The proposed session, “Creating an Innovation Economy Platform in a University Community” is an attempt to provide a forum to discuss how local government professionals can partner with various community entities, inclusive of private industry, to facilitate the New Innovation Economy.
Over the past ten years, the City of Gainesville, FL has worked to accentuate its local economic competitive advantage, which is the growth and development of innovative economy industry. This is due primarily to the community’s profile that emphasizes the role of intellectual and social capital in community economic development with the University of Florida and Santa Fe College serving as primary actors. This approach is consistent with recent economic development literature documenting those factors that will be increasingly important in securing economic opportunity for a community’s residents in future years.
This approach is facilitated on a public policy level by effective institutional arrangements and the important role of partnerships and collaboration with other economic entities and actors. Many of these efforts go beyond the traditional economic development model of providing a low cost operating environment and although costs and benefits of business cannot be overlooked, this approach often focuses on quality of life concerns particularly as it relates to the built environment and the availability of various urban amenities.
