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BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – July/August 2014
BV: You talked about Nashville, Tennessee as a thriving
entrepreneurial community. What has it done right?
KP: “Clearly, it has done a great job of creating these
entrepreneurial focal points. The health care industry and the music
industry are the two big ones. There is the Health Care America
headquarters and Vanderbilt University. When you combine that with
a vibrant, dynamic place where people want to live, it’s a
compounding effect.
“A key tech executive at Ariba who has been in the Silicon Valley
his entire career, he’s considering a company in medical commerce in
Nashville. They’ve done a lot to invest in their city, put it on the map
as a cool place in the nation to be.”
BV: Is the university-business relationship in Indiana as
strong as it needs to be?
KP: (Parker is currently involved in an advisory role at the University
of Southern Indiana’s [USI] Romain College of Business and the Global
Enterprise in Indiana board at the University of Evansville’s Schroeder
Family School of Business). “I’ve been able to witness involvement of
those schools with business leaders. It’s pretty good at both places.
They’re trying to define, determine what they can do to help support
the business climate in general.
“At USI, the focus is on entrepreneurism. The program attracts
students who have an interest. Hopefully they become attracted to the
community. Hopefully they add to this entrepreneurial ecosystem by
Amazing things happen in places where the education and business
communities join forces. The global economy has been propelled by
areas like Silicon Valley, where radically new concepts are transformed
into practical everyday uses.
That’s what you’ll find in Indiana’s Technology Corridor. Centered upon the
advanced technology being created in labs at Purdue University and Indiana
University, powered by highly skilled training from Ivy Tech Community
College, and inspired by a long tradition of individual initiative, this region
is shaping the nation’s future.
Incorporating nine counties – Benton, Carroll, Cass, Fountain, Montgomery,
Pulaski, Tippecanoe, Warren, and White – Indiana’s Technology Corridor
combines leading-edge research and innovation with an enduring
entrepreneurial spirit, abundant natural resources, and a surprising variety
of lifestyles.
The result is fertile ground for growing companies with a strong focus
on tomorrow. If that includes your company, you owe it to
yourself to join us here.
Connecting Innovation & Application:
Welcome to Indiana’s Technology Corridor
IndianasTechnologyCorridor.com
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The music industry is only part
of the Nashville success story.
