Missoula network, sessions foster growth – Innovation-based Economic Development

Hewlett-Packard started in a garage. Facebook in a dorm room. General Electric in a barn. Point is, innovative businesses almost always start small – tiny even, sometimes seemingly insignificant. Their business cases might initially seem mystifying or obscure to most people; innovation, after all, is about finding new ways of doing business.

But in the end, companies like these can and do become the engines that drive economies forward, incrementally adding jobs, creating hubs around new industries, keeping the area’s best and brightest at home, even becoming global leaders.

To fire those engines, thought leaders in the economic development community have increasingly focused on what is known as Innovation-based Economic Development, or IBED, programs.

James Grunke

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/business/montana-inbusiness/columns/james-grunke-network-sessions-foster-growth/article_abea2430-bed7-11e1-8e05-0019bb2963f4.html