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Southwest: Diversifying in Paradise
Innovative approaches to development, incentives and hiring yield positive results.
COLLIER COUNTY
| Digital powerhouses
find plenty of talent » When Newsbank, a digital information provider with partners worldwide, relocated to Naples from Connecticut, many of its existing 300 employees came along because, executives say, they fell in love with sunny Collier County. » At 4What Interactive, a marketing-training-communications firm launched by three area entrepreneurs in 1995, about 20 employees work as a concept-to-creation production team. From their 10,000-square-foot studio in Naples, they juggle a roster of heavy-duty clients with household names like Boeing, Cisco and IBM. “By using technology the right way, we could basically live wherever we wanted and do business everywhere,” says CEO and co-founder Jim Cossetta. “Over the past couple of years, we’ve been able to attract some good talent — entrepreneurial-minded designers and programmers who maybe lived here before, went to another city and decided to come back.” |
Community leaders in business, politics and education explored such topics as “preparing for global competition,” “research, development and commercialization of innovation” and “regionalism in the innovation economy.” And they made on-site visits to high-tech, life science and other new economy firms, where executives explained how they are profiting from their investments in innovation and creativity.
“Project Innovation” is a long-term effort that is garnering short-term results. A $60,000 “Innovation through Export” state grant is helping local firms do business internationally, including Genesis Export LLC, which won a large contract to ship clothes to Hungary.
And a newly formed network of young professionals — the 3G Coalition — launched an Internship Connection to match students statewide with Collier companies. “There is perhaps no better source for input on innovation than this Web-serving, text-messaging member base,” says 3G member Stephanie Check.
