Just Clusters Workshop, 3/15-16, Spokane, WA

2005-03-15 08:30:00

Washington State University Health Sciences Building Riverpoint Campus- Spokane, Washington

Contact: Ben Cabildo at 509-838-1881

Cluster-Focused Economic Development Strategies that
Reach More People, Places, and Firms

Washington State University Health Sciences Building
Riverpoint Campus
Spokane, Washington
March 15-16, 2005

March 15, 2005

Introduction (8:30-8:45 am):
Welcome from the Host: John Pilcher, City of Spokane Economic Development Division Director, will welcome participants and introduce Spokane ‘s relationship to cluster strategies.

Welcome from the Sponsor: Stacey Millett from the Northwest Area Foundation will welcome participants and describe the foundation s interest and involvement in equity-oriented economic development.

8:45-9:20

Session I. Introduction to Workshop (8:45 10:30 am)

A. Introduction of Faculty, Discussion of Goals and Expectations
Phil Psilos, RTS

B. Competitiveness and Equity: Forging New Ground
Nan McIntyre-

C. Current Efforts in Spokane
Two regional groups involved in promoting cluster strategies set the table by presenting for approximately 10 minutes each on some of the current cluster activities in Spokane.
1) Theresa Sanders, Vice President, Spokane Economic Development Council
2) Joanne Murcar, Interim Dean & District Director for Business and Community Education, TECC/Community Colleges of Spokane

D. Structured Introduction of Participants and the MAP of organizations
RTS will prepare a visual map of participants missions, activities, and interactions in advance of the session. We will ask participants to present themselves and respond to this map by way of introduction.

E. Participants Goals and Objectives for the Workshop
The faculty will facilitate discussion of and record a list of participants goals and objectives for the workshop.

Coffee Break (10:30-11:00 am) Building Social Capital

Session I (Continued)

F. Experience from the field
Presentation by a presenter from an urban area in the Pacific Northwest on their experience working with clusters to promote wealth creation, competitiveness, and equity. Presenter to be named. Possibilities:

Theresa J. Feeley, Executive Director, SFWorks
Terri Feeley will present on SFWorks, an initiative of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce to place people with limited educational and professional backgrounds in the biotechnology industry through the Bridges to Biotech and Biotech Onramp programs.

G. What s a Cluster: Terms and Concepts
Paul Sommers will present on the ideas underlying clusters, networks, and social capital to provide a common vocabulary for working forward, with Phil Psilos.

Session II. Impressions of Local Business Concentrations
Working Lunch (12:15 1:45 pm):

Following lunch service, we will have an informal discussion of the known and suspected concentrations of business activity that may constitute clusters in Spokane, the level of integration of these with the regional economy, and barriers to full participation for the less advantaged in Spokane. We will try to answer the question of how can these ways of understanding Spokane be used in an action plan?
Facilitated by faculty members.

Session III. Local Concentrations:

A. Impressions and Science Blending Intuition and Science to Identify Key Clusters: (1:45-2:30 pm)
Phil Psilos
RTS staff will present on how we analyze economies and come to quantitative and qualitative understandings of clusters.

B. Panel on Building Regional Capacity to Collaborate
Local representatives will discuss ongoing regional-level collaboration around growing local businesses with skills.

Ben Cabildo, Executive Director, African-American, Hispanic, Asian and Native American Business and Professional Association
Bill Kavilas, INTEC/ConnectNorthwest
Rhosetta Rhodes, Spokane Falls Community College, lead on the HUD-COPC program

C. How can we apply this collaboration model to working with clusters?
Facilitated by faculty members

Coffee Break (3:15-3:30 pm) Building Social Capital

Session IV. Continued (4:15-5:15)

The Universe of Cluster-Based Strategies

Phil Psilos will lead a discussion by faculty members on the diversity of cluster-based programs that can be used in pursuit of competitiveness and equity objectives. We will spend approximately half of this session on workforce-oriented strategies, and the other half on business networking, finance, entrepreneurship, and governance issues.

Session V. What Have you Heard Today that Could Work here as a promising and Equitable Development Strategy

In preparation for day 2, during which participants will be asked to listen actively and determine what elements of cluster strategy could contribute to an action plan, participants will be asked to consider and discuss:

Where do you fit in the overall mix of cluster-related services?
As of now, what directions do you think need to be explored?
What barriers exist to moving these roles and strategies forward?

March 16, 2005

Session VI. Workshops: Strategies for Equity and Inclusion

Introduction (8:30 – 8:45 am)
Amy Wallace
Workshops introduce practitioners, use case studies, emphasize lessons learned from experience, include criteria for success in organizing, lessons learned

Workshop Session One (8:45-10:15 am)

A. Developing the Work Force, expanding opportunity
Amy Wallace

B. Creating Entrepreneurial Energy
Gregg Lichtenstein

Workshop Session Two (10:45-12:15 pm)

C. Asset Building and Financing
Nan McIntyre and Dan Broun

D. Networking & Social Capital
Gregg Lichtenstein and Paul Sommers

Session VII. Group Exercise/Working Lunch (12:30 – 1:45 pm)

Working Lunch: Prioritization of what we think we need to work with focused on identifying areas of greatest opportunity and greatest challenges.

Facilitated by Phil Psilos and faculty

Participants will break into groups by cluster of interest to begin developing visions, strategies, and actions for (1) advancing these strategies and (2) overcoming barriers.

2:00 2:30 pm
Report Back to Group and Define Next steps
Facilitated by Gregg Lichtenstein and the Faculty

AHANA Business
509.838-1881 – Chamber Office
509.838-1411 – Marycliff Center