind, this meeting showed a paradox of several different visions that this group is going to have to deal with over time. There are issues that must be dealt with in short order (i.e. Grant Monies) needed to help initiate start-up guidance and the requirement that the FEC develop a mission statement defining tangible goals and priorities that will lay the framework needed to develop credibility, which will foster buy-in from the community.

Welcome - Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn started out the meeting by giving a general overview of what the structure of this meeting would entail. Danny addressed that Lenoir-Rhyne wants to be the site for a Master Capacity Builder Series.

Danny spoke to the fact that he feels he has done his job and we are organized and understand the gist of what this (the FEC) is about. We are functioning and have things in place. He made the recommendation that Terry Bledsoe be the Chairman of the FEC. The Council enthusiastically supported this decision.

Special Guest: Jim Hyder, Davidson, NC Creating a Diaspora for Catawba County - Mr. Hyder spoke to the issue of Diaspora. He spoke of his friendship with Rick Smyre. Mr. Hyder was born in Hickory. He spoke of his connections to Hickory. Mr. Hyder stated that he is interested in Hickory.

Mr. Hyder said he has kept up with Hickory issues and wants to help. He addressed the issue of people who have connections to Hickory that might also want to help get Hickory back on track. We need to reach out to these connections and see if they might be interested in helping. He doesn't know what he is to do. This is a work in progress. Maybe we could get School Principals to point to former successful students that might have a connection and want to help.

Rick Smyre stated that as we evolve this concept that there are people who may be interested in helping. He talked about Twitter and the impact it has had over the last few days (Iran). The connections of people throughout the world that may have an interest and empathy, in Hickory, is a wonderful opportunity to give us support. This can open up resources by creating ping pong effects. He said that where local people might not buy into what we are trying to accomplish, that a person from outside of the community may be able to bring a new perspective to the discussion and may change those people's minds that are stuck in the old ways of thinking.

Terry Bledsoe talked about Catawba County's utilization of Facebook. The idea was to gain participation from locals to get (county government) messages out. Unintentionally it was discovered that people all over the world have signed up for the page, because they want a connection with Catawba County.

Chuck Adair addressed the historical context of what the original Diaspora was about. The original diaspora was the displacement of the Jews from Jerusalem by the Romans.

Photo by Pat Appleson Studios

Special Guest: Gene Anderson, Entrepreneur from Gastonia Master Capacity Builder Trainee - He stated that his whole life he has been growing into the person he is now. He grew up poor in Globe, Arizona, because the city died during his formative years. He obtained 83 merit badges, while being in the Boy Scouts. This helped broaden the context from which he made decisions. This helped him in school, because he had information (context) that was broader than what the school offered. He loved to learn. This made decision making much easier.

He spent 11 years in the Army. The military understands that culture and sociology matter. He moved to Gastonia about 13 years ago. In 2001, he put his four children in a charter school and he joined the board of that school. That is where he met Rick Smyre and a discussion took place about preparing the children (of the school) for the future. Gene stated that he wanted to prepare the children for their future, not for "our" future, because I was prepared for my future and I found that preparation to be lacking.

The assumption that the board knew what the children's future would be was thrown out real fast. With the help of Rick, it was decided that they needed to help the children develop a capacity to handle the future, whatever that future might be. The real core issue became development of the capacity to help operate and thrive in a constantly changing environment. Over a five year period they worked with the board of directors and teacher's groups and started putting the techniques into the classroom, beginning in kindergarten. There are 12 to 15 core philosophies. One is and/both thinking. Another is listening for value in what the student is saying. This allows the teacher to take disparate ideas and focus them back into the direction that the class needs to be going.

The traditional problem solving function is too limited to carry people into the future. Master Capacity Builders have techniques that can expand the capacity of others. Capacities can be developed a little bit at a time. Developing it too fast can cause one to lose the access point into an organization or individual. Developing capacity is gradual, from several different directions, and often done obliquely. The goal is to help people deal with more complex issues in the future.

In the question answer phase, Gene stated, "We model how to connect disparate ideas and once those thought patterns are activated and one begins connecting disparate ideas, then one increases the capacity to increase disparate ideas." Followership is as important as leadership. Their are techniques that help achieve those capacities and help to teach that everyone has value and everyone should have input.

Thomas Jefferson Quote (about the University of Virginia) - "This institution will be based on the illimitable freedom of the human mind. For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it."

Photo by Pat Appleson Studios

Futures Institute/Master Capacity Builder Training (Brzorad/Mauney) - A Lenoir-Rhyne University Partnership Effort - Dr. Brzorad and Bill Mauney have both met with Danny and Rick a couple of times. They have a couple of professors that seem like they would be interested in doing this. They want people to self-select for this. This will build up speed in the next month or so. There are a lot of implications in this pertaining to energy and the environment. This fall we should see some action taken on this.

Foundation Grant Project Updates:
1. Future Trends Dialogue Groups: Hickory Library- 7/9/2009 from 7:00 – 8:30 PM - Catawba County Library SW Branch in Mountain View, 7/10/2009 from 10:00 – 11:30 AM (Sizemore/Foss) - Council Members are encouraged to participate and an editorial will be in the paper on Sunday.

Photo by Pat Appleson Studios

2. Broadband Video Conference in August with Wilson, NC (Bledsoe) - This hasn't been confirmed, but Terry expects it to work. The City Manager or Technology Director will speak with us. Terry stated that one of the good things about the FEC, is that just having the discussions have moved things through the community. Some of the providers have come to Terry about Broadband concerns in our community. That is a good thing.

Baker's mountain now has better coverage. A company is looking at expanding options by using some 0f the (federal) stimulus money. Gaffney, South Carolina is looking to have fiber to the home in the next couple of years. The U.S. has fallen from 16th to 22nd in Broadband speed. Australia has a plan to get 100mb/sec connection to 90% of the country's homes. Finally, In Isse, France they have fiber in most homes and Wi-Fi throughout the city. 57% of their business is Telecom.

Photo by Pat Appleson Studios

3. FEC Web Site (Shell) - Project 3P - the Progressive Productive Proton Project - is the name of the blog that I have created. It is a play off of the Idea of the Creative Molecular Economy.

The words have a lot of meaning when it comes to what we are trying to achieve here:
1) Progressive – I’m not thinking politically here. I am thinking of the ideal definition. Favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are. The status quo.

2) Productive – having the power to produce, generate and/or create. Folks, we have to make things happen or we can choose to be roadkill on the highway of life. My choice is to leave a lasting positive legacy for the future generations of people who inhabit this area: whether I enjoy the fruits of this labor or not. This is the big picture.

3) Proton - a positively charged elementary particle that is a fundamental constituent of all atomic nuclei. The people in this room have voluntarily chosen to be part of this project. We are the bright lights in this community. We are going to be those positively charged molecules that bring the positive force that will lead to the ingenuity and innovation that will turn things around in this community.

The first step was to create the Blog and the address is http://project3p.blogspot.com
I have also purchased the domain www.project3p.net. Project3p.com isn’t available. It seems to be an underutilized home design blogging webpage.

I want to turn the website into a php message board in the near future. The idea being an accessible, user friendly forum that will take on an organic life of its own and evolve in whatever path it chooses to take. I honestly believe that open source contributions will be where innovation and development will come from. Ramo calls it mash-up - the collision of separate, distinguishable entities into something unpredictably new. And isn’t that what Evolution is all about?

4. Communi-Versity Series: “100 Most Creative People in Business”- Dr. Anthony Atala, Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine?(Hearn) - Danny says that this series is about future trends, weak signals, bringing in futurists, and talking about new technology. These are things that can change our future in medicine, economic development, or education.... He is saying Dr. Atala is an example of someone that our local Universities could reach out to. Since he is so close, we can call on him and ask him to come speak as a part of this series. Dr. Brzorad was very receptive to the idea and stated that he will definitely look into this opportunity.

Unifour Foundation Grant Update - Turned Down
Danny stated that we did not receive the grant. He said he was very disappointed and explained what the consequences of not obtaining the grant would mean to our group. This does not mean that the FEC will not move forward, but it is going to make the process much harder.

Dr.Brzorad said this leaves us two options. Go find another funding source or come up with the money on our own. We would be taking even more ownership if we fund it ourselves. Dr. B said the grant was good even though we didn't get it. I asked if we couldn't tweak it ourselves and apply for other grants? Danny said yes, but where will we send those grants to?

We had a thorough and lively discussion that followed.

Jay Adams had a solid statement - People will invest in things that they believe that they can get a return from and that's the bottom line. Until this group can demonstrate credibility, we are just begging. You've got to give some credible indication that putting money into it (the FEC) is going to generate a real rate of return. People are looking for results or a high likelihood of results.

Terry Bledsoe said he had asked Danny Hearn, in the beginning, what is this group really all about. We haven't set any goals. Is this just a thinktank? Are we just trying to get information out to the people? What are we going to produce? Terry's summation is that we have one product on the table and that is with Lenoir-Rhyne and the Master Capacity Building Program. There is a great program with the Chamber called Leadership Catawba. He believes that the two could be merged. Maybe we could get funding that way.

Steve Ivester said there are places (Morristown, NJ; Silicon Valley; Research Triangle Park) that are hot houses and businesses are just blossoming. If we have a goal, it should be to cause and create this process in Hickory. Making Hickory an incubator of lots of new businesses and investment opportunities. We're a little to early to say that you should invest because of it.

Harry Hipps said we need to communicate by e-mail and create a mission statement. We have discussed some tangible assets, such as Master Capacity Building and Broadband.

Danny's Summation for the day - When people say, "who is the beneficiary?" He can't go to someone and say give me $10,000 and you will get this in return. This is not that investment. We are selling the invisible. If we continue to take this economy in the direction that we have always taken it, we aren't going to get anywhere. The Economy has totally changed. What we had prior to 2000 is gone. We have to reinvent ourselves. If we don't do that, then we are in big trouble. It is the thinking of elected officials, business, and education of changing the way we do things and that investment can't be shown. The community better embrace it and understand it. We can't even get our local officials (hmm hmm I'll say it Rudy) to read a document about Mobile Governance that Rick wrote. There are (forward thinking) investment ideas out there, that no current elected official will look at, but people (I'll say it - not lost in yesterday) who are prone to understand this and reach outside of their comfort level and try to embrace it, all of a sudden, an idea that a traditional thinker will not do, we might. Those ideas are achievable.

The Hounds Take is that the general consensus is we are going to develop a core subgroup of FEC people that will design a mission statement. This mission statement should entail a project that has a high likelihood of succeeding and the group should apply to funding sources that might achieve a real rate of return as a result of investing in the group that supports that project.

Project 3P Documents as of June 15, 2009

2009-06-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

e-NC e-mail about North Carolina's Broadband issues

2009-06-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

Thank You Terry Bledsoe

As we move into June, there is now a somewhat clearer picture of how North Carolina’s current connectivity-related bills are moving and shaking within the General Assembly. Much remains to be seen, but we understand that about half of the legislation related to connectivity made the crossover deadline on May 14. Baby steps, right?

So, what is crossover, you ask? This is the deadline for when legislation that does not involve money must be passed by one chamber (read: the House or the Senate) and been tossed to the other chamber. If legislation doesn’t pass in one chamber by this deadline, it’s essentially dead-in-the-water for this year. Some exceptions can exist for this rule, but that’s usually only the case if the legislation is being sent to appropriations or revenue committees. Bills that did not meet the crossover deadline can still be considered in some type of study committee after this year’s session. If they are in a study committee, then they can roll their decisions into bills that can be considered next year. All appropriations- and revenue-related bills are still under consideration for this session.

Here are the connectivity-related bills that met the crossover deadline, and still up for consideration by the N.C. General Assembly. (HB refers to House Bill, SB refers to Senate Bill.)

HB135 – Broadband Service Providers - This just passed the Senate Commerce committee, and would allow broadband service providers to also sell voice service in their area.

HB136 – DOT/Fiber-Optic Cable - This legislation is now in the Senate Finance committee. It would allow the N.C. Department of Transportation to acquire right-of-way for fiber optic cable enabling broadband communications.

HB530 / SB889 – Utilities/Carrier of Last Resort - The House version of the bill is now in the Senate Commerce committee and the Senate version is now in the House Public Utilities committee. This legislation would further authorize the N.C. Utilities Commission to designate carriers of last resort.

SB357 – Utilities/Regulation of Pole Attachments by Communications Service Providers -This is now in the House Ways & Means/Broadband Connectivity committee. This bill would require municipalities and membership corporations to allow the use of their poles, ducts and conduits by communications service providers and would also change the handling of related disputes between entities.

SB1004 – Level Playing Field - This is now in the House Public Utilities committee, and authorizes the Revenue Laws Study Committee to research local government owned and operated communications services. The original bill proposed adding restrictions to municipalities providing broadband service to their community. The e-NC Authority’s position on this issue is that local governments should have the right to offer broadband services when the service available does not meet the needs of the local community.

HB1180 – Consumer Choice and Investment Act of 2009 - This just passed the Senate Commerce committee, and would decrease regulation on local exchange companies in their provision of voice service.

The e-NC Authority’s funding legislation – HB532 and SB697 – are in appropriations committees, so they are still up for consideration in this session. During the first week of June, the appropriations subcommittees will likely make their funding recommendations to the chairs of the full appropriations committees. At that point, the House budget will quickly take shape. Ultimately, a conference committee will be appointed to work out the differences between the Senate and House budgets.

As everyone knows, there continues to be a budget shortfall for the current fiscal year, and low projected revenues for the upcoming year. In fact, experts are saying that it could be as late as 2013-2014 before the state can expect to generate enough revenue for a $20.8 billion state budget again (this was the initial budget for 2008-2009).

So – for all the broadband advocates in North Carolina, we still need you to talk to your representatives about the need to make such a critical investment, and to continue to provide financial support for the e-NC Authority. Always remember that, for better or worse, legislators are expected to understand and track thousands of bills and different policy issues, so please help with continuing to educate them about the importance of broadband for economic competitiveness through job creation in our state – for every dollar invested in broadband is expected to return ten-fold to North Carolina’s economy.

Concerned about all of this? Reach out. Share your thoughts. Help us educate the state on the importance of broadband issues.

Send a quick note to your elected officials and ask them to support the e-NC Authority through House Bill 532 and Senate Bill 697, which would continue the e-NC Authority’s operational funding. North Carolina has a globally-recognized state broadband authority right here, and we don’t want to lose this important resource for technical expertise and guidance.

Not sure who represents you in the N.C. General Assembly? Click here.

Want information on the latest legislation related to broadband? Click here.

Have more questions about connectivity in your area? Send your story to info@e-nc.org.

Follow the e-NC Authority’s blog, and connect with us on Facebook or YouTube!

My address to the Chamber of Commerce Board this morning about the Future Economy Council - 5/27/2009

2009-05-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

I truly appreciate Danny Hearn inviting me to the meeting this morning and allowing me to address the Chamber's Board. Below is my prepared statement and I am also placing it on the Project 3P website. I hope that you will begin visiting that website to see what the Future Economic Council is up to.

Thank You for allowing me to speak on behalf of the Future Economy Council. The Future Economy Council has given me hope that we can turn our area’s Economic Malaise around.

The last 2 meetings have been inspiring. Rick Smyre is very engaging and he certainly has a way of inspiring innovative communication. There are definitely quite a few forward thinkers in the group. This group seems to embrace the idea, notion, and actuality of an exponentially changing world.

The realities are that we need new skills, new approaches, and a different Philosophical framework for the world of tomorrow. And the world of tomorrow is actually here today. That is the reason why this area continues to fall behind. We have allowed innovation and technology to pass us by.

We are in a new age of enlightenment. We can’t cordon Hickory off from the global experience. Mr. Smyre believes that Catawba County's Future Economy Council is comprehensively setting up the initial conditions to deal with this New World effectively. One concept that Rick mentioned was the idea of looking at our community and organizations and building in resiliency. We have to develop capacities in our thinking, skills, and leadership to be able to adapt quickly in this exponentially changing world.

My role has been to develop a blog that will be the first in a number of websites dedicated to the process of rebranding Hickory as an area of innovation. I started a blog about the Hickory Metro’s political, economic, and cultural landscape called the Hickory Hound last August. I have received over 10,000 unique visitors to the website, in that short span, from cities around the world. I do not tell you this for self-promoting purposes. I am telling you this so that you might understand the possibilities of engaging the Global Community and helping them understand the Rebranding of Hickory and what we are setting out to accomplish.

The goals of this and subsequent websites will be to provide content, including books and links to websites, about what the Future Economic Council is trying to accomplish and what the Creative Molecular Economy entails. I will provide summaries of the agenda and the minutes of Future Economic Council and related meetings. We will create a message board forum that will allow for interactive communication between members and other interested parties.

My next goals are to interact with council members and devise a Mission statement. We want to outline a division of labor for both efficiency and effective purposes.

I really enjoyed Terry Bledsoe’s presentation of the Broadband upgrade opportunities for the area and the discussion that ensued. Since last Thursday I have had a couple of offshoot discussions that spoke to the limitless possibilities of upgrading our Broadband connectivity. If given the chance, this process will bear fruit. This is not the be-all, end –all, but it could enhance and attract entrepreneurs and forward thinkers from around the world to seriously enter Hickory into their equation.

In our last meeting, just last Thursday, Jay Adams said that he believes that the thing we need to aim at, is that there is going to be a lot of money thrown at solving problems like this (the Broadband issue). The project is going to have to be well formed and well thought out, it's going to have to look good on paper, it's going to have to be comprehensive. After the implementation, the maintenance is what local government and businesses have to cooperate to maintain. Hickory, because of size and layout, is in a much better position to implement these kinds of things than a major metro area.

Folks, the average citizen has been kept out of the loop on Economic Development Issues in this area. We are told that we are doing all the right things. We are told that it’s not the local government’s fault. It’s all caused by Washington and Raleigh. We have all the right ingredients, but we just can’t get over the hump. Apparently close only counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades, and Hickory.

I truly believe that the Future Economy Council is the missing ingredient. We have no plans to hide what we are doing. We are here and we are open to be approached from all angles. I believe in leaving the egos at the door. If this community will give us the tools and get behind what Danny, Rick, and this council are doing, then I 100% believe that we will bear fruit in the not too distant future.

Future Economy Council Meeting #3 (5/21/2009)

2009-05-26T19:26:00.000-07:00

I will go over this meeting chronologically, but I will let you in on the fact that this was another excellent meeting. This meeting got opened up and people just went with it on some new levels of innovative dialogue.

Welcome - Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn started out the meeting by announcing that Rick Smyre has been named Chairman of the Gaston County Future Economy Council. Danny mentioned that several parallel processes have been taking place since the last time we met. Four new members joined the team including Mark Fleming, Congressman Patrick McHenry's Office; Andrea Surratt, Assistant City Manager, City of Hickory; Shane Pitman, Information Security Specialists; and Chuck Adair (Consultant). The Unifour Foundation grant will be decided upon during the first week in June.

Future's Communi-Versity: Speaker Joshua Cooper Ramo - Rick Smyre had the floor next and he spoke about the book that Danny has already sent us an e-mail about. The book is The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It . (Rick did not mention this, but the author was the man who translated events and was a guest commentator during the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC). Joshua Cooper Ramo used to be an associate editor for Time Magazine. He lives in China and connects businesses to U.S. concerns. Ramo says, "We are in Revolutionary Times and We need Revolutionary Thinking." "We are living in a time when the ideas, the institutions, and the leaders are more attuned to an age that is 200 years ago." We are in a time of Civilization Change. Command and Control Management is no longer effective.

We need new skills. We need a new approach and a different Philosophical framework. We have to be able to identify weak signals. We are moving back to a new age of enlightenment. Rick believes that Catawba County's FEC is comprehensively setting up the initial conditions effectively. One concept that Rick mentioned was the idea of looking at our community and organizations and building in resiliency. We have to develop capacities in our thinking, skills, and leadership to be able to adapt quickly in an exponentially changing world.

Future Economy Council Website/ Hickory Hound Blog - Danny retook the floor and talked about our hopeful addition of an FEC website. He handed the floor over to myself to discuss the idea and a conversation that I had with Rick on Tuesday afternoon. The idea is to develop a subgroup that will in the end create a website focusing on the Creative Molecular Economy (CME). The steps to getting to the development of the website are 1) We need to obtain knowledge (concepts and methods of CME) about what we are doing. 2) We need to design the website after we have nailed down the concepts and have a connection of multiple websites to create a web based on that. 3) Basically, we need to identify individuals and small groups of intelligent knowledgeable people and I believe everyone in the FEC has something to offer.

He gave me a list of sites to check out that might be of interest. This will be like playing chess. We are going to have to think about multiple moves at one time. We can't afford to limit ourselves by thinking "This is the right move." If we all get together and go at this from a different angle, then when someone gets ahead of the game we can follow them. But, as in a horse race, when someone else takes the lead then we can slide on over and follow them. We need to go with whatever is the winning situation in this and that is how we are going to get ahead.

We are going to reference the minutes of our meetings, all of the references to books and websites, and interactivity of communication. This will essentially be the beginning of the communi-versity, where we don't have to have a physical building. We have the web and the virtual world to take care of, and obtain, knowledge from at any time.

Rick retook the floor and went over the meaning of the Creative Molecular Economy that he had spoken of at our last FEC meeting. He added that products being made in the future (some have already begun) and the processes in which they are made will be based upon biology. Our community's participation in this transformation will help us be at the cutting edge. The website will allow us to see what is emerging and Hickory is focusing on the idea of preparing for the CME. The website will create an access point that will 1) Bring attention to Hickory and help market our brand and 2) It will help build global connections to help access resources and other people.

I had to ask a question of Rick. "What is the syntax of the word "Molecular" in the term Creative Molecular Economy? We all know the definition of Molecular, but in this syntax are we talking about the processors and nanobiotics or are we talking about People?" There was a small discussion and in the end Rick said that it was both. Rick says that our education focuses on outcomes and content that think in either/or terms, but we need to think in and/both terms.

Houston Harris asked if "either/or" questions didn't give us the ability to prioritize? Rick said sometimes like in a city council situation you have to do this. He said however that many times these questions are formed wrong or put in the wrong context. Either/Or is necessary when you have to take control, but if you are trying to build new capacities it is the worst approach.

Future Citizen Teams: City and County Public Libraries: Mary Sizemore was given the floor and Danny encouraged her to address a library series being set up by herself, Karen Foss, Kim Whitmore, and Chuck Adair. There will be a feature learner group or book club that will meet once a month and come back for discussion. Hopefully this will grow. Mary addressed how this will be promoted by the Chamber and by the library. She hopes this will start this summer. Dates will be nailed down soon. Chuck Adair said he would like to have people on the FEC or their organizations participate in the series. He would like to see the transitional experience be a little more focused. Rick stated that Biological principle says that you can't have growth, evolution, or innovation without diversity.

Future's Institute/ Tranformational Leadership Training Site - Dean Bill Mauney of Lenoir-Rhyne was given the floor next. He has gotten together with Dr. John Brzorad and they are looking to make the Reese Institute at L-R a nationally known Futures Institute. The Reese Institute focuses on conservation. That provides all sorts of opportunities. L-R students are open to new ideas. Part of the Grant we are seeking as the FEC will seek to teach Master Capacity Building. L-R would be a regional center in that effort.

Broadband Connectivity - Terry Bledsoe next took the floor and displayed a Power Point Presentation. He stated that in the 1990s that Catawba County was a leader in the Fiber-Optic industry before losing much of that industry. Many people think that we are ahead of the game as far as Broadband is concerned.

What is the definition of Broadband? The legal definition was 256kb/sec download and 128kb/sec upload until March 2008. Now it is defined in tiers. Catawba County is defined as tier-4 on the scale (rated by e-nc). Terry said most studies say that we need 100mb/sec to the home by 2012.

In Europe, several areas have networks that are 100mb/sec to 1 gb/sec or higher. Public/Private partnerships have built most of this. Wilson, NC is offering 100mb/sec to the home and 1gb/sec to business. This $30 million plan is expected to only take 5 to 10 years to pay back. They are meeting resistance from Embarq and Time-Warner.

In Europe, the models are public-private to build the network out, then the companies can buy space on the fiber network. This has fostered more competition, a la carte service, and a better network.

There was an excellent discussion (and back and forth) by the group about capping of downloading usage and control of the internet by the private entities that offer the service. Terry said he doesn't know that we are even to that point, in the discussion, but he believes we are getting to the point of saturation. That is the point of the discussion. He stated that he does not know of any plans for 100mb/sec broadband to the home in Catawba County.

Terry showed some slides that show the average U.S. connection is 5mb/sec. Countries that had their networks installed later have obtained newer equipment and thus have better broadband. The U.S. were the innovators of the technology, but we have fallen behind as new equipment has been developed. The U.S. is paying on average $55/month or $11/mb. Japan is paying about $35/month. Wilson is paying $35/month for 10mb connections. Catawba County is going to have to move forward on this issue. We need to evolve with the technology. There are 30 counties in North Carolina with better broadband than Catawba County.

Another Lively Discussion Ensued about the possibilities of bringing Accelerated Broadband to Hickory. It was entertaining and informative. I'll tell you one thing. you better get Pat Appleson a gig connection soon (that would be an appetizer) or we might just see his head explode. I love his passion for technology.

Rick Smyre stated that he thinks we are going to see, because of the complexity of all systems, a move to public-private cooperation (in business). The ideological approach of the past isn't going to work in a time of constant change, interconnection, and increased complexity.

Jay Adams said that he believes that the thing we need to aim at, is that there is going to be a lot of money thrown at solving problems like this. The project is going to have to be well formed and well thought out, it's going to have to look good on paper, it's going to have to be comprehensive. After the implementation, the maintenance is what local government and businesses have to cooperate to maintain. Hickory, because of size and layout, is in a much better position to implement these kinds of things than a major metro area.

Danny asked Terry to continue more of this discussion the next time that we meet. He would like us to look more into what Wilson is doing and maybe bring in an official from CommScope.

Shane Pitman had an excellent statement that Internet Service Providers need to look to more than consumers, when trying to recoup costs. Consumers are downloading from Netflix and Hulu and the ISPs should be recouping part of the costs (of increased broad band) from those companies as well.

Houston Harris stated that if we solve the broadband issue, and move up two tiers, that doesn't solve our problem. It is an asset that helps us get to a real solution. This is about the economy. At the end of the day, we must be careful not to just focus on this one issue.

IT Training/Funding and Dialogue with Public School Teachers - Dr. Judith Ray spoke to the issue of "No Child Left Behind." She believes that it has strangled education. She wonders how we can bring more relevant instruction at a time when the schools are losing personnel (because of budget cuts). It is going to create more stress on the part of teachers and less receptivity to changing their teaching approach, because they have to have formative assessments. We are assessing the ability to regurgitate knowledge rather than think.

There have been a lot of strides in terms of hardware. She believes we have to look at small pockets, being able to get an initiative going. If we can find an outside entity to come in and talk and help partner with teachers, she believes it is an overwhelming task, but it must be done. Assessing current knowledge does not teach kids how to think. She said Rick asked how this will be received. Judith stated these are new jobs and they aren't replacing anybody, it is grant money, it is additional help, and it reduces class sizes.

Michael Neely spoke about the technology angle and teaching kids how to think. He sensed the urgency in education. He said his business depends on highly skilled people. He needs people that are skilled at more than one thing -- thinking and problem solving. Danny invited Judith to bring her counterparts to meet the council so that we may dialogue with them.

Danny Hearn then wrapped up the meeting. I truly felt like I learned a lot in that 1hour and 42 minutes. I think we all did. (Pictures by Pat Appleson)

Future Economy Council Meeting was awesome (4/16/2009)

2009-05-26T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here is my report on this morning's Future Economy Council Meeting. Rick Smyre really got me to thinking about the possibilities for our community going forward into the future. We should be thankful that Danny Hearn has moved us in this direction.

Mr. Hearn made introductions of a few new members that will participate in our Future Economy Council: Mary Sizemore - Director, Hickory Public Libraries; Karen Foss - Director, Hickory Public Libraries; Patty Thompson, Mountain State University; Tom Alexander - Fire Chief, City of Hickory.

Mr. Hearn stressed the importance of utilizing library resources to get our message out. We have applied for a $10,000 grant from the Catawba Valley Community foundation. This money will go towards training 15 to 25 "Master Capacity Builders;" "Futures Institute Training at L-R, CVCC. and ASU;Improving the IT curriculum of Catawba County's 3 school systems; Transformative Dialogue Groups - to involve and educate the citizenry; and for Incidentals. Mr. Hearn stated that even if we don't get this grant, that there are other avenues available to raise the monies needed. We will know in 5 weeks whether we get this grant or not.

Mr. Hearn then introduced Rick Smyre. He was a CEO of a textile company in Gaston County and is a leading Future Development Specialist. He believes that we are in a period of Historical Transformation. He told us that he used to debate people, but now he has learned to listen and connect with what people are saying. He stated that everything he told us was an opinion and that he has no truth left in his body. One of the real challenges is to create a culture in communities where they can transform themselves.

His experiences led him to think structurally and linearly in the past. He used to debate upon what he heard. If he agreed with what a person thought, then he could carry on a discussion with the person. He said he really wasn't listening to what people were saying.

We need to learn to not just reform, we need to learn how to transform. Transformation means something has not been around (existed) before. Reformation is just changing something that already exists. Transformation requires people to rethink what they have thought for years. These are fundamental issues.

Dialogue is communication in the form of questions and statements. Dialogue is not enough in the transformative times we are in. We have to find value (a connection) in what one another are saying. This can help us with our capacity to innovate. The skill to ask appropriate questions is going to be more important at times than to make a statement.

Traditional Leadership is project oriented and is focused on outcomes.Transformative Leadership requires that we use new ideas that create a futures context. New ideas do not have a model or template to go by. If we don't open our minds to these new ideas, then we don't have the capacity to make the changes necessary to transform our community. We must have a sense of what is emerging, instead of being fixated on the way that things have always been.

Work of the future will be mental. Biological Principle says that you do not have innovation, growth, or evolution unless you have diversity. Diversity alone is not enough, you must have processes that allow that diversity to take shape. Nobody changes unless we as individuals decide that we must change. This is the reason that Statements are no longer effective. We must build connections between individuals. Questions help us to evolve and develop ideas and processes.

We are seeing 3 different Economies emerge:
1) The Knowledge Economy - Thought to be taking place from 2000 to 2025. Creation of an environment in the culture that supports continuous innovation that is always open to new ideas.

2) Industrial Economy - The Industrial age. Peaked in the 1980s. This is still the focus of most leaders in our community.

3) Creative Molecular Economy (Open Source Economy) - When you cannot control where you want to go, because you don't no where you are going, because things haven't been invented yet, then you have to create productive capacities. Adaptive planning says that you must work and network together (as individuals) to respond and adapt to what is emerging. Connectivity (And/Both reasoning) is important in understanding context, structuring statements, and objectives. The two major components a) Technology and b) Organization of economy and society around individuals, global innovation networks, and small groups.

People resist change, because of comfort. That makes it hard to make positive transformations in society. If we want to have our economy be vital and sustainable, then we must be willing to take what are considered radical approaches in changing society. We must depend on one another to achieve higher objectives. This is a systemic issue and we must build parallel processes to achieve objectives in an exponentially changing world.

We need to build relationships with cutting edge individuals that can help our area. These people might come to this area, if we are supportive of a Creative Molecular Economy. We must learn to collaborate and cooperate. Leaders need to develop environments where others can come to their own conclusions. We should not limit ourselves, because we are not willing to listen to others who might have different ideas than our own. That expands the mind.

Marching Orders - Lead and talk to one another. Ask questions of one another. Design a 6 month strategy. Bring our own ideas to the table, so that community transformation can emerge over the next 5 to 10 years. Build connections with people that we know virtually or personally and collaborate with them so that they can see the value in what we are doing.

The Future is Now (3/13/2009)

2009-05-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

Click the Link to Check out Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn's article in the Hickory Daily Record on Sunday, March 15, 2009 entitled Future Economy Council Ahead of the Curve (unpublished on the Web).
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Harry Hipps and I discussed our thoughts about issues involving the Future Economy Council. Of course, we want to be transparent, open, and honest about how issues directly impact this community’s future. We will inform and make everyone aware of the different types of dynamics that may be happening in our world and how quickly these impacts may change the world as we know it. We are living in exponential times and that is a scary proposition, but these challenges must be met head-on or our community will continue to fall further and further behind.

Yes, this is overwhelming to many people. The indigenous inhabitants of this area remember when the population was half the size that it is now. Now we are part of a global experience that scares many of our citizens. But, we cannot stop that change!!!

As Dr. Jane Everson defined, our community must become “nimble,” especially during these drastically changing times. These times will require a lot of creative and critical thinking. Most of our citizens are wary of this type of rapid change and suffering Anxiety at the thought of having to adjust to such a different world. Such change can lead to fight or flight syndrome and it will be the Future Economy Council’s responsibility to help adjust our citizenry’s mode of thinking.

Why are people so scared and reluctant to address these issues of change? Why be scared when you are powerless to stop it? If you can’t beat it, join it. The exponential rate of change is not stopping. Some of us have come to that understanding and embraced this new world, but some people remain in a state of denial.

The number one issue our area faces is the jobs issue. People must come to the realization that careers will no longer be determined by specific tasks. Employment will be determined by broader generalities. You will have to define yourself by the strength of your skill-sets. Whatever you are good at and your niche and interests will determine your career. These manifestations of your unique, and in many ways inherent, skill-sets will determine what you can do.

It will be important to increase the education of the workforce to achieve the flexibility, malleability, and diversity that any industry needs to move forward. The bottom line is that we are going to have to get the basics (reading, writing, and arithmetic) down before we can move to the levels of critical thinking that we need to move forward in this exponentially changing world.

The overwhelming nature of the change that is ahead can make people feel lost, but does that really matter? We have to work on giving young people a firm foundation of values and principles, to establish their well-being. Young people lose their identity when they’re morality is not built upon substance. The result is that they turn to ways of escape from stress. They start drinking and using drugs, which leads to bad consequences that put them behind at a young age. Many times these young people have developed into something that they really don’t understand.

It is debatable how developed that young people are after they graduate from high school or college. We all know that there is development, but at what critical level? The basic mindset may be established, but when these young people advance to the next stage of development, many times they regress to a stage that they are more comfortable with. Many people of our younger generation become accepting of mediocrity. But, what they have to understand is that nothing ever stands still. You are either progressing or you are regressing. Education and attainment of knowledge only end after you leave this life.

I believe that was what Jay Adams was getting at, at this meeting, when talking about the current economic mindset of the local community… (summarizing) that over the last nine years we have become lean and that has in many ways put us in a strong position, but we have also adapted down and become accepting of this extreme level of cost containment at the expense of growth. In my opinion that is an acceptance of mediocrity, because if we aren’t willing to take chances and make some riskier investments in this community, then we will never get back to experiencing dynamic economic growth. Cheap Begets Cheap!!!

One of the main issues that our nation faces is that we have been shielding people from the consequences of their actions. Most people fail due to their own actions, yet we have created moral hazards that encourage the least common denominators in society. We cannot sustain this current way of thinking. We aren’t growing the economy, we are punishing everyone that creates growth in the economy, and we are encouraging the worst of the lot.

The worst part of our system is that our Government is constantly riding roughshod over the little guy. They don’t go after the powerful special interests, unions, agencies, or corporations; but they are systematically nickel and diming small businesses out of existence by creating a nasty regulatory environment and barriers to entry for upstart entrepreneurs. Not only that, but government in all forms is eating up the world’s capital pool, by bellying up to the trough and borrowing money to spend on gluttonous, wasteful expenditures. This is being done at the expense of capitalism and the free market.

Our culture is not going to accept the government crowding out our way of life. We are going to see Black Markets and fraud spring up, if the government continues down this path. That will delegitimize our society, because people will begin bartering and trading goods and services to keep the money away from the government. You will also see professionals get desperate and play with the bills and the books. Why should we criminalize our citizens, by creating more and more regulations that cannot be understood or adhered to? Look at the tax laws that are already on the books. Do you think that system is working?

Did you see today where the Chinese government asked for assurances and guarantees that the United States would meet its debt obligations? What will the implications of that be? What will that mean to our freedom?

We want creativity. That creativity will lead to progress. Creativity will not come without incentives. We cannot afford to kill the incentives towards growth. Yet, this monolithic character called Social Government has the ability to destroy the individuality needed to inspire creativity. That is what happened in the Soviet Union and in Maoist China. Those countries suffered through decades of darkness.

It is understandable that people are apprehensive about what the human race is currently experiencing. We must advance ourselves, both as individuals and as a community, but neither should be done at the expense of the other. What is happening is more than a change in lifestyle. It is a redefinition of life itself. That is a frightening concept, but we cannot stop it, nor should we try to stop it. For trying to stop what this world is now experiencing could lead to cataclysmic consequences for mankind.

We cannot afford to run and hide, either at the local level or at the world level. We have everything to gain by participating in the global community, but we must prepare ourselves to be successful in such a world. That is what Harry Hipps and I hope this “Futures Economy Council” can do; establish the creation of a road map of preparation to help Catawba County, as well as the region, move successfully forward into the future.

Time to Start Transforming Catawba County (3/12/2009)

2009-05-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

This morning, March 12, 2009, I was privileged to attend a meeting with some of the most important decision makers in this area. The meeting about Transformative Leadership is exactly what I feel needs to take place to move this area forward and get us ahead of the curve economically.

Danny Hearn started the presentation by showing us this video called Did You Know 3.0

Mr. Hearn explained that he is in the same position as us. He is a student of futurism and he is here to learn, not teach. He told us a story of a local area that dealt with this subject and how they basically ended the discussion shortly after the process began, because they were uncomfortable about the direction in which the subject was being taken.

Mr. Hearn briefly addressed the economy of the area and the current economic development happenings and opportunities that are taking place in the area. He spoke about the direction that we can take with this new Future Economy Council. As far as Community Events (and involvement), he spoke of creating a dialogue with the community, creating Futures Institutes for/with the Local Community Colleges, developing 21st Century Learning Webs, and establishing what will be known as Communiversities.

Some of the issues that were brought up by others were that we need to assess the strengths, assets, flaws, liabilities, and gaps that are currently present in our community. We need to develop an asset map and if we are honest and fully acknowledge our faults, then those issues will be easier to address. We are basically suffering from the structure of what this community has been, which has been closed "Process" oriented. We need to move more towards an open ended "Thinking" structure.

The Hound: I am going to compose a more thorough article this evening, which I hope to release some time tomorrow, that will show what this is all about and why I personally feel that this is one of the most important developments in the history of our local area. Folks, we need to be honest with ourselves. This area has always been self-reliant. There is not going to be any substantial money coming from Raleigh or Washington. We are going to have to take charge and make these changes ourselves.

Let's be honest, our area is suffering from the complacency and the false sense of security that was instituted long ago. After years of malaise, we must realize that we now have nothing to fear and nothing to lose. The future is here and we must control it or it will most assuredly control us. We can face this together and turn it around. If we don't, this community will continue to wither.

I hope that you will all join me and the others in embracing this concept. We look forward to addressing the key issues, instituting creative processes, and making the changes that will be necessary to get this community ahead of the curve and make it one that we can all be proud of.

Transformative Leadership -- All Chips In. How 'bout You? (1/29/2009)

2009-05-26T19:09:00.000-07:00

In Sunday's Business Section of the Hickory Daily Record, The President of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce Danny Hearn, offered an article entitled Creating transformative leadership is crucial to area (you can click the link - there is no online edition).

I have a little trouble understanding the jargon, but after looking up some of the keywords, I can see that he is pretty much spot on in his assessment. As we have stated here many times on this blog, you can't drive a car by looking in the rear view mirror. You must look forward, through the windshield, or you are bound to crash. In my opinion, our community has crashed, because of nostalgia, complacency, and stubbornness. These are three characteristics of people who live in the past.

There have been too many people in our local leadership positions that have been insulated from the financial problems that many of our citizens have experienced. That is the reason why people will tell you, "That's the way it's always been," when you point to deficiencies in our local area. To me, that is just an unacceptable response. I'm sorry, I am old enough to know better. Whole sections of this city have not always been blighted and it is immoral to ignore the plight of the least of us.

I think that Mr. Hearn is looking to do what has needed to be done in this area for years. We have to change the negative, "Can't Do" culture that has permeated through this community. I like what he says in his last paragraph of this article, "Please join us as we create a new system of values, concepts, capacities, strategies, attitudes, and behaviors..." Those are the words I have longed to hear and he is asking us to join together to do this.

What I think needs to be understood is the jargon Mr. Hearn has laid out in this article. We all understand what trends are. It is the general direction in which something tends to move. The concept that I had trouble understanding is "Weak Signals." To be honest, I have never heard of this term before.

In looking it up, Weak Signal Theory defines the ability to recognize and act upon subtle changes in conditions (such as markets) that may lead to extreme changes that can create barriers to growth. Weak Signal Theory espouses the Reduction of Noise (clutter) around projects, by not enabling Band-Aids (Temporary Fixes) to be placed on those projects to facilitate completion. Those Band-Aids mask "Weak Signals" that can lead to disastrous results. Another important "Weak Signal" problem solving issue is "Sense Making." Sense Making takes into account historical data, and using the patterns of that data, to theorize logical conclusions. By learning from past patterns of anecdotal evidence, we cut through problematic noise and get right at the heart of solving problems.

Next, Mr. Hearn went into the need for development of Transformative Leadership Skills. I agree with what he states here about Transformative Leadership Characteristics, but I have questions about "Characteristic 1," The ability to think systematically. I understand the need to have a plan as long as it does not espouse uniformity. In my opinion, uniformity kills innovation.

I agree completely with what Mr. Hearn states about the differences between Transformative Leaders and Traditional Leaders. Harry Hipps says it best, "Almost everyone wants a position and title but who wants to find, promote and evaluate initiatives that may carry some risk and may even fail." Transformative Leaders do not worry about failure. They learn from it!!!

Here I go being honest again, but in my humble opinion, this is where our educational system has failed us. It has turned the masses into a bunch of memorizing, copycat, follow the leader, cheating, grade earners. I was a failure in my formative education and I know why. Formal education isn't about obtaining knowledge, it's about being a good little robot and obtaining a letter of the alphabet (grade) that labels you. I have never accepted labels. Now that we are in changing times, all of the good little robots are running around, freaking out, babbling, "Does not compute, Does not compute, Does not compute," because they cannot think outside of the box.

I am reminded of something a local citizen said about the proposed Cloninger Mill Park. He said, "In 100 years, people will look back and ask why anyone attached a piece of commercial property to this land?" Personally I am not arrogant enough to look that far forward, but I can look back to the changes we have seen since 1909. We have seen 18 Presidents, America has fought in six major wars including 2 World Wars, 14 recessions have occurred including a Great Depression, there was still a Czar in Russia, and it was the first year the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was opened -- for automobile testing.

We must embrace change and relish it. My grandmother will be 95 years old in July. She gives me perspective. She has seen all of this transformation from an economy based on agriculture and sweatshops to where we are today. For all of the simplicity that life had to offer back then, there were still problems. We don't have to deal with Polio, billowing smokestacks, no indoor plumbing, or lack of electricity. We have the whole world at our feet.

We must carry forward with progress so that we may leave a lasting legacy to our descendants, as has been left to us. With all we have been given, we have the responsibility to not let what we have inherited wither. It is our obligation to enhance this area economically, culturally, educationally, spiritually, and environmentally for all our citizens; now and in the future.

Project 3P

2009-05-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have started a new blog per the request of Catawba County's Future Economy Council, which is a venture that was established by Catawba County Chamber of Commerce President Danny Hearn.

Project 3P is a play off of the idea of the future economy that is currently evolving. That economy is called the "Creative Molecular Economy." The 3P's = The Progressive Productive Proton Project. Progressive = the Future ( favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform) + Productive (Produce) = Create + Molecular = Proton (Positive Charged Molecule).

This website is just the first step in an ongoing process that we hope will evolve into something truly special. Let's work together to bring this community to the cutting edge of innovation. We already have so many tools at our disposal. This forum of open dialogue will lead to the innovation needed to bring us to an Advanced Economic Establishment for this community.

Thank You and May God Bless,
James Thomas Shell