A Chance For A New Kentucky Economy

I was in Chicago this past weekend for a little R&R. Andrea and I were out to dinner when I struck up a conversation with a couple of nice ladies from Columbus, OH at the table next to us. I learned that one of them was an architectural engineer who, just a few months ago, had been in Lexington, KY and completed some work for the new University of Kentucky Hospital building. I know, it's a small world! So to make a long story short, what I heard from this individual was that Kentucky was unique and poised to build a new economy for itself. "Hmmmm...." What did this mean? How did she know this? I dug deeper. It turns out that she used to live in the state of Kentucky 20 years ago and that her mother was a graduate of the University of Kentucky so she was very familiar with the "old" economy. She gathered from reading about recent developments in the state that Kentucky will emerge from this recession with new ideas, new technologies, and new jobs that will reshape the Kentucky economy as we know it today. She went on to end our conversation by saying she believes there is something going on here and that if it continues we could be the become the premier, central hub for innovation between the east and west coasts.

WOW! That was powerful. I was so glad to hear something like that. I consider myself fairly connected to what's going on in the state in terms of economic development, but to hear it from someone so far away from home means the work being done here is paying off. Maybe there is something going on in the midwest region and we have the opportunity to continue the momentum. But how do we keep it rolling?
My thoughts are this:
1. Focus on providing new and existing seed capital to fresh ideas and young companies
2. Develop a national marketing plan promoting what is going on here
3. Challenge every individual in the state to "think outside the box"

Those bullet points in combination, is how we will continue to gain this momentum, continue having people from outside our state learn about us, and ultimately change our economy. If by some strange chance I run into this great lady again I want our next conversation to focus on success and how Kentucky did it.