Orange County’s programs for innovation & entrepreneurship
An Outside Review
Starting Place
Metro OrlandoEconomic Development StrategyAugust 2000
“Dedicate as many economic development resources to entrepreneurship as to business recruitment and retention.”
Angelos AngelouAngelou Economic AdvisorsAustin, Texas
The Result
UCF Institute for Economic Competitiveness Disney Entrepreneur Center UCF Technology Incubator UCF Orange County Venture Lab UCF Small Business Development Center UCF SBDC Advisory Board Council
Orange County-supported UCF economicDevelopment programs
Living Cities.org
David Hochmanwww.tbed.org
Independent technology-based economic development consultant
Consultant to Living Cities, Inc.
Serves clients through Battelle Memorial Institute’s Technology Partnership practice
Founding Executive Director, Business Incubator Association of the state of New York
Former Deputy Director, New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology
Advisor to Princeton, Columbia, NYU, CUNY
Orange County’s programs for innovation & entrepreneurship: An outside review
A summary overview presented to the Mayor and Board of County Commissioners
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009
By David HochmanConsultant engaged by Living Cities
(all opinions are my own and not those of Living Cities)
Outline Introduction to the project For each of the 6 county programs visited:
Principal findings Issues of long-term concern Recommendations
General, cross-cutting recommendations Strategic issues Government/community/business issues Branding/awareness issues Funding issues
Summary/questions
The project TA project funded by Living Cities Goal: to help you make smart, well
informed policy Scope: 2 days on the ground My background: national consultant Not an audit – an outside fresh look
UCF Institute for Economic Competitiveness Taking control of the data was critical Hosting this at UCF was a smart move Next step is capacity for sectoral analysis Progress stalled by lack of endowments Recommendations
Work together on raising philanthropic donations to complete these endowments
IEC should collaborate with policy analysts and economic geographers
The Disney Entrepreneur Center A facility and a program A big win for inclusion and accessibility Hugely cost-effective publicity But recent progress comes at a budgetary cost Recommendations
Continue to focus on 2nd-stage growth companies, especially owned by women or minorities
Think about integration (and cost-sharing) with an even more comprehensive downtown facility
Strive for a one-stop experience to extent possible
UCF Technology Incubator Incubators are all about staffing and services Support from the county made a big difference Excellence has been recognized nationally Other regional governments have sought to
leverage UCF’s new expertise Recommendations:
Deciding a course of action at Lake Nona is critical The county will need state help The university will need to say ‘no’ to distractions
UCF Venture Lab Not a facility – an interim management service A leading edge program that significantly raises
prospects of local economic development Remaining issues:
Limited access to capital, uncertain pool of early-stage CEOs, especially in the life sciences
Recommendations: Devise an explicit strategy for biomedical startups Explore expansion to entire High Tech Corridor
SBDC Orange County programs
The SBDC is part of an existing network Support from the county enables delivery
of targeted, sophisticated services This is straightforward, sensible, and
seems to be working well Recommendations:
The SBDC might play an even stronger role in technology program outreach and intake
SBDC Advisory Board Council Takes volunteer mentoring to next level by
creation of tailored advisory boards Unusual and now well recognized, the
program seems to be working well Most advisors are professional-service
providers – entrepreneurs are also needed Recommendations:
More sharing of mentor databases variously employed by the UCF Incubator, Venture Lab and SBDC Advisory Board Council
Strategic issues A decade has passed since the Angelou report It is time to revisit the targeted clusters and
industries Other tasks that can be done at the same time:
Benchmarking the photonics/laser-optics cluster Defining a strategy for digital media versus regions
with stronger bases of entertainment publishers Assessing rigorously what are the cleantech
research strengths at UCF Reviewing the set of 6 community benchmarks
used by Angelou
Government/community/business issues The challenge of political transition
If there is inadequate preparation, the new administration may not feel committed
If the succeeding team feels too constrained by precedent, one could see the same effect!
Focus on broad-brush priorities that unite outgoing and incoming personalities: Developing systemic support from the state Cooperating with the Space Coast counties Modeling other cluster groups on BioOrlando
Branding/awareness issues In the optics and simulation clusters, Orlando
and Orange County are well known, but what about outside those sectors?
More focus may be needed on telling the story of the last decades, including the ‘genealogy’
Additional issues: Branding ‘medical city’ in Lake Nona At the same time, not overselling it Significantly raising the profile of ‘entrepreneurship
network’ programs at UCF Using the term ‘economic gardening’ as part of a
broad-based strategy
Funding issues If county funding disappeared…
Most at risk are the IEC, Disney EC, and SBDC add-ons More likely to survive are the Incubator and Venture Lab,
though they would be less effective and responsive To assure continuity, and to explore new initiatives,
possibly create a ‘Central Florida Future Fund’ But there is relatively little philanthropic wealth in the
region, and almost none of it interested in innovation The wealthy need encouragement to endow private
foundations, funds in community foundations, etc. Availability of targeted philanthropic capital would
leverage external funds and help launch new areas
Summary Coordination and communication among the six
county-supported programs is good Addressing new opportunities in biomedicine
and cleantech remains a challenge The community needs to sustain political and
financial support over the longer run A number of assumptions need to be revisited
and tested in coming months: Intergovernmental, regional and cluster issues Branding strategies, and Getting private wealth reinvested in the strategy