Today, the Spotlight Michigan Team had the great fortune of visiting the city of Indianapolis, Indiana.  After leaving East Lansing at 3:00 in the morning, courtesy of Dean Trailways, and the support of the Lansing Area Economic Partnership, we arrived in Indianapolis promptly at 9:00am.  After doing some early morning city site seeing, we arrived at our first meeting of the day….Develop Indy!

Develop Indy is an economic development organization that focuses on business and workforce development.  They take a comprehensive look at different Indianapolis businesses to gain an understanding of how they can help them succeed.  We quickly learned that Develop Indy focuses on creating jobs through a three-prong approach: 1) Job retention 2) Expand & grow 3) Attraction efforts.  Develop Indy identified six, high-growth, industries targeted for economic development in Indianapolis using indigenous growth both locally and attracting outside the community: 1) Life Science/Health 2) Information Technology 3) Logistics 4) Clean Technology 5) Advanced Manufacturing 6) Motorsports.  As far as second-stage businesses development is concerned Develop Indy promotes tax-abatement as an incentive to draw in new economic ventures into the area. Furthermore, the organization offers networking services to connect these second-stage businesses with employees.  Develop Indy has identified education and improvement in mass transit as vital to the continued growth of the Indianapolis business scene.

After visiting with Develop Indy we met with Ronald Gifford of the Indy Partnership.  One area that has lead to economic growth in the Indianapolis region is the growth of the amateur sports industry. Indianapolis built an economic sports cluster, which according to Ronald Gifford has helped to create an identity for the Indianapolis area.  The development of the sports industry cluster helped draw in business executives from diverse industries, increasing their awareness of Indianapolis assets and in many cases contributing to the relocation and expansion of their businesses into the city. Indianapolis, like many cities within Michigan, is facing the “brain drain” issue.  Ronald mentioned that the city continues to see talented college students leaving not only Indianapolis but also the state of Indiana in hopes of finding jobs in other major cities.  To try and stop the “brain drain”, Indy businesses and local universities have collaborated to form regional cooperations to tackle economic growth issues and strengthen the attractiveness of local businesses.

Our final visit of the day was with Eric Hopp of the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.  The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce is a regional chamber of commerce serving nine counties, which encompasses over 4,000 businesses and 300,000 employees. 80% of the chambers members consist of second-stage business ventures.  The chamber is leading an effort to incorporate increased Regional Corporation and consolidation within the economic development community to improve efficiency and growth. From the chambers perspective, the key challenge to overcome is for small businesses to locate talent.  In 2009, the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey with their members. They discovered members wanted four things: 1) More connections within members 2) They want the chamber to serve as an advocate for governmental issues 3) To use membership to get discount on business services and supplies and 4) How to support members’ employees during economic downturns.

After meeting with all three organizations, it has become clear that a major challenge facing Indianapolis is that people outside the Midwest are unaware of the city and its assets.  The three organizations we meet with today often referred to Indianapolis as the “Unknown City.”  However, everyone we meet with did mention that once people move to Indianapolis it is hard for them to leave the bustling city. Another major challenge that Indianapolis is facing is education reform, which is currently underway.  Indianapolis public schools do not have the best reputation as only a few years ago their high school graduation rates were at a mere 70%.  Education reform is a hotly debated topic in Indianapolis however after only a few years of focusing on improving school systems graduations rates have risen to 80%.