Latest economic development effort off to a good start, participants say

The latest attempt to speed up the Wichita-area economy got its first progress report Friday – and the results, so far, are promising, say participants.

In the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth, executives from the 10-county region’s most competitive industries – from the makers of composite aircraft parts to hospitals employing the most skilled brain surgeons – gather in groups to discuss common problems and solutions.

It’s still very early in what industry leaders hope will be a years-long effort, but some clear patterns have emerged: They’re all worried about having enough skilled workers; they all want more research and development of new technologies and practices; they want schools to offer more, and more specific, training; and they want the public here and nationally to better understand who they are.

The industry executives have been meeting since April. The private-sector-led process largely works without government money or oversight. The region includes Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey, Sumner, Cowley, Harper, Kingman, Reno, Marion and McPherson counties.

On Friday morning, about 200 industry executives, and local government, nonprofit and Wichita State University officials gathered in a big public meeting at the Derby Welcome Center, 611 N. Mulberry, to review their progress.

There were short presentations by members of each group and PowerPoint slides – and lots of applause and enthusiasm.

“I saw more enthusiasm today than I ever do at meetings like this,” said Brad Dillon, a lawyer with Gilliland & Hayes in Hutchinson, who is co-chair of the effort with Intrust Bank CEO Charlie Chandler.

Jim Gollub, one of the consultants who designed the Blueprint process and who has done dozens of similar economic development efforts since the early 1980s, said he was “moved” by the level of sincerity in how much people in the region want this to work.

The industry groups, called clusters, are: advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, health care, IT, oil and gas, and transportation and logistics. The aircraft and agriculture industry clusters have not yet met.

Dave Murfin, owner of Murfin Drilling, said even the state’s oil and gas industry, which has seen large numbers of layoffs in the past six months, is concerned about skilled oilfield workers. Because of low oil prices between about 1985 and 2008, relatively few people got into the industry during that time. That changed with boom times starting after 2008. That has left some difficult workforce issues, he said.

“It’s what we call the Great Crew Change,” Murfin said. “We have old guys, like me, and young kids.”

Manufacturing has changed, but Paul Jonas of Wichita State University said that message hasn’t gotten through to high school kids and their parents. It’s no longer dark, dirty and physically demanding. Manufacturing is clean, well-lit and highly technical. More technical education is needed.

“They won’t be using a rivet gun,” he said. “They’ll be running computers.”

The reason for the Blueprint? The Wichita area has grown slowly for decades, mostly relying on the punishing ups and downs of the aircraft industry, which still hasn’t recovered from its last downward plunge in 2008.

In earlier decades, the Wichita region used to be fast-growing and dynamic. New industries and new opportunities would sprout and grow here, said John Tomblin, vice president for Research and Technology Transfer at Wichita State University, but in the past two decades the Wichita area has gotten too conservative, too worried just about protecting what it’s got, he said.

Growing by developing new technologies and practices here creates jobs and is better than paying a company to move here, he said. It means changing the culture of the region toward innovation.

“It’s about becoming Patient Zero for innovation and I hope it’s something that spreads throughout the region,” Tomblin said.

The Blueprint process grew out of Wichita State University’s efforts to figure out which businesses it should put in its innovation campus. But officials expanded it to a more regionwide exercise.

The cluster groups are supposed to continue to expand, add members, develop detailed action plans, and then act on them. They are supposed to continue to work for at least the next three to five years, but ideally much longer, officials say.

“If we are fortunate, and do this right, it’ll be forever,” said WSU President John Bardo.

This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Latest economic development effort off to a good start, participants say."