If the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Economic Opportunity have their way, this region may some day be mentioned alongside Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle as one of the leading centers of innovation in the nation.  
Getting there will take a good deal of time, effort and money, but the two groups already have a plan, which they unveiled at the chamber’s annual dinner on January 28. The basics:

• The chamber will lead an effort that involves leaders in all segments of the community.
• Their goal will be to get their Innovation Gainesville campaign underway in the next 60 to 90 days.
• The campaign will build on the region’s strengths in health science and green energy.

Brent Christensen, chamber president and CEO, says Innovation Gainesville could have a significant impact on the entire region and many of the people living here. “An innovation economy lifts the entire community,” he says. “It’s not just about technology jobs. There will be jobs for attorneys, real estate agents, construction workers, office workers, store clerks…. If there’s any one message, it’s that there’s something in this plan for everyone in the greater Gainesville area.”

A Year in the Making
The chamber and CEO decided to launch a campaign to strengthen the economy while gathering for a strategic planning session about a year ago. The chamber then brought in New Economy Strategies (NES), a consulting company from Washington, D.C., that specializes in helping regions transform.
To determine the best way to proceed, NES surveyed hundreds of local education leaders, businesspeople, government officials and residents. Then, after the chamber and NES developed a preliminary framework, the chamber organized four groups of volunteers, who were asked to create action plans to address four specific concerns:

1. Talent development, focusing on how the region can do a better job nurturing the creative people and other workers who will be employed in the new economy.
2. Partners, focusing on such issues as how the region can generate the funding to nurture new businesses and how to bring together various government, business and community interests to provide the workspace and infrastructure promising companies will need.
3. Connectivity, focusing on how the region can improve interaction and networking among all the groups that have a part in the innovation economy.
4. Communication, focusing on how the region can promote innovation within the community and publicize to the world at-large that Gainesville is an essential option for researchers, entrepreneurs, businesses owners and venture capitalists.

This process led to dozens of specific ideas that were vetted by a leadership team of 22 Innovation Advocates representing all segments of the community. The process not only generated a detailed plan, it brought together groups that might not have communicated with each other in the past.
“We had hundreds of people involved in the planning process, from environmentalists to county staff, to local elected officials, to school district staff, etc., and the most exciting and impressive thing so far is how everyone has been so enthusiastic about working together,” says Sue Washer, president and CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation in Alachua and the co-chair of the leadership team. “People who had never even been in the same room before were working hard on a common plan for the future of our community.”

Health Technologies and Green Energy
In the initial phase of Innovation Gainesville, the campaign will focus on growing business in two areas: health technologies and green energy services.
Health technologies includes both human life sciences (pharmaceuticals, biologics, devices, etc.) and agricultural life sciences (food science, feedstock, crop management, etc.).
Green energy services focuses on such areas as environmental engineering, alternative energy, green building and recycling technologies.
The two were natural starting points because of the existing strength of the programs that involve those subjects at the University of Florida and elsewhere locally, and because the region already has a number of start-up businesses in those specialties. Also, focusing on these two, which are extremely prominent here, helps differentiate Gainesville from other cities with innovation economies, such as Austin, Texas and the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle.
For example, “There are other areas that have health science capabilities, but there are very few that have real, nationally ranked programs and companies in such a wide range of fields, from aging, to environmental services,” Washer says. “We are in a unique position of being able to connect and integrate that breadth of knowledge into the leading innovative products of the future.”

A Collaboratory for Innovation
These days, many of the most cutting-edge innovations occur when researchers in one area of knowledge work with those in another to fashion a hybrid product. For example, using gene therapy to create potatoes that resist fungus and blight. Recognizing that this sort of cross-pollination will be essential to growing a new economy, the Innovation Advocates decided to promote it by bringing creative people together in a “Collaboratory for Innovation.” 
More concept than actual lab, the Collaboratory will encourage what Washer calls interdisciplinary entrepreneurship. “The main idea is to connect different technical competencies to increase the number of really cutting-edge new products,” she says.
This collaboration lab also should promote networking, idea-sharing and teamwork among the educational community, government, industry and the private sector at large—things that are vital to making Innovation Gainesville a reality, says business adviser John Spence, who was one of theInnovation Advocates. 
“Connection is going to be huge, huge, huge part of success,” he says.
So too with be cooperation among parts of the community that have not worked together well in the past, such as developers and no-growth advocates. Jackson Sasser, president of Santa Fe College and the other co-leader of the Innovation Gainesville campaign, says he saw much of the old friction melt away during the discussions that led to the innovation plan. “The most surprising fact has been how close we are [to a breakthrough economy] but because of the intensity and volume of rhetoric in our area, how seemingly far apart we have been [before now].
Sasser hopes the openness shown by the innovation advocates will extend to the entire community once they learn about the planned collaboratory.
“I expect fully that a degree of cynicism will accompany the unveiling of the collaboratory,” he admits. “However, if individuals and groups will practice the same openness and integrity that have driven our process here-to-date, they will discover not only the abundance of local assets but will find enjoyment in working with those whom before they may have perceived as having opposing objectives.”     

The Next Steps
While it will take some time to get the entire Innovation Gainesville campaign underway, the leaders saw it as essential to start two parts immediately.
First, will be a Knowledge Network that will be created to promote information sharing, support for innovation, social interaction and more.
Already, dozens of creative groups, such as the Gainesville Area Innovation Network, are communicating among themselves. This network of networks will simply put them in better touch with each other.
“It’s bringing together databases of individuals and organizations throughout the community that have specific knowledge so people are focused on making connections locally,” explains Christensen. Along with a master database, the network could include a community-wide innovation calendar and networking events to increase the sense of community, allowing people to get to know each other outside of their own group, Washer says.
Second, and just as importantly, the group will be raising money to establish a $25 million Local Seed Fund that will support emerging innovative companies. Washer says this is critical. A local fund could help people with good ideas form companies here, keeping good jobs in this area. Also, having a local fund could attract more capital to Gainesville.
“The area has to show outside investors that we believe so much in our area that we have put our own ‘skin in the game,’” Washer says.
Beyond the seed fund, ramping up Innovation Gainesville will require significant amounts of additional cash. That will mean reaching sources outside the community—something that hasn’t been done as effectively as it should have been in the past.
“To be honest, a lot of times this community has only looked within for resources,” Christensen says. “We should be looking for resources that can be brought to bear from outside, whether from national philanthropic organizations that might supply grants, federal funds or other sources.”
Initially, the Innovation Gainesville campaign will be run by the chamber and housed at its offices, but the chamber will be looking for partners to help drive the campaign. Christensen said it is too early to determine whether the chamber will have to add people to oversee the effort, but at least at the beginning, it will try to operate with existing staff.
The leaders hope to have the first phases of the campaign underway by April. Then, says Washer, “The trick is really going to be in the serious business and implementation, and creating early success stories that will maintain the momentum.” Spence added, “The whole key to growing the economy is to be proactive instead of reactive, and getting involved. Sitting back is not an option. Hope is not a strategy.”
While acknowledging the hard work ahead, the innovation leaders said this plan represents the area’s best opportunity for significant growth. “This really is a plan that plays on the strengths of the community and the communities desire to improve the job base but balance it with our quality of life,” Washer says.
Sasser agrees: “Every group in the greater Gainesville area can prosper by coming to this table,” he says.