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Eyes on the Future for Rochester
Our region has been getting a lot of national attention lately and those of us who live and work in Rochester should be proud of the reasons why.

Expansion Management, a top site selection magazine, recently ranked the Rochester region as No. 1 in quality of life among major metros in the United States. In addition, US Airways featured the region as part of a 70-page spread in its in-flight magazine this summer, reaching more than 5.8 million passengers. 

These proverbial feathers in the cap come on the heels of the highly successful Eyes on the Future economic summit, where local business leaders convened to hear how other locations have successfully reinvigorated their local economies. 
Organized by the Small Business Council and Greater Rochester Enterprise (GRE), Eyes on the Future highlighted what many already know-that the Greater Rochester region has many world-class assets and a strong foundation to build on. The real challenge is spreading the word that Rochester is a tremendous city in which to live and do business.

 

 

 

SMALL BUSINESS COUNCIL OF ROCHESTER
WWW.ROCHESTERSBC.COM

 

 GREATER ROCHESTER ENTERPRISE
WWW.ROCHESTERBIZ.COM/GRE

 

 

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Rochester BioEnterprise Center Opens in Henrietta
The University of Rochester and High Tech Rochester recently announced the opening of the new Rochester BioEnterprise Center (RBEC) in Henrietta. Joining in the July 24 announcement were New York State Senators Alesi, Nozzolio, and Robach; Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, University of Rochester President Joel Seligman, and UR Medical Center CEO Dr. Bradford Berk.
The RBEC is the first technology incubator in the Greater Rochester region with the wet lab facilities required by growing biotechnology companies. It serves as an important link in the chain of resources necessary to promote and foster the growth of early stage life science companies on a regional scale. The center is supported by funding from New York's Gen*NY*sis program.

The RBEC, a 40,000 sq. ft. facility, offers wet labs ranging from approximately 200 to 1,000 sq. ft., and many come equipped with high-quality corrosion-resistant bench tops, steel cabinetry, sinks, drains, and eyewash stations.

Common use facilities at the center include autoclave, glass wash/drying, walk-in cold storage, loading docks, break room, and conference room with video projection and teleconference capabilities. Each laboratory and office suite is fully wired for voice and high-speed Internet connectivity.

High Tech Rochester (HTR) provides onsite support staff and programs to support high growth businesses at both the BioEnterprise Center and at the Lennox Tech Enterprise Center, located less than seven miles away. The opening of this second incubator enhances HTR's role as the premier provider for technology innovators and entrepreneurs in our region. The Rochester BioEnterprise Center also exemplifies the close working relationship between HTR and the University of Rochester, since the UR selected HTR exclusively to manage the facility.

Contact HTR at (585) 214-2400 or info@htr.org for more information on the RBEC and to discuss how we can accelerate the growth of your company. The Rochester BioEnterprise Center is located at 77 Ridgeland Road, Rochester, New York 14623.

 

HIGH TECH ROCHESTER...The Innovator's Edge
WWW.HTR.ORG

 

 

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Literacy: A Fundamental Issue in the Rochester Community
For far longer than acceptable, the City of Rochester has faced extremely low literacy rates in a large portion of its population. Literacy, a fundamental issue and undeniable requisite of community improvement, directly contributes to the number of high school dropouts, crime, unemployment, and poverty. Roughly half of the high school students in the Rochester City School District do not graduate and extending the assessment to the greater population of Rochester, a staggering 57% of our population, age 16 or older, is only at a grade level one or two for literacy. The students of RCSD continually score far below state standards, with only 18% of eighth graders able to score proficiency on the English and Language Arts Examination. Add to that, the fact that Rochester's crime index is continually higher than the national average (with twice as many incidents of crime in our city) and that Rochester leads New York State in its per capita homicide rate.

 

Mayor Duffy has demonstrated leadership and commitment in launching a new community-wide Literacy Initiative, one that seeks to lower the number of high school dropouts, aid citizens in acquiring and retaining employment, provide students alternatives to crime, and, naturally, increase the abysmally low literacy levels in both children and adults. In his first year in office, Mayor Duffy demonstrated his dedication to rectifying the problem of illiteracy in Rochester by holding a community-wide Summit on Literacy. The summit served as the organizing kick-off of a multi-phase, multi-year Literacy Initiative. Already, there is a considerable amount of staff and hundreds of community volunteers dedicated to the planning and launch of the first phase of the mayor's Literacy Initiative. In addition, the mayor has dedicated new resources to these efforts in a very tough budget year. In the city's 2007-2008 budget, the mayor committed considerable resources to open libraries on Saturdays-the first time in the city's history-and provided part-time children's librarians across the library's branches. With increased resources in our libraries as a starting point, the mayor plans a fall 2007 launch of the first phase of his comprehensive community-wide Literacy Initiative.

 

R. Carlos Carballada
Commissioner, Economic Development
THE CITY OF ROCHESTER
WWW.CITYOFROCHESTER.GOV

 

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Attracting Young People
There has been much written lately about keeping and attracting young professionals here in Rochester. New York State's First Lady, Silda Wall Spitzer, came here in August on this issue. An August report by the Federal Reserve Bank suggests that Rochester should be more concerned about its low in-migration rates of young people (as opposed to out-migration).

A City of Rochester housing market study is yielding some interesting results. Two particular demographic categories represent the largest generations nationally-Boomers and Millenials-and many are moving back into cities.

"Boomers" were born between 1946 and 1964, and there are 79 million of them in the U.S. "Millenials" are generally the children of Boomers, and include anyone born between 1977 and 1996. There are 77 million Millenials across the country, and it is the loss of and inability to attract and keep this segment that concerns us.
The convergence of two generations of this size is unprecedented, and interestingly has huge implications for the urban housing market. The synchronization of these two demographic groups means that there will be an additional eight million potential urban housing consumers by 2015. Notably, married couples are now less than 25% of American households, down from a peak of 45% in the 1980s. The "traditional" family (Dad works, Mom stays home) is now less than 15% of all households.

These national demographic trends are fueling a boom in urban development nationwide, and indications are that this market force will continue to drive residents into downtowns through the year 2024. This bodes well for Rochester's center city, which now tracks 30 housing projects under construction, announced, or under exploration by both local and out-of-town investors. Job creation is clearly our most important solution, but downtown promises to be ready as part of our regional sales package.

 

Heidi N. Zimmer-Meyer
President
ROCHESTER DOWNTOWN DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

 

 

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Don't "Fall" by the Wayside
 Wow! Is it September already? We hate to see summer go-but what a summer it was! At Digital Rochester, hundreds of you attended our summer events including:
· June Networking at Midtown Athletic Club

· A bonus July Networking at the Rochester Museum and Science Center sponsored by our friends at Roberts Wesleyan College

· A sunset cruise for 25 CEOs aboard the Wild Hearts Catamaran on Lake Ontario

It was a busy summer-but we met so many new friends and had such a great time.

But now we are heading into autumn-and with it come school buses, falling leaves, the Buffalo Bills, and much, much more. But don't allow the "busyness" of the season to cause you to lose your focus on continuing to build your network of professionals in our community.
 
In the next couple months, Digital Rochester is excited to bring you many chances to meet new people, build relationships, and advance your career. Just check out these upcoming events:

· September 4th is DR Networking at the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at RIT.

· September 11th is the Digital Rochester Career Fair at the Doubletree Hotel. Last time, over 600 of you met with 50 employers looking to hire over 300 people.

· October 2nd is Get Connected! Join us at Village Gate as we welcome members of almost 20 other professional networking organizations-all made possible by our sponsors, Time Warner Cable Business Class and the Simon School.

And that's just the start. So keep watching for Digital Rochester popping up in some of our usual places like the Rochester Museum and Science Center-and some great new venues like Rock Ventures!

And if reaching over 4,000 Rochester-area technology and business professionals would be good for business, consider sponsoring a Digital Rochester event. By sponsoring an event, your company's name and product info is guaranteed to reach a targeted, qualified audience that is passionate about creating a successful, thriving Rochester community.

 

 

DIGITAL ROCHESTER
WWW.DIGITALROCHESTER.COM

 

 

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