Congressman Walz thanks everyone for being here. He mentions that polling indicates Americans are now more concerned about economic issues than national security. He suggested that economic issues are national security that will make the country stronger. Innovation will come from the grassroots.
4:22 p.m. John Devlin sums up the challenges his small company experiences--much the same as others have mentioned, with the added problem of competing with large companies. Finding venture capital, especially gap financing, is difficult for them to find.
Why should it matter to us? New technology generates new businesses or are licensed to corporations which are located out of the area. A "brain drain" of sorts.
He discusses legislation relief, mainly through tax credits, that create investment opportunity.
Mike Good discusses innovation where groups help grow each others' strengths. Computers are better and faster; because of this, new applications can study weather, cancer modeling, and so forth. Computational powers help raise productivity. They work with schools and try to develop people with skills in sciences and computer sciences. He mentions the computational biology program developed at the U with the help of Mayo and IBM
4:06 Dennis Hempel is talking about the need to bolster technical education and the STEM program.There's some improvement and more concentration on the pathways to education and employment.
Southwestern Minnesota's population is aging and there are labor shortages. He mentions Suslon's need to bus in 500 people. Affordable housing is now a problem. Still, more death than births in weekly papers.
He mentions several earmarks that have helped create programs in ethanol, biodiesel and wind programs and they anticipate developing a biomass program with Minnesota Morris. They're developing faculty expertise in renewable energy teaching and curriculum development. Energy conservation programs need to be developed as well.
3:56 Wayne Freese begins by talking about the effects of food shortages and index funds speculating in commodities on rural communities. He has never seen so much stress, despite the high grain prices. He thinks food prices will move higher as index funds move into the meat industry. He sees more consolidation. His company makes vaccines.
He recalls a Blandin Foundation leadership training group that gave rise to the biosciences park in Worthington. The collaborators have hired 40 people in the last year. It's not hard to hire people with masters and Ph.Ds but more difficult to hire people with 2 or 4 years degrees. Because of this, they've partnered with the local community college for training programs. They allocated a teaching lab in the R &D center for Minnesota West. Blandin put the equipment in the lab.The lab also became a way to teach loal students about careers in biosciences. This helps people stay in the area. Employees starting takin courses as well. They got down to the high school level, and now are working with junior high kids.
He beleives businesses have to invest in education.
3:43 p.m.Dr. Dong thanks everyone for staying. He mentions that he's a Blandin Leadership program. He's giving a powerpoint lecture that mentions the partners and the research into anti-cancer agents found naturally in foods such as green tea and ginger. Hopefully anti-cancer gingers can be grown someday in Minnesota, which will have high value for Minnesota. Now he's talking about research into proteins that involves supercomputers. The supercomputers are used to virtually test new drugs and to design news drugs. Clinical trials are being on some of the new drugs. This is pretty heady stuff.
He jokes that the collaboration with many organizations helps the Congressman's earmarks kill many birds with one stone: fighting cancer, training researchers, providing jobs and strengthening existing businesses.
3:31 p.m Monson thanks us all for hanging in here, and begins to give an energetic talk about achieving rural potential and developing communities on a regional basis. All of Southern Minnesota needs to pull together to grow. He outlines an upcoming course of planning for rural economic development that will map out progress. This is going to be a large project involving collaboration between groups ranging from Ag Star to MnSCU.
3:15 p.m. We are really running out of steam here; fortunately, this is the last panel. John Monson, Vice President of Ag Star, is the moderator. Panelists include Dennis Hampel, Dean, Minnesota West Community and Technical College; Wayne Freese, Chair & CEO of the Prairie Holdings Group; John Devlin, President & CEO, Medicial Innovations; Dr. Zigang Dong, Executive Director, Hormel Institute; and Mike Good, IBM.
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