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