Turnarounds start with a community’s capabilities- UCSD’s CONNECT shows the way

San Diego ideal model for Spokane The Spokesman-Reviewan Diego business leaders realized 18 years ago traditional economic development models were not working. They tried recruiting new companies. Few came. They shifted to targeting new research and development consortiums then forming to close technology gaps with ascendant Asian and European competitors. Again, San Diego fell short.

Bert Caldwell Spokesman Review

The community, the consortiums said, did not have its act together. And all the service infrastructure — legal, financial, marketing, etc. — was not in place to support young technology companies.

Meanwhile, unemployment climbed to 13 percent as historical economic mainstays withered. General Dynamics alone idled 60,000 workers when it pulled out in response to cuts in defense spending. Real estate values plunged, the slide greased by the scandals that engulfed local savings and loan institutions.

Even the symphony had to shut its doors.

So, where is San Diego today? Consistently among the cities highly rated for starting a technology business. Qualcomm Inc., the $1 billion-plus wireless communications company, is the poster child for home-grown success, but there are dozens of other similar stories. The city has become synonymous with the sun-tanned, surfing entrepreneur. (Don’t you just hate when that happens?)One element of that success has been UCSD CONNECT http://connect.org/about/index.htm . Although affiliated with the University of California, San Diego, CONNECT is a privately-funded support network for entrepreneurs. More than 800 companies have drawn on CONNECT resources. It may be Spokane’s turn.

Last week, Mary Walshok, who is responsible for all the university’s outreach programs, talked about CONNECT with local leaders. Successful economic development efforts, she said, do not focus on the well-being of particular companies. She called that the "plantation" approach.

Better to be splashing in the "rain forest." Companies come, companies go, but the intellectual capital remains, ready for the next new thing. "You need to grow an economy when something pops," Walshok said.

San Diego celebrates its nerds. CONNECT holds forums that mix entrepreneurs with researchers, technocrats with financiers. Its Springboard Program coaches 50 companies a year, then puts their business plans before investors and executives. An annual award luncheon for the most innovative new products draws more than 1,000 attendees.

Sharing knowledge, providing on-going educational opportunities, and creating a sense of collegiality invigorates economies, said Walshok. Sharing information across the professional spectrum keeps everybody close to the business frontier.

The Inland Northwest Technology Education Center, or INTEC, has promoted CONNECT as a potential model for Spokane because the city today is at much the same stage San Diego was 20 years ago. To explore the potential further, INTEC has become an affiliate of Global CONNECT, an offshoot created to share the organization’s lessons with the many other communities that want to copy San Diego’s success.

Walshok said Global CONNECT will jump users directly into international networks critical to economic health in the future. Communities from Taiwan to France to Canada participate. San Diego companies were able to step gradually from local to international markets, she said. Now, if a community wants its businesses to thrive, their chances of success must be measured against worldwide competition, not just regional or national. "Mini-connects" will not cut it.

The engaging Walshok said she knows little about Spokane, but suggested the research under way at area hospitals might produce results that would support the kind of bio-tech industry flourishing in the San Diego area.

That thought dovetails well with the objectives of a proposed University District local officials are promoting for the area around East Trent. The research under way at San Diego-area hospitals in the 1980s became the foundation for much of its thriving bio-technology industry today. The U-District initiative has already engaged the same government, business and education leaders in Spokane that coalesced to turn San Diego around.

Walshok said turnarounds start with a clear-eyed assessment of a community’s capabilities. Fortunately, Spokane already has much of the business support infrastructure San Diego lacked 20 years ago. A link with CONNECT could reinforce local resources, but Spokane must choose its own path. Maybe we need to celebrate our nerds, and ask them what we must do that will create and attract more to fuel an innovation economy.

San Diego is certainly a shining example of what can be accomplished. Remember that bankrupt symphony? It now has a $100 million endowment.

•Bert Caldwell can be reached at (509) 459-5450, or by e-mail at [email protected].

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/news-story.asp?date=072003&ID=s1383476