Utah Business and Economic Development

The Centers program began in 1986 to help mature research technology into products. The $49 million in overall funding since then has been for more than 100 centers. More than 175 companies have been spun out, and 61 remain in Utah, she said.

Desire for Beaver or some other community to be a "poster child" for economic development programs so that other rural communities could better know what programs and projects work.

Nonprofit entities are eligible to apply for $2 million appropriated by the Legislature for the current fiscal year.

Leigh von der Esch, managing director of the state’s Office of Tourism, and Aaron Lee Syrett, director of the Utah Film Commission explained the way the incentives work. The state has one million dollars in incentives to award each year. No one project may get more than $500,000. "The World’s Fastest Indian" was actually reimbursed before the new law went into effect, as part of a pilot program to demonstrate to the legislature how the 10 percent incentive would work.

"You want to focus your communications to the West, particularly California and Nevada, and don’t forget the residents and day-trip markets," McWilliams told the group. "Focus on gaining back share of travel from (Los Angeles), Vegas, Denver and Idaho Falls."

"Technology infrastructure is one thing where if you build it they will come," McMahon said. "Just ask the people in Bangalore, India, which is now the largest software development center in the world. They put in all of that infrastructure before they had any of those jobs."

"And it’s more important to us now than it was then, and it should have been going up all along," he said.

"This is a big, big expansion in the state. . . . We’re talking over a thousand jobs here, so this is a big deal. They’re all good jobs,"

Only a few other states can claim higher job-growth numbers so far this year, leaving employers in several industries facing shortages of qualified workers.

"Less Weird Than You’ve Heard."