WSU helping to rebuild Wichita’s entrepreneurial ecosystem (+video)

If you want to see visible signs of economic progress in Wichita, here are three places to look:

▪ At 238 N. Mead at 9 a.m. Wednesdays, when 1 Million Cups features conversations with entrepreneurs. It is in the first of three buildings that WSU Old Town will occupy along Mead.

▪ Along 17th Street, west of Oliver, where the first two buildings are rising for WSU’s 120-acre Innovation Campus. As the Experiential Engineering Building and the Airbus North American Engineering Center are being completed this year, you’ll also see roads being built to provide access. Within a few years you’ll see a hotel and restaurants.

▪ On the former Boeing site in south Wichita, where WSU’s National Institute for Aviation Research has established the Environmental and Electromagnetic Effects Lab. We expect it to become the national leader in testing the effects of lightning on aircraft. The goal in strengthening these NIAR labs is to attract more businesses to Wichita.

A tremendous number of efforts are underway at Wichita State and in south-central Kansas to rebuild our entrepreneurial ecosystem and increase the region’s capacity for economic growth.

We know the names of Wichita’s great entrepreneurs – Cessna, Beech, Lear, Coleman, Carney and many more – because they built large, successful businesses.

But in nearly every case (Koch Industries is a notable exception) the founders or their heirs sold to out-of-towners, and company headquarters left Wichita or shrunk local operations.

In each departure, the impact was felt in jobs lost, career opportunities diminished, real estate vacated and philanthropies refocused on other communities.

What makes cities vibrant in this era isn’t having a half dozen large companies. It’s having hundreds of technology-driven businesses in different stages, with some well established and others primed for explosive growth.

Most young companies won’t succeed; most new technologies won’t take hold. Some established companies will wither and die. That’s sad, but OK. In a healthy entrepreneurial ecosystem, the failures will greatly outnumber the successes, but the successes will have a huge positive impact on our region.

Because of technology, global trade and demographic changes, we are undergoing a massive change in the structure of business and society, unlike anything we’ve seen since the Industrial Revolution.

For Wichita to thrive and be competitive, we must nourish the entrepreneurs among us and provide educational opportunities, startup capital and business mentoring. We must retain our best and brightest and attract others.

We certainly don’t have all the answers at WSU, but we understand the questions well enough to know we can’t be constrained by the past. We need to take measured risks, such as the Innovation Campus, WSU Old Town and the NIAR research facilities.

We need to create our own new efforts like WSU Ventures, the GoCreate makerspace and Ennovar; we need to support community efforts like the Blueprint for Regional Economic Growth.

We need to continue to build strong partnerships with companies like Airbus, NetApp, Social Networking Technologies and Koch – giving them one more reason to stay in Wichita and even increase their presence here.

Our vision is for Wichita State to be internationally recognized as the model for applied learning and research. One example: A year from now engineering students will be able to attend their classes and labs, then head to jobs at the Airbus North American Engineering Center, based on our campus. Students will have great experiences for their resumes well before they graduate.

We’re trying to help south-central Kansas reposition itself so that we can maintain and improve the quality of life for our children and grandchildren.

We will measure our progress by how well we fulfill our mission to be an essential educational, cultural and economic driver for Kansas and the greater public good.

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 3:55 PM with the headline "WSU helping to rebuild Wichita’s entrepreneurial ecosystem (+video)."