The pandemic has shifted how and where individuals and corporations conduct business. Website Yahoo Finance cites a Silicon Valley tech industry exodus. Taking cost of living into account, Yahoo Finance names four cities where tech careers will thrive. Grand Rapids joins Hartford, Connecticut, Huntsville, Alabama and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina. WGVU spoke with Jen Wangler, Vice President of Technology with regional nonprofit economic development organization, The Right Place:
Jen Wangler: Yeah, it really is good news that top of good news is not something that that we were aware of.
Patrick Center: And so not being aware of this, when it is released,
what was your first reaction knowing that you have this strategy that's been made public?
JW: Yeah, so, Patrick, we in West Michigan, in greater Grand Rapids are a very humble crowd, right? We don't do a great job at telling our story. So, one of the first things that I thought of is, we need to share this, we need to tell our story and focusing on technology and having the technology launch in the last handful of days, the timing was right.
PC: For anybody who's not familiar with the 10-year strategy and what was announced, give me a condensed version of that and then how it dovetails into the story that was released by Yahoo.
JW: So, The Right Place, about a year ago, convened about 100 community and business leaders around the question of what would it look like to grow the next tech hub in the Midwest here in Greater Grand Rapids. And through a series of meetings and visioning statements, what bubbled to the surface were a handful of opportunities that West Michigan can start to launch to see that vision grow and we are now talking about a white paper, a 10-year strategy, that aligns around talent, ecosystem, innovation, and business growth.
PC: What is it that the data that tells you the Grand Rapids could be or should be that landing spot as far as becoming a tech hub in the Midwest?
JW: Yeah. So what we know is that… we did a survey about a year ago and asked our local businesses what they were seeing on the horizon, what was important to them over the next, you know, 3 to 5 years and technology at a rate of 78% rose to the top. So all of our businesses are looking at their technology landscape and how to adapt to that digital landscape. And so we know that there is a need. We also know that West Michigan has a history, right? So I talk about, you know, Grand Rapids, 1.0 being in the manufacturing sector and 2.0 framing around this medical-health-life science industry. And so we've shown success in a philosophy of adopting technology when it was needed for every size and every sector in our community. And so I think the same is going to be for technology. I think because technology covers all of our industries, the timing is right. And as long as we can bring in that technology talent, I think that we can accomplish that.
PC: Are there some cornerstones already in place or is this a case where you’ll need to attract businesses?
JW: There's both. I think that right now we have a nice cluster or density of technology companies in West Michigan. So I lead a local industry council called the Technology Counsel of West Michigan. We have just around 40 CEO/CIOs that come together to talk about emerging technology (unintelligible). So these companies are all headquartered here and they're doing amazing work right in our landscape today. Again, I go back to the fact that we don't do enough to tell our story about those companies, and the emerging technology that happening here today.
PC: Was there anything that stood out in the Yahoo Finance article? It's not very long. But is there something that you found within it that there's this nugget that you talk about not always getting the word out? Is there something in there that gets the word out or something that appeals to you?
JW: Yes, in the article it does talk about, you know, percentage wise what our current economy looks like, as far as technology workers and the landscape. The article says that we are at about 5% of our current economy is tech. I would say about 6%, but we know that we're going to have to get that to 10% if we're going to be able to compete on a national market. So I think for us, in West Michigan, our focus is really going to be taking a look at our talent landscape and seeing how we can grow that.
PC: The 4 best cities, they don't rank them in any specific order, but there's Raleigh, Durham and Hartford, Connecticut, Grand Rapids and Huntsville, Alabama, that said an aerospace hub, clearly plenty of high-tech there. Is there order here or was it really just top 4?
JW: I don't know who put their ranking together and how they decided to rank them. There was a potential order to it. But it looks like each one of the cities are focusing on industries of growth within technology and that makes sense or you know, the ecosystem in and of itself like Huntsville, Alabama, focusing on the aerospace.
PC: What does this do for the profile of the city and to begin this growth pattern to have this out there nationally and internationally?
JW: One of the Right Place’s vision and mission has only been to build the brand of technology, not just in our own backyard, but throughout the country and internationally. We've been doing this for a long time, right, this through kind of the exposure of, you know, international ranking and greater Grand Rapids and all of the stories here locally. It just helps us tell our story.
PC: Jen Wangler you're the vice president of technology with The Right Place, thank you so much for your time, we appreciate it.
JW: Thank you for having me.
