Guest column

Innovation hub’s many happy returns

All across the nation, major metropolitan areas are engaged in efforts to promote entrepreneurship and innovation by providing facilities, programming, and networking opportunities that increase the chances for success.

From co-working spaces like CoCo in Minneapolis and Hera Hub in San Diego to business accelerators like IdeaVillage in New Orleans and the Entrepreneur Center in Nashville to makerspaces like the Fab Lab in Tulsa and the Los Angeles Makerspace, civic leaders have come to understand it is critical to establish places where people with good ideas can have access to tools, resources, education, capital and connections that will help them create sustainable businesses.

Now, with the recent founding of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, this approach has come to central Arkansas. In fact, the Innovation Hub positions our region to be a leader in this field by bringing several best practices and models together under one roof.

We are building an Innovation Center in the Argenta neighborhoodo f North Little Rock that will have four components: The Launch Pad is a makerspace that will provide cutting-edge tools and technology for professionals and amateur tinkerers alike. There will be 3-D printers, laser-cutting machines, and other equipment that can be used to prototype inventions and refine products. We will also provide education for people of all ages as well as support for local manufacturers and corporations that want to solve problems or provide additional training.

The STEAM Room will be operated in partnership with the EAST Initiative to offer STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education across a variety of ages and disciplines. Expertise in these areas is critical for our work force to be prepared for jobs in the 21st Century. We are adding the A to signify the arts, because design and aesthetic expression are important parts of this mix. This classroom and laboratory will have advanced equipment and technology along with the nationally-recognized training in computer coding,programming, and computer-aided design (CAD) that EAST has provided to Arkansas students for the last 20 years. The Silver Mine is a co-working space for entrepreneurs and small business owners looking for networking and enrichment activities. It will also be the home to vertical business acceleration programs that will seed and mentor promising new enterprises from Arkansas and around the world. Through events and education programs, and by providing a venue where ideas can connect with capital and other resources, the Silver Mine will be able to incubate and give birth to a steady stream of new businesses. The Art Connection is an after-school and summer work program for high school students designed to develop leadership and innovation through hands-on training in the visual arts industry. Modeled after the successful Artists for Humanity program in Boston, Mass .,the Art Connection works with arts organizations, local artists, business owners, city government and others in the community to provide practical skills for under-resourced youth.

Any of these facilities and programs would be valuable to central Arkansas, but it is particularly exciting to envision the opportunities that are created when these spaces interact and support one another.

One can imagine an innovator in the STEAM Room outputting a design to a 3-D printer in The Launch Pad as an initial prototype; or a local engineer using The Launch Pad to perfect an invention that can be turned into a business in the Silver Mine; or an entrepreneur in the Silver Mine who can walk into the STEAM Room to find the coding talent needed to bring his or her idea to fruition. The possibilities for collaboration are endless, and serendipitous discoveries and connections are certain to occur.

Ultimately, this effort is about creating an ecosystem where everyone can thrive because they have ready access to whatever they need to be successful. These pipelines are critical for central Arkansas because we need to do everything we can to develop, retain, and attract talent. We cannot simply educate our citizens for jobs that don’t exist, and we can’t create jobs for people who are not equipped to fill them. We have to do all of it at once, and we have to use our existing assets in a cooperative way to make that happen.

That’s why the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub is building strong partnerships with the private sector businesses, independent entrepreneurs, public agencies, school districts, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations that already are doing excellent work in this area. We all share an interest in fashioning an environment that harnesses and empowers talent so that it stays here and contributes to our growth. That is the most efficient and cost-effective economic development strategy that we can adopt for our state, and the Innovation Hub is where everything can come together toward that end.

All of the biggest success stories in Arkansas business were created by Arkansans in Arkansas, rather than brought in from the outside. By keeping our most promising people here and giving them what they need to achieve their dreams, we will realize profitable returns in every sense of the term.

Warwick Sabin is executive director of the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub (www.arhub.org).

Perspective, Pages 80 on 12/22/2013

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