What can policymakers and practitioners do if the statistics and other metrics indicate a state, region or locality is not well positioned for the technology-based economy, but the elected leaders and economic development professionals are plodding along with traditional approaches to job creation and development? Or, on the other hand, what if there are several fragmented or isolated technology-related activities and success stories occuring that could benefit from a little political exposure and synergy?
Jump-starting tech-based economic development often requires a shift in the mindset or thinking of the economic and political stakeholders for a state or community. Tools often used to encourage this change in outlook include innovation indices or S&T report cards that present the state or region's relative performance along several metrics. Creating state science and technology councils or drafting strategic plans for tech-based economic development are other often used approaches for trying to keep public investment in science and technology on the public agenda.
A third approach is the use of large public conferences or summits to convey the importance of changing paths in economic development policy or to recognize and reward the technology-based activities already underway. Maryland, for example, has held an annual technology summit since 1998. The approach has been particularly popular in the last three months. Minnesota, Mississippi and Wisconsin present three examples:
Minnesota
Twelve hundred people attended a Summit on Minnesota’s Economy, convened by the University of Minnesota on September 20, 2000. Held in response to growing concern over the position of the state to compete in the New Economy, the summit included briefings by experts in a number of areas. The summit examined: