Utah Business and Economic Development

"We don’t celebrate ourselves. We celebrate the great minds, talents and visions of entrepreneurs throughout the state of Utah, and encourage established businesspeople with resources to join with us in supporting young minds, young efforts and big ideas."

Housing as many as 25 employees of Grow Utah-funded companies, E STATION will be a vibrant office locale, offering not only high-speed networks and other technological tools of the trade, but more importantly, said Hall, "close access to the secret sauce."

Call center operators are expanding along the Wasatch Front, adding jobs that in some cases pay much more than the entry-level positions that traditionally have dominated the industry.

"We are not nearly as aggressive as the states that are close around us, and when a company is looking to come to a state, they’re getting much larger incentive packages (elsewhere)," said Michael Nelson, director of corporate recruitment for the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. "Now, we have a great state, and a lot of times, it is our work force and other benefits that attract these companies, and they are coming to the state, but it’s something we have to look at and something we have to encourage."

"The speedpitching luncheon will benefit busy investors and entrepreneurs alike,"

Cities that made the list, Conley said, "tell you that it is an attractive place for people in a creative class to live."

Those lawmakers concurred that a $1 million incentive program approved last session was helpful, but still inadequate to keep Utah competitive with other states for film business.

Von der Esch said for every $1 incentive given to a film production, the state captures $6 back in taxes, yet the limited dollars prevented the film commission from going after bigger productions.

Jake Garn, a former U.S. senator from Utah who flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1984, said he is "amazed at how uninformed the people of Utah are, that how many people do not know every solid rocket motor for every shuttle flight was manufactured here in Utah? What sandhill have they had their heads stuck in?"

"The business community came to the universities and said, ‘We would like to pump up the number of technology businesses in Utah,’ " Brittain said. "They’re calling on the research universities to hire these teams to create the technologies."