<< Previous   of   Next >> (click to enlarge) Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT Moderator Luke Timmerman, National Biotechnology Editor for Xconomy (far left) set the pace for a nine-member panel that included Larry Becker, senior vice president, the NESCO Group; Samuel Cha, senior vice pesident, Pacific International Bank; R. Lee Cheatham, executive director, Washington Technology Center; Eric Dobmeier, chief business officer, Seattle Genetics; Brent Frei, executive chairman and co-founder of Smartsheet.com; john Kaestle, president and CEO, HaloSource; Dave Markle, senior vice president, Sea20 Inc.; Byron McCann, managing partner, Ascent Partners Group, and Carolyn Sherwood, founder, Solar Pie Works.

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CONTACT SCBJ John Wolcott, Editor jwolcott@scbj.com Dave Clark, Assistant Editor dclark@scbj.com

Global Competitiveness Summit tauts creativity

By John Wolcott

SCBJ Editor

Recognizing that the current recession is revealing just how globally competitive and involved Snohomish County must be in the future, Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon assembled a panel of nine regional business leaders and entrepreneurs to discuss how to achieve success in the new business climate.

More than 100 business entrepreneurs and venture capitalists joined the free discussion session in May at the Lynnwood Convention Center to begin discussing how to grow the reginon’s next generation of industries.

In the audience were representatives from about 85 companies, many of them involved in biotechnology, renewable energy and genetics research.

Economic and social analyst Jim Hebert, CEO of Hebert Research in Bellevue, keynoted the session.

“I resent the fact that some people say we didn’t see this recession coming. Oh, yes, we did, we were just in denial,” Hebert said. “This will pass, however. Buyers will come back. The pity parties should be over.”

Hebert said there are many new opportunities in the new economy, noting that the focus on local busineses and activities is critical “because that’s really the majority of businesses and population.”

The panel session was the second economic summit called by the county executive this year, the first one being an open public discussion with builders and contractors and their situations and how to renew and energize their industries.

“We’re leading the way out of this recession by bringing together the best and brightest business leaders with the energy to find creative solutions,” Reardon said. “We did that with the builders and we’re doing it again today.”

One factor hurting business in Washington state besides the national recession is the status of education, business leaders said, questioning Washington’s commitment to continued education opportunities.

“None of this (remaining competitive) is possible without education,” said panelist R. Lee Cheatham of the Washington Technology Center in Seattle. “Where does education fit into the system?”

Adding to that was Byron McCann of the Ascent Partners Group in Seattle, who noted, “creative capacity is what makes us what we are, but we don’t always leverage that (in the state and nation). If we don’t learn how to collaborate better, we’ll lose to the rest of the world.”

Reardon said today’s competitors aren’t just overseas nations. They’re other states seeking to take Washington’s businesses and industry away as they develop their own economy.

“Other states continue to say they want a manufacturing base,” Reardon said. “Well, this state has one. I’m working to make sure it stays here.”