Say under-the-radar US cities, regions swinging votes
The landscape of the US presidential election has annexed several innovation minded American cities and some wannabe next Silicon Valley's.
Scott Case, the CEO of the Startup America Partnership, and Founding CTO of Priceline.com, stumbled across this interesting intersection and wrote about it in a recent Huffington Post blog:
Startups: Not Just for Silicon Valley Anymore
Following geographical and startup trends, Case asks:
"What do Tampa, Charlotte, Des Moines and Boulder have in common? Many would answer these cities and their respective states are center stage right now in the presidential campaigns: hosting conventions and playing important roles as "swing states." The hidden secret is that the future of our economy is currently being determined under the radar in these places and others like them."
"Attendees of Republican and Democratic Conventions, which took place in Tampa, FL and Charlotte, NC respectively, focused on job creation as the way out of our economic doldrums. The choice to hold the Conventions in these two cities, neither of which rank in the top 15 most populous in the country, gives us a chance to reflect on the importance of smaller cities and towns throughout the U.S. They can make or break a politician's career and, more importantly, are driving America's economy through job creation, though not necessarily in the way you might think."
He continues:
"Data from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation show that young companies (those less than five years old) accounted for nearly all of the net job growth in our country [the US] between 1980 and 2005. Despite the doom and gloom that we see in the daily headlines, startups remain incredibly optimistic about the economy and their chances at success. In collaboration with Oliver Wyman, a leading global management-consulting firm, we implemented an ongoing poll of the more than 9,000 members of the Startup America Partnership to take the temperature of the economy in which these entrepreneurs are trying to gain a foothold."
>>Read the full post here
