Other Economies

The goal is to create more highly skilled labor forces, greater numbers of high-wage jobs and more private-sector capital investments.

“Our premise is that (participating companies) are stuck in day-to-day firefighting and don’t have time to develop business strategies,” said Bret Hall, director of Rhode Builder and adjunct professor of management at Bryant.

Development of financing options through traditional and new venues, including angel networks with private investors, should be a key priority, Blane said.

"Maine cannot afford another year without a bond package and, through compromise, the governor and Legislature put forward this modest bond package," he said. "For Maine to remain competitive, we need to make the right investments, right now."

The 50th state can thank generous tax credits for high-technology investment and a senior senator in Washington, D.C., whose political muscles bring home research and development contracts.

"Creative people attract creative people."

As both knowledge and educated people become key to prosperity, security, and social well-being, the university, in all its myriad and rapidly changing forms, has become one of the most important social institutions of our times.

“We really decided to make a long term investment in rural economic vitality and in helping rural Iowa improve its local economies through entrepreneurship,”

Tech companies are already being forced to adapt. As their markets age, they’re consolidating, reorganizing and pursuing almost any opportunity for growth — even if it isn’t as lucrative as their traditional businesses.

In what will undoubtedly be viewed as a high-tech feather in the Valley’s cap, Google, the Internet’s leading search engine, is bringing at least 600 jobs – and possibly many more – to the region.