Technical assistance Ready buyer Not getting wildly into debt Work with competitors for the benefit of the industry People creating their own jobs in their own industries Hard work City assistance with property development University of Maine partnership On-the-job learning Good product at a fair price Promising Opportunities Sell ourselves as an industry Brunswick technologies as aggregators Displaced millworkers Specialized machining Electricians Water jet cutting 3D printing Small service providers/contractors High-tech heavy equipment servicing Diversification in boat building IP development Bucksport What’s Needed Learning economy Nimble curriculum Apprenticeships University Customer Pull Workers with skills or willingness to Better roads Recruitment of young people Motivated people with special expertise Attitude and passion Brand “Maine built boats” Space Forestry/Wood Products Themes Success Factors Re-investment in plant infrastructure Research AS a business in itself Partnership with the University Expertise Financing Graduates with engineering degrees Meeting customer demand Customer relations Knowing what customers want Collaborative relationships and networks among businesses
Co-marketing shows and events Can-Am Make more of moose and Katahdin experience Make grand opportunities digestible to families Make more of heritage Develop heritage sites and access to such sites National park Create perception that Collins and University of are part of Bangor Maine Sports Commission Bike trails Market as a healthy region Moosehead Lake Our Katahdin (to address education) Marketing through social media What’s Needed Good schools Regional prioritization Support hospitality schools and curriculum Guides: Birding Brook trout Moose National branding of and the region Pride in what we do Better use of technology Outside of Bangor Places to eat, and shop Protect what we have Bioscience/Healthcare Themes The region has valuable assets Anchor institutions JAX MDI BL EMHS St. Joseph’s U. Maine High concentration of students and faculty Bangor is a happening place Expertise in healthcare management Opportunities Brand our region as “healthy” STEM conferences and education Key success factors Capital investment Leadership Infrastructure IT
Facilities Transportation Favorable public policy Skilled workers Critical mass We need a cultural shift Awareness opportunities here Toward innovation and entrepreneurship We don’t rely on paper mills so much anymore Higher aspirations Key Ideas Success Factors How we measure success: patient to population outcomes Focus on prevention and personal responsibility Youth groups working with hospitals Sharing best practices UPS and FedEx Work through new channels Collaborate with courier services Sharing information customers Patient focus Concentrate on serving customer needs (painless) Very helpful landlord Access to IT infrastructure bond funding for research infrastructure Good leadership Steady income from NIH Capital investment matched with government sources Other sources of revenue Other customers Promising Opportunities us as “healthy” Bangor is a “happening place” Help young entrepreneurs scale up Help unemployed/displaced/retired with start-ups Existing institutions in the region Genetics analysis cluster Community health needs assessment Greatest concentration of students in the state STEM Education Conferences at Jackson Laboratory and MDI Biological Laboratory Mill closures What’s Needed Educated workers Need a critical mass of institutions More awareness of the opportunities here Favorable public policy
Investment to finance them Public-private partnership Access to internet technology Technical expertise Marketing Patience and persistence Success Factors New relationships between consumers and food Connection with producer closer to the market Aligning with a famous person Not giving up Incremental Growth Great product Public policy Public funding Access to technology Word of mouth We have the land base Promising Opportunities Regional food hubs Access to technology “Local” and “Natural” New and young farmers A national leader A growing workforce Food as a community value Food security - traceable food Value-added opportunities What’s Needed Market the Maine brand Attitude shift Business mindset Confidence Breaking the institution price barrier Immigration policy Food entrepreneurs Cold storage shared facility Access to technology grain production Grain processing Grain processing expertise Promote “natural” rather than “organic” Technical expertise How to up Food science Food safety Federal law implementation Financial business expertise More meat processing facilities Investment capital Tax breaks for agricultural land use
Recent research contract with Canadian government: they were proactive, they found us We need to be out there finding opportunities Be of others’ needs Tell them what we can do, building relationships Often it takes a long time to secure funds for research, but when the money comes through, we want to be first in line Other businesses thrive with proximity to R&D Encourage other businesses who use R&D resources to be here and use those resources more fully Potential area: New product development Get undergrads thinking these lines as a habit - not a special project you do once every three years Help it become part of workforce thinking Because you can only do so much to cut Innovation engineering and interacting with existing businesses will help with this Take more advantage of internship/apprenticeship opportunities They do not always have to be at large companies - small businesses can take interns too Aroostook “cluster” example are 5-6 businesses working together as opposed to going at this separately - biofuels, dimensional lumber, panels board, pulp Hospitality industry examples We compete with each other but we have a blast doing it Clusters are unique to each region “Weak signals” in forest products industry There is the perception that we are at the end of the line, but we’re not We are close to a huge population base, and we are also close to Maritime Canada We can deliver small amounts the next day to Boston, Montreal Whereas shipments from China have to get on the next boat Marketing and collaboration Maine is known for hardwood products Largest manufacturer of popsicle sticks in the world Dovetail Bats Sells its best bats to Major league and second grade bats to Japan Vic Firth top notch drumsticks in Newport All these tie into R&D, marketing There are things they might do better together than alone, but collaboration doesn’t happen because they are overwhelmed For example:
A very different challenge that we are faced with Have noticed that schools just want people to go to college and they forget there is a whole other word of trades and tech work Schools push students to college and then they drop out - they are not ready For diagnostics, are there new technologies coming around? Technologies are and many companies are able to capitalize on them But the payment model is a problem There are so many people on MaineCare who are not paying out of pocket We follow clinical guidelines and that usually goes along with payment models The money isn’t in being the first provider - the one who is billing insurances The money is in being the reference lab The reference lab gets paid in full by us We can do some of this work, and we have started to receive specimens from around the country But this to be balanced with clinical needs Someone has to serve the physician, and bill insurance A promising opportunity is the disastrous closure of one mill another We have watched the paper industry spiral down for 50 years Remember how the paper mills were getting free power for years? We can finally acknowledge that that time has passed, we can let it go, we can say goodbye Emerging Tech Companies What do we do to provide regional funding to support municipal planning? Broadband leads - private investment in Maine towns Very substantial rural pockets Incremental development The only way to progress is by making some lead investments in infrastructure Examples: Islesboro, Rockport, Ellsworth Those communities who see their future including home based telecommunication are investing in high-speed They are solving the “last mile” problem When doing illustrations and animations for NASA I needed to upload very, very large files In downtown Bangor, I had no luck with being able to send those large files Had to move to an office in a business incubator This is very problematic if you are say, videos for weddings as part of your business Take out of the classroom - show students there is opportunity here No one to stay in Maine when they graduate Students think there aren’t any jobs in Maine