Wyo. can develop innovation niche
BYLINE: Jessica Lowell
By Jessica Lowell
CHEYENNE - Innovation isn't all about high tech.
And it's not all about living in places like Silicon Valley in California or the technology corridor around Boston.
Michael Orlando, vice president, branch executive and economist at the Denver branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has been studying innovation in regional economies.
Orlando spoke as part of a program put on Thursday in Cheyenne by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
One measure of innovation is patents.
Cheyenne can't take credit for very many. In fact, the state's capital city can claim the lowest number of patents per capita - 46 - in the Front Range region. Casper has nearly double that amount, at 86. Laramie has 196.
The leader by far on the Front Range is Fort Collins, Colo., which has a whopping 681 patents.
While Wyoming doesn't stack up very aggressively, Orlando said the state can build on what it has to bolster innovation.
"I think Wyoming will see continued success in natural resources- and natural amenities- related industries," he said.
The patents that Wyoming has tend to fall in the category of alterations of land vehicles, for example, or firearms.
And while Wyoming is not a very populous state, it can minimize that disadvantage by setting itself up as a site where companies using mature technologies - which tend to want to contain costs - could relocate.
The challenge for public policy, he said, is to know what kind of innovation the state can attract, prepare for it, and let the companies who do it know what's available.
At the same time, he said, university towns are disproportionately innovative because they have a thick market - a dense population - of creative people.
"The thick market and knowledge spillover are critical for innovation in emerging fields," he said.
That's not news to Wyoming Business Council Chief Operating Officer Bob Jensen. The Business Council is the statewide economic development agency.
"We have always said that the University of Wyoming is a key strategic asset to economic development in Wyoming," Jensen said.
That and the other resources available in the state are critical to innovation, he said. But more important is collaborating with neighboring communities.
More innovation will take place with knowledge spillover, he said. "We're a part of a regional economy and we can use that relationship to stimulate our own economy."
"The part that is useful to us is that there is cutting-edge innovation and there is incremental or mature-industry innovation," Cheyenne LEADS Vice President Tim Thorson said. LEADS is the economic development agency for Cheyenne and Laramie County.
"There are still plenty of improvements that can be made to things like lubricants and mechanical devices," he said.
"This lets us know that we can recruit innovation businesses to Wyoming in mature industries," he said.