Description
2007 Economic Development Leadership Award Finalist Presentation. Leadership and Innovation.
"Community Capitalism"
Southwest Michigan First, the region's economic development organization, worked closely with community and business leaders, educators and others to launch a series of innovative initiatives to reverse a long period of economic decline, exacerbated by the announcement by Pfizer in 2003 that it was closing its doors. One bold solution was to build a speculative life sciences office center to provide entrepreneurs with the wet lab space they needed to start companies of their own. Kalamazoo Promise, a fund to help pay tuition for enrollment at Michigan state colleges and universities proved to be one of the most innovative talent retention tactics in the country. Also implemented were a life science venture fund, an economic development recruitment tool, and the Monroe-Brown Internship Program, designed to keep college students in the area.
File Size: 1.17 MB
Keywords:
economic development, relocation, expansion, innovation, partner, recovery
