Quality of Life Doesn’t Matter? Are You Sure?

Economic development guru William Fulton of Governing magazine has an interesting piece on business attraction strategies.

His premise, based on a recent survey, is that manufacturers still dominate and their top factors (cost of labor, access to key transportation and speed to have a new facility ready) don’t correspond with the growing emphasis on quality of life issues.

Fulton advises cities and metro areas to not all try to be the next Silicon Valley and focus on setting themselves apart. Manufacturing churn, he notes, will keep more companies expanding than contracting.

He makes some good points, but the near dismissal of "creative companies" and attributes such as the quality of the symphony run counter to common practice or sense. A hybrid — improve the education, workforce training and infrastructure that all companies need in addition to enhancing quality of life — seems to be the way to go.

Read what Fulton has to say; let us know what you think.

Urbanity, Not Insanity, Could be Future of American Airport Experience

If you’re like me, flying is arduous work. For this observer, the pain lies in the stress of trying to make a flight, hoping it’s not delayed once I get there, all the while wondering what kind of halitosis factory I’ll have to sit next to for the next three hours.

However, the airport experience itself doesn’t have to be that bad. I’m currently in the process of scheduling an interview for our September/October edition of BizVoice, in which I’ll feature the new airport terminal in Indianapolis. Should be a very interesting interview and I’m looking forward to learning about all the new amenities and how it will benefit businesses in the state.

I also came across this interesting piece by economic development columnist William Fulton in which he explains a potential evolution into "new urbanist" airports that also serve as business centers.