Chicago Adopts New Tech-Based ED Strategy

With 90 percent of Chicago’s economy in slow-growth sectors such as manufacturing, retail, financial services and real estate, leaders from business, academia, government and nonprofit groups have joined forces to develop and implement a strategy to establish the city as a key player in the New Economy. Mayor Richard Daley unveiled A New Economy Growth Strategy for Chicagoland earlier this month, accompanied by announcements of new initiatives and commitments by leaders of several entities central to the plan’s success. 



The plan calls for a unified effort toward two goals: 1) make Chicago a prime location for technology startups, and 2) create world-class leadership in priority New Economy sectors of biotechnology/biomedical, wireless software, software development, and emerging technology such as nanotechnology. 



To achieve the first goal, five areas are to receive attention: 

• increase availability of “smart” capital, such as venture capital, angel investment, technology investment by incumbent businesses, and seed capital from other sources; 
• keep more technology and entrepreneurial talent in the city after graduation from the region’s universities, colleges and technical institutes; 
• leverage Chicago’s research institutions more effectively by increasing research funds, improving research productivity, commercializing and removing barriers to improve the rate of transferring university research and faculty entrepreneurship; 
• expanding flexible space and entrepreneurial assistance available for start-ups through technology incubators, including biotech incubators with wet lab space; and, 
• strengthening Chicago’s business and policy climate to support, nurture and encourage entrepreneurship in high growth, technology-centered businesses. 

Nine specific action items are identified to drive the expansion of Chicago’s biotech, wireless and software development sectors. In addition to cluster development and recruitment/attraction efforts in each sector, the plan recommends: 

• increasing state and federal basic research funding going to the area’s research institutions; 
• establishing endowed chairs at the universities from public and private sources for expanded top-level research capabilities;  
• commit public sector institutions and facilities as alpha and beta test sites for new networking and next-generation wireless and Internet applications; 
• providing training programs for IT workers and software applications; and, 
• attracting biomedical-focused venture capital to the region. 

McKensey & Co., working pro bono to develop the strategy for the Mayor’s Council of Technology Advisors, looked at successful New Economy initiatives in New York City’s Silicon Alley and Austin’s Silicon Hills. The analysis revealed very quickly the importance of a public-private partnership for the greatest impact. Hoping to capitalize on this, several of the city’s New Economy players offered their assistance with specific initiatives at the plan's roll-out press event, including the Illinois Coalition, Illinois Venture Capital Association, the University of Chicago, the Chicago Technology Forum, the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and the Executives' Club of Chicago. 



In addition to recognizing the contribution Governor Ryan's Illinois VentureTech program has made for the city, the Mayor also outlined several of the city's initiatives to better position Chicago in a tech-based economy. 



A New Economy Growth Strategy for Chicagoland can be downloaded at http://www.chicagotechtoday.com