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Excellence in Innovation (cont.)
Over the past two years, Kentucky has witnessed unprecedented growth in information-based jobs and opportunities as the emphasis on technology and education expands. The positive benefits are realized across the spectrum of the economy, from startups and small businesses to Kentucky’s largest employers. Entrepreneur Kamren Colson returned from a career in Boston to locate a creative design firm in a former tobacco field on his family’s Williamstown, Kentucky farm. This past year, Colson’s firm was selected to design the souvenir programs and other promotional materials for the 76th Annual Academy Awards in California. Colson has remarked that with broadband and related technology, “the playing field has been leveled and we can compete with companies everywhere, based on our skills and talents.” In Horse Branch, Kentucky, entrepreneur Burl Morris, president of HTI, Inc., turned to broadband to help his family- owned business compete.Without broadband,Morris had to send workers to the sites of his customers’ businesses to fix problems with the electronic control systems his company creates and installs.With broadband, those issues can be resolved remotely, saving the company time and money. In Louisville, UPS has announced a $1 billion expansion while healthcare giant Humana recently created 1,100 jobs and credited these jobs, in part, to the state’s priority on technology growth.Magna International (dba Bowling Green Metal Forming) has created 1,200 high-quality jobs in Bowling Green, citing the availability of technology and a tech-savvy workforce as deciding factors for locating there. In Ashland, the EastPark business park was able to attract a Cingular Wireless call center with 1,100 jobs because of the digital switching, fiber optic and copper cable services available in the park. And in Williamsburg, U.S. Representative Hal Rogers recently announced that Datatrac Information Services, Inc. intends to open a new facility, which will employ more than 225 people. That’s a major employment impact in an eastern Kentucky city with a total population of about 5,000 people. Then there is the impact of technology on the youth that represent Kentucky’s future. Like most people his age, 17-year-old Jarad Fugate loves to ride four-wheelers and play video games. The Breathitt County native sees possibility in his eastern Kentucky community – enough so that he eagerly contacted ConnectKentucky’s East Region project manager hoping to participate on the eCommunity Leadership Team. Fugate launched a successful Web site design company, Viper Communications, in 2004 after noticing that most local business did not have a Web presence. “I wanted to help businesses get more business and get a world presence,” Fugate said. Fugate actually dug a ditch to help extend broadband service to his house, and now successfully operates his business from home (after finishing his homework, of course). ConnectKentucky urges Kentuckians to dream big and plan for ways to compete – and excel – in the knowledge-based economy. As ConnectKentucky works across the state, we not only envision providing world-class technology for Kentucky’s citizens and businesses, but that individuals and companies around the globe will come to recognize Kentucky as a center for technological and economic prosperity.
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