Economic Development

Region to be named innovation hub

Business Courier of Cincinnati
In the next few weeks, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland is expected to announce that Cincinnati’s consumer-marketing cluster has been chosen as a “Hub of Innovation” by the Ohio Department of Development.

“I can’t put a dollar value on it, but this provides a much better opportunity to get funding through the Third Frontier,” said Sandra Degen, vice president for research at the University of Cincinnati.

Cincinnati business leaders have been trying to convince the Ohio Department of Development since last September to designate a Cincinnati hub for marketing. Degen was notified in mid-June that an announcement would be made, including UC’s design programs as part of the work-force component of that hub initiative. But the meeting was rescheduled when President Obama made a surprise visit to Columbus June 16.

Ohio Department of Development spokeswoman Kimber Perfect confirmed that “plans are afoot” for a Cincinnati hub announcement, but she declined to confirm that the marketing cluster has been selected as the basis for that hub.

A hub designation comes with a $250,000 startup grant. But to Degen, the more important contribution is the acknowledgement that Ohio recognizes the marketing cluster as a development opportunity.

“This is not the hard-core technology that the Third Frontier typically supports. But we’ve been trying to tell them that this is something that is really a differentiator for this region,” Degen said. “That will help the region sell itself in a way that others haven’t seen us.”

Ohio voters in May authorized a $700 million bond issue to finance new investments from the Third Frontier program, an 8-year-old state initiative that’s designed to cultivate high-tech industries.

Southwest Ohio has received about $100 million from the Third Frontier program, well short of the $412 million achieved by Cleveland-area organizations and less than half of Central Ohio’s $146 million.

TechSolve Inc. President Gary Conley said the designation will improve this region’s prospects for all kinds of grants, Third Frontier included.

“UC and the hub organization should be able to go out and leverage more research dollars and more investment dollars,” Conley said. “If nurtured properly, over a five-year period, $100 million in additional investment in the community would not be a big stretch.”

Procter & Gamble Co.’s director of global business development said in an e-mail that the company is “excited by the prospect” of an innovation hub focused on marketing.

“An investment to create a consumer goods innovation hub in this region is a very appealing concept,” Mark Peterson wrote.

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