Overcoming Obstacles Creating Cool.
Laying plans for new schools, tech businesses, and towns everyone wants to live in.
Who You Calling Elitist?
Does “poor folks mentality” stunt our growth?
Get Wired!
Morgan County did. You can too.
Tackling the Tough Ones.
Race, gender, and sexuality: Your business?
C O N F E R E N C E
October 18-20, 2009 Big Sandy Arena Huntington, West Virginia
A PUBLICATION OF A VISION SHARED
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Never Give Up Two years ago, Create WV introduced the concept of a “creative community,” defined as a community that takes ownership over creating a new destiny by coming together to solve problems and identify opportunities in the 21st century global economy. A year ago, we highlighted communities that had the courage to take action and begin building their own creative community. This year, the Create WV Conference will highlight communities, companies and individuals who refuse to give up. They refuse to let obstacles hold them back from building a prosperous future, and as a result, they are changing their destiny. Winston Churchill famously said: “Never, never, never, never give up.” I’ve often observed that it’s the folks who are the most persistent and positive that ultimately change the world. Yes, they will have to put up with a lot of doubt, cynicism, and obstacles along the way. But ultimately, positive and persistent wins. Think about our world today. There are so many distractions that serve as temptations to become frustrated, bitter and jaded. It’s easy to be the critic on the sideline. But can anyone point to any positive change that sprang from this approach? How do communities and companies like yours find new opportunities to grow and thrive in today’s difficult economic era? They CREATE them. Come to the Create WV 2009 Conference and begin creating a prosperous future for you and those you care about in West Virginia. Sincerely, Jeff James Chairman, Create WV West Virginia, Your State to Create was edited and written by Rebecca Kimmons, Katalyst Development Strategies, except where noted.
Marcus Jadotte
Anya Kamenetz
Kevin Stolarick
David Wiley
Conference Keynotes: Views You Can Use Kevin Stolarick, research director, Martin Prosperity Institute, University of Toronto, says the creative economy isn’t just the latest dance craze; it describes the fundamental shift in the world’s economies that is creating game-changing challenges for West Virginia. In “The Creative Economy Outside City Limits,” he’ll discuss the shift and provide strategies and examples for leveraging the regions’ natural advantages for success. David Wiley, associate professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology, Brigham Young University, is a native West Virginian and graduate of Marshall University named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. The chief openness officer of Flat World Knowledge is dedicated to increasing worldwide access to educational opportunity. He’ll speak on “Enrolling in the
Creative Class: Education and the Future Economy.”
Anya Kamenetz, Fast Company staff writer and Pulitzer-nominated author of Generation Debt, brings compelling evidence that West Virginia could lead in creating a localized renewable energy industry. She’ll cover smart grid, thin-film solar, small wind, and home retrofitting in her talk, “Beyond the Grid: Building a Green Energy Economy Through Small-Scale Renewables.”
Marcus Jadotte, managing director of public affairs, NASCAR, asks, how do you find new markets and fresh talent? The short answer: diversify. In his talk, “Championing Diversity in Non-Diverse Worlds,” he will discuss how developing proactive diversity programs can open new markets and pools of talent, and how that applies to West Virginia economic development.
Tamarack and the WV Department of Agriculture will collaborate to showcase the state’s gourmet food industry in a specialty shop and demonstrations created especially for the Huntington conference. Conferees can see, hear, taste, smell, and touch what a creative economy shop entails, from the initial concept to finished retail product. The display includes handmade items and personal stories of West Virginia’s skilled entrepreneurs. Tamarack will present handmade vessels and utensils; the Department of Agriculture will feature candies, wine and wine accessories, product gift boxes and more, all for sale. The shop and demonstrations are co-sponsored by the Cabell County Commission and Generation WV, supported by Cisco Systems and Good News Garage.
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One Town Gets Creative By Thomas and Stacy McChesney
Experts say museums, performing arts, higher education, health care, a waterfront, transportation access, architecturally signifi cant homes and buildings, and parks are ideal assets for attracting creatives. Huntington has all this, yet until recently few would have called it a choice place for researchers, scientists, software developers, artists, and musicians. Why? Our Create Huntington team realized two key ingredients were missing: a positive sense of place and a positive self-image. We launched a multi-year, multi-faceted approach to tackle these issues.
Funny name. Serious results.
In November, 2008, Create Huntington began to meet weekly at Chat ‘n Chew, our “third place” outside of home and work where we gather to socialize and work on projects. Our forum welcomes residents of all ages, backgrounds, and economic levels. We identified five essential elements for success: regular meetings in a comfortable place, a free venue, no negativity, and encouragement of creative expression. Third places can be coffee shops, restaurants, or town squares where comfort encourages conversation. We discovered a former hotel lobby in the Frederick Building, filled with leather sofas, a grand fireplace, and an adjacent restaurant. We had no budget so we called on our friends Mark and Izzy Cross, owners of 21 at the Frederick, one of Huntington’s finest restaurants. They donate the space and provide food service to attendees, who pay for only what they eat or drink.
We politely, firmly discourage negative comments. It’s frightening how quickly ‘no’ can kill a vision. Every week, we explain that all ideas are welcome at Chat ‘n Chew. Perhaps the simplest, most meaningful element is meeting people where they are. We don’t tell people they should work on this great idea or that new project “that will surely transform Huntington.” We encourage them to talk about what they’d like to see, what they feel Huntington needs to be great, and then provide an infrastructure to bring the vision to reality. In nine months Huntington groups have ■ Created five community gardens ■ Supported beautification projects in two parks and three public spaces ■ Raised money to donate 1,000 trees to the community in 2009 and 2010 ■ Worked with the City to create a dog park ■ Opened a downtown art gallery ■ Created a monthly performing and visual arts venue ■ Launched a website, www.whyhuntingtonwv.com ■ Begun a Kiva microlending group ■ Helped the “Litter Gitter” team get 1,500 clean-up volunteers ■ Organized the state’s first sanctioned 5K Championship Run in a decade ■ Formed a team to attract television and movie producers to the area ■ Brought the Create West Virginia conference to Huntington A year ago Vaughn Grisham scolded us, saying Huntington looks unloved. Chat ‘n Chew provides an opportunity to engage people. We’ve learned we can rely on ourselves to fix our problems, and we’re learning just how much Huntingtonians love their town.
Come See What The
g n i v i r Th ARTSCommunity of Bluefield/Princeton Could Hold For You!
Gary Bowlings House of Art
www.garybowlingshouseofart.com
Blue Mountain Performing Arts
The RiffRaff
www.theriffraff.net
Summit Theatre
www.summitplayers.com
Chuck Mathena Center
www.chuckmathenacenter.org
Huntington’s Happening! All events free and open to the public except where noted.
Sunday, October 18 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. Huntington Museum of Art, 2033 McCoy Rd. Opening reception, Biennial West Virginia Juried Exhibition comes for first time to Huntington. Paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, photography, and mixed media plus traditional craft. www.hmoa.org 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. Big Sandy Superstore Arena, 3rd Ave. & 8th St., Create WV Conference Opening Reception featuring Tamarack: The Best of West Virginia. Open to conference registrants. 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Frederick Building Lobby, 940 4th Ave., pre-Mountain Stage reception. Cash bar/hors d’oeuvres. Entertainment by Bluetrane, MU’s faculty jazz ensemble. 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Keith Albee Theater, 925 4th Ave., Mountain Stage features Kathy Mattea and The Ahs of Summers County. Doors open 6:30. All tickets $20.00. 800.745.3000 www.mountainstage.org
Monday, October 19 “Night out on 4th Avenue” 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. Frederick Building, 940 4th Ave., Chat ‘n Chew Reception, cash bar/hors d’oeuvres. www. createhuntington.com 5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Jeslyn Performing Arts Center, 1030 4th Ave., The Movement of Poetry: Spoken Word and Dance. www.jeslyn.org 6:00 – 6:45 p.m. Frederick Building, 940 4th Ave., MU Department of Theater presents “Waiting for Lefty,” songs and scenes from the 2009 Theatre Alliance production. 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. Gallery 842, 842 4th Ave., a community gallery exhibiting local artists’ work. 7:00 – 9:30 p.m. Morris Building, 845 4th Ave., Reception, cash bar/hors d’oeuvres. Classic and original music by MU Guitar Ensemble, new media animated projections by MU graphic design students, and eclectic string band music by the 1937 Flood. www.marshall.edu/cofa; www.1937flood.com. 8:00 p.m. MU Faculty Recital, 133 Smith Hall, 4th Ave/Hal Greer Blvd., pianist Türev Berki, cellist len Dikene, violinist Ian Jessee play works by David Williams and Scott Michal. www.marshall.edu/cofa
inspiration. investment. innovation.
Biotechnology is a burgeoning industry in West Virginia. Marshall University in Huntington is a main biotech economic engine. HADCO is proud to partner with Marshall University through the formation of the Biotech Alliance and creation of a private biotechnology incubator.
The new HADCO biotech incubator within the Marshall University Forensic Science Addition
Over $100 million in new biotech facilities at Marshall University.
Three medical and biotech spin-off companies formed.
The area’s first biotech incubator was completed in Spring 2009.
Associate of Applied Science (AAS) Degree in Bioscience developed by MCTC
Angel investors contributed over $1.5 million.
Huntington is a complete medical and research community.
itmercercounty.com/calenda s i v . w r ww for all the events going on around the area 916 5th Avenue Suite 400 Huntington, WV 25701
(304) 525-1161 www.hadco.org
Fall 2009
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Groups Join to Break Down Silo Think By Emily Bennington It’s June 20, 2009. Teams from Generation WV and Create WV are at C.J. Maggie’s in Buckhannon, where they have travelled from around the state to formally kick-off their new partnership. It’s West Virginia Day. What better way to celebrate than by tending to the future of the state? It would be hard to find two organizations more complementary in mission. Generation WV focuses on retaining, attracting, and advancing young talent; Create WV works to develop cool communities and a full range of career opportunities. Five years ago neither group existed. Under Vision Shared, both have burst onto the statewide scene. Generation WV has seven regional groups online with four more in the works, and a new Governor’s Council of Young Professionals. “Create�
groups have sprung up in Cabell, Fayette, Greenbrier, Jefferson, Mercer, Pocahontas, Summers, and Upshur Counties. “One of the most valuable contributions Vision Shared makes to development in West Virginia is our ability to facilitate collaborations between different groups and movements,� said Juliet Terry, Vision Shared president. “To see our groups support each other is a perfect outcome for us.�
At the Table Generation WV has adopted Create WV’s five strategic pillars: quality of place, technology, education, diversity, and entrepreneurship. The Governor’s Council of Young Professionals won the opportunity for Generation WV members to be placed on statewide boards and committees re-
lated to these pillars. “If we are going to make change that matters in these areas, we need to be at the table where decisions are made,� said Paul Daugherty, Generation WV chairman. In the upcoming legislative session, the organizations will partner to support Vision Shared’s “Creative Communities� bill, designed to help communities help themselves by providing matching funds for projects that provide access to technological advances, make aesthetic improvements to existing infrastructure, foster academic innovation, develop diversity initiatives, or aid in the development of renewable energy sources.
Up for Round Two Last year’s Creative Communities bill failed to pass. This year, both groups hope
to turn the tide by hosting the first Generation WV Day at the Legislature. Young talent from around the state will be invited to come to Charleston en masse to voice their support.
Creating Opportunity
“The Creative Communities legislation empowers West Virginians to create their own dynamic communities to take advantage of new economy opportunities,� said Jeff James, chairman of Create WV. “It’s a natural fit with young talent groups like Generation WV. If we want to keep young people here, we must create opportunities for anyone with vision and drive. We need resources to develop communities that meet the needs of the current generation.� “We are proof of what can happen when organizations come together based on what they have in common versus where they differ,� says Daugherty. “To borrow from an old saying, you don’t have to beat ‘em to join ‘em.�
Bennington co-chairs Charleston Alliance’s Generation Charleston, is a member of the Governor’s Council of Young Professionals, and is working to launch Charleston’s Emerging Leaders Task Force. ebennington@dixonhughes.com, Twitter @EmilyBennington.
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Think You’re Better’n Us? By Jeff James
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When we were kids, few putdowns could demoralize a peer quicker. “Test buster� was handy, and “teacher’s pet,� but the dreaded barb was “you think you’re better than us.� The crime? Acing a test. Pushing yourself harder in wind sprints. Stepping out to participate in a cultural pursuit. West Virginians are friendly, humble people. Our heritage is hard work, and we take pride in that. Our governor trumpets the oft-repeated claim that our workers are among the most loyal and hard-working. But we’re not better than anyone else. That would be a serious crime. And we’re very, very skeptical of anyone who seems to think they are above the rest. Is there a downside to this humility? Only if it’s used as a shield against something new, something better. Or as a dart to deflate the balloon of someone striving for excellence. Humility has a harsh double side if it’s based on insecurity. As a growing number of folks champion a “new� economy or the growth of a “creative class� that works in the new economy, the charge of “elitist� sometimes rears its head, usually when the correlation is drawn between education levels and new economy job opportunities. Isn’t that elitist? The word “elitist� is defined by dictionary.com as “the belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.� Championing a diverse, vibrant new economy is no more elitist than pointing out the economic benefits of manufacturing or other industries. When West Virginia can generate higher income levels or create job growth, it benefits everyone. New economy industries such as technology, research, engineering, design, education or arts/culture are growing faster and paying more than most other industries in the 21st century. Without a vibrant new economy, all West Virginians will have fewer opportunities. I suggest a role model for us: Jerry West, one of the top five basketball players who has ever lived, whose competitive drive towards excellence is legendary. He’s also humble, someone who never forgets to thank those who helped him and has never forgotten his West Virginia roots. Perhaps that will be West Virginia’s signature in the new economy: pursuit of excellence, and the ability to say “It was nothin’,� after we make a great scientific breakthrough or start the next Microsoft, right here.
Fall 2009
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From Rumpus to ROI
You may know blacksmith Jeff Fetty for his giant iron daffodils that bloom year round in Charleston. Or maybe you’ve sat at a glass corporate boardroom table supported by an intricate Fetty hand-wrought base. His work goes around the world, keeping very good company. Fetty doesn’t spend all his time at the forge. To relax, he rides his mountain bike around Roane County. On a ride up on what the locals call Rumpus Ridge, he noticed the sweeping view of Spring Creek valley below where his hometown Spencer lies, looking like an old-time postcard. He noticed that the land high on Rumpus Ridge was flat. He started thinking. Wouldn’t it be great to have a bigger, better shop and forge? Wouldn’t it be great to have artist neighbors? He hatched the idea of what has become the Chestnut Ridge Artists’ Colony. “We broke ground about two years ago,” Fetty says. “The first year we spent just cleaning up. For years, folks had used it as an unofficial dump. We hauled away about 30 truck-loads of trash. The City of Spencer got excited about the project and hooked up city
A.
The view from Chestnut Ridge. water and power.” Fetty knew his friends Phil and Teresa Holcomb were thinking about moving closer to their major woodworking and jewelry markets in the urban east. He told them about his vision, and they now operate their world-wide art and craft business from a spacious new studio, a short walk from Fetty’s forge. “There are 200 acres here,” Fetty says, waving his hand across the wooded expanse beyond the two studios. “For artists who are interested in building a life here, who will contribute to the community as they pursue their work, there is a terrific opportunity.” www.jefffettyironwork.com/whatsnew
Power and Magic at Aurora
In a recent Wonderful West Virginia article, writer/artist Colleen Anderson declared, “there are places of power and magic on this earth.” She claims one is in Preston County’s old growth forest known as Cathedral State Park, east of the village of Aurora on the old Northwestern Turnpike now known as U.S. 50. Perhaps that’s why communities have waxed and waned in the area beginning as early as 1790 when Lutherans gathered in what they envisioned would become Mt. Carmel, a county seat. A hundred years later, Aurora thrived with mountain resort hotels and guest houses. In the 1930s, geologist Frank Reeves and his wife Lottie, who, according to Anderson, “attracted and craved the company of intellectuals,” bought land there and began constructing cottages from dying American chestnut trees. Many artists found their way there to wait out the Depression in the Reeves’ “Youghiogheny Forest.”
B.
Brookside Inn The latest visionaries to fall under the Aurora spell have formed the nonprofit Aurora Project. They are reviving vintage buildings to accommodate an artists’ residency similar to New England’s MacDowell or Millay colonies, planning housing and studio space for as many as 14 artists for three- to six-week residencies. Two writers’ retreats have been accomplished; a third is coming up November 5-8. www.auroraproject.org
Preserving, Creating at Coolspring Businesswoman Linda Case sought expert advice on proper care of a marsh she discovered on her farm near Charles Town. During the process of separating vital plants from non-natives, a biologist she hired discovered 18 rare and very rare native plants. “Suddenly, my cubic zircon became a diamond,” Case says. The marsh, she discovered, is a Shenandoah wet prairie, one of only two known in the state. Case bought an adjacent parcel to secure the entire marsh, and with it came buildings thought to have once been slave quarters. Struck with a sense of stewardship for the land, Case says, “I was faced with a very good problem. I felt strongly that the land shouldn’t belong to just one person, and if it didn’t belong to an individual, then who would take it?” The question led to the creation of CraftWorks at Coolspring, a non-profit center for creative learning. She plans to eventually donate the land and buildings to the organization. The center offers a growing array of day and half-day classes, from painting and drawing to sustainable building and contemporary American handcrafts,
How are you using your marketing dollars? Coolspring Hall journaling, cooking, gardening, and fiber arts. “Students can use raw materials from our land,” Case says. In summer 2010, CraftWorks will offer children’s nature camps in partnership with the Potomac Valley Audubon Society. Nature writing groups and painting clubs are also welcome to use the property for meetings and events. “We hope to become a destination for families looking for fun and relaxation. We’re a growing creative community, and want to encourage people to embrace the creative life,” Case says. The center offers lodging packages with local bed and breakfasts. www.craftworksatcoolspring.org
www.empoweredmarketing.tv
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Kinetic Star Ready to Catch Opportunity You won’t hear Greg Henthorn’s voice raised in the shouting match over global warming, and it’s not because he doesn’t have an opinion. The Morgantown-based entrepreneur has sized up the situation, and is investing his efforts in finding the business opportunity that’s obscured in the fracas. “Regardless of how the facts may be construed, the civilized world has decided it wants to do something about climate change. As a business person, the argument over global warming is irrelevant to me,” Henthorn says. “The world is focusing on constraining carbon, and that trend represents a business opportunity. The United States needs to be leading the charge in terms of creating intellectual property around that proposition.” Henthorn intends to do his part. His business, Kinetic Star, Inc., is poised to move swiftly on opportunities that arise from the push to find alternative energy sources. “The State of West Virginia has a lot of assets that could put us at the forefront of the curve,” he says. He’s turning a creative eye toward gassy coal mines, reeking landfills, industrial and municipal sludge, and agribusiness animal waste lots.
Emerging Green Energy Projects His Kinetic Star website explains that the company originates and coordinates development, finance, and operations of energy development projects that result in the creation of carbon credits and renewable energy. The company’s immediate focus, the website says, is capturing methane generated from coal mining and waste disposal industries.
“We work with institutional investors and large multinational corporations that invest in green energy projects and buy carbon credits,” Henthorn says. “We find opportunities and bring the pieces together. If our partners invest, my company gets a piece of it. We have already closed a few deals, and we’re working on several others.” Methane is a greenhouse gas that, according to the US EPA, is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide and contributes substantially to global climate change. The agency is part of an international initiative that advances cost-effective, nearterm methane recovery and use as a clean energy source. Henthorn’s corporate partners have stakes in cutting edge technologies being tested in locations around the world. “Recent legislation and technological advancement are making the economics of these technologies viable,” Henthorn says. “Capturing methane is a difficult process but it’s now becoming worth the investment.”
Creative Process Henthorn has been so busy in his career doing start ups and venture capital that he only recently noticed that he’s never had a job like those his fellow graduates in chemical engineering and law typically pursued. “My background in engineering and law has been helpful, but I love the process of business startups. I naturally gravitate in that direction.” He weathered the dot com debacle of the nineties, and “learned how not to build a business” in a Silicon Valley partnership. “We created a business by reading ana-
lysts’ reports. It got a lot of attention, but didn’t have the fundamentals.” He says he spent a few years spinning his wheels, dabbling in alternative energies. “Somewhere along the way in the mid 2000s, I realized there were opportunities in the energy space that involved the next generation of fossil fuels. There’s going to be a lot of opportunity in the transition phase. I wanted to find a way to be involved in those opportunities that had near-time possibilities.” The kid who wanted to be a sports broadcaster, who at 18 could hardly wait to see the West Virginia border quickly receding in his rear view mirror, now regards the state, his schooling and experiences here among his most valuable assets. He says being from West Virginia is a benefit when interacting with investment groups and large companies. “Outside the state, former West Virginians who are entrenched in energy companies and investment funds go out of their way to help when they find out where I’m from.” He says he also owes friends and associates within West Virginia a huge debt of gratitude. “They have been my mentors in so many ways,” he says. “I want to work with them now to find opportunities in this new business landscape. “Even if it’s only a slight paradigm shift in the energy sector, it’s in our best interest to know and understand the dynamic. It makes sense to look at the opportunities, not just the challenges. That’s really the way I see the world. That’s where West Virginia has an opportunity for major economic growth, if we play our cards right. “
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New Business Takes Nation by Surprise
have to sacrifice style to go green,” she says. She felt a company that offered environmentally friendly, fashionable home products would fill a market gap, and apparently, she was right. She is grateful she was able to hire a warehouse manager whose 20 years at UPS make for smooth shipping operations for the infant company. “We have a strong workforce here,” she says, and looks forward to substantially increasing company employment by the end of the year. Phase I, in place now, offers a wide array of fashionable merchandise that Aplin has personally vetted to meet strict environmental standards. “There aren’t always certifi cations for every aspect of every material across the industry, so we employ our own standards. We look at the sustainability of the product, whether it’s recycled, reclaimed or reused. We look at the manufacturing process and we have extensive conversations with manufacturers and suppliers before we sign them on. “Then I basically go through a pretty typical process of looking at trends in fashion, listen to what people are talking about, thinking about, what the colors are, what the textures are, until we have a story of what’s going on in the world. We’re looking for products that tell a story with our distinctive bambeco style.”
A flurry of media, including the Today Show on July 21, celebrated the advent of a new company on the American retail scene with an unprecedented business concept and an unexpected address. Bambeco.com, “Eco style for your home and life,” launched its online retail store this year on Earth Day, April 22, and its immediate impact surprised even its co-founder, Susan Aplin. “We were inundated by press inquiries. They were fascinated with the company. The initial onslaught was overwhelming.” USA Today, Entrepreneur, Daily Candy, Apartment Therapy, Woman’s Day, and a host of other publications rushed to find out more about this company that is committed to coupling high style with green substance. Curiosity often increased when reporters noticed that the company is located in Moorefield, West Virginia. “A number of people from around the country seemed to marvel at an environmentally focused company locating in West Virginia,” Aplin says. “We feel there is obviously a big misconception about the state. There’s a different environmental side to West Virginia that many people don’t know.”
Happy Accident
Aplin accidentally discovered the region that is now her home and location of her business. “I went to Lost River to hike and stay at a B&B in 2003. I looked around and just fell in love with the place.” She had fallen in love with the business of retailing about 20 years before that, and she decided to consolidate her loves in one spot. Hardy County. Aplin and co-founder Carolyn Wapnick worked for a year on the business plan. Aplin has a finance, accounting and operations background and has held senior management positions with The Gap, Williams-Sonoma, Sports Authority, and Staples. She has supervised mergers and acquisitions, developed and managed implementation of re-engineered merchandise, and has had her hand on the financial controls of major companies. She has lived and worked in Europe and in big U.S. cities, but she grew up in a small Georgia town.
Stay Tuned…
© Photo by Mellissa Kay www.photosbymellissakay.com
Susan Aplin went from a small Georgia town to San Francisco, London, New York and Boston. She has begun her entrepreneurial career in Moorefield. “I’m accustomed to a small town environment,” she says. “I think this is such a terrific place, and there are such wonderful people here. In several respects we have a pretty decent economy, especially compared to other states. We love creating this new industry here.”
First to Tap Green Desire Bambeco, whose name combines bamboo and ecology, is already bursting at its warehouse seams. Market research confirmed Aplin’s idea that a substantial number of Americans want to live a more sustainable lifestyle. “You shouldn’t
What few have heard about yet is Phase II, Aplin’s plan to expand using the region’s scrap glass, wood and metal to create products in West Virginia that would normally go into landfills. “These industries produce a signifi cant amount of waste. We intend to take the scrap and turn it into beautiful products branded with the bambeco name. Right now, 70 percent of what we sell is sourced from the United States. We’re looking forward to sourcing a much higher percentage here in West Virginia. Aplin recently traded in her leather briefcase for a retread, a briefcase from a line made of tires that have no less than 60,000 miles on them. “I carry a new bag that we sell, too,” she gleefully reports. “You’d never know it came from recycled soda and water bottles. It’s amazing what people are doing with trash.”
The Best in West Virginia. Recognized consistently by the Public Relations industry. Congratulations to CEO George Manahan 2009 Public Relations Practitioner of the Year.
www.manahangroup.com
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The American Story No Stimulus Dollars, No Corporate Greed
“It’s more than a business deal to me. It’s a cause.”
Chapter Two: DEAL OF THE CENTURY
A
t 6' 7'', Jim Justice is an imposing man. But his stature is softened by deep blue eyes, a disarming West Virginia accent and a smile that hints at something he knows but hasn’t told you yet. He suggests that if his life had a title, it would be Run Silent, Run Deep. Then he tells how he bought The Greenbrier out from under much larger corporate suitors the way you’d tell your favorite fishing story.
“I wa s worried a ne w owner might change what makes this place so special, including the local staff who’ve been the heart and soul of this resort for two centuries.” So in typical Jim Justice style, he made them an offer.
MAKING HISTORY AGAIN Like most West Virginians, Mr. Justice fell in love with The Greenbrier before he ever saw it. It had hosted presidents, world and industry leaders, sportsmen and celebrities. Pro golf tournaments, prestigious culinary events and meetings that changed the course of history had all taken place here. For Justice, the resort has always been an example of what made America great: service, leadership, hospitality and the success that comes with hard work. Qualities that inspired Justice’s own legendary career as a compassionate e n t r e p r e n e u r, b u s i n e s s m a n a n d community leader.
“I asked for a little tour of the resort, and as they drove me around the property we talked about hunting, our golf games, how beautiful the landscaping was. Just chitchat,” Justice says with a smile. “But while I was talking, my brain was doing the math. 6500 acres with spectacular views, the magnificent hotel and cottages, three championship golf courses, the history of this place.”
“An opportunity to steward a place I’ve loved all my life? 1600 jobs and the regional flavor of The Greenbrier preserved, and a chance to help The Greenbrier make history all over again? It was the deal of the century! But it was also the right thing to do for the people who work here, and the guests who believe in this place as much as I do. No corporate greed, no stimulus dollars.” Today, Jim Justice’s inspiration and investments are already paying dividends for present and future Greenbrier guests. A new casino and Prime 44 West, a steakhouse honoring West Virginia NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West, are both slated to open October 1, 2009. A new PGA TOUR event, The Greenbrier Classic, tees off here on The Old White Course next July. And Mr. Justice promises there’s more to come.
To find out more about Jim Justice’s plans for The Greenbrier and to experience your once-in-a-lifetime meeting, contact our sales office at 800-675-1287 or visit greenbrier.com /AmericanStory.
Fall 2009
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That Old Thing? Vintage Buildings Worth More than Memories By Jeff Miller
More than 170 years ago, French archeologist Adolphe Napoléon Didron said, “It is better to preserve than to repair, better to repair than to restore, better to restore than to reconstruct.” The aphorism is as current as a classic building. West Virginia communities, take heed. The Eastern Panhandle, Monongalia County, and the Greater Kanawha Valley face urban sprawl challenges. Economic development is about the future, but to insure our long-term success, we must start by valuing what we already have. The most responsible actions to revitalize our economy and encourage creativity are to retain, reuse, restore, reconstruct, rehabilitate, renew, and recycle. To live in a sustainable manner, we need not start from scratch. We can achieve many sustainability goals by reinvesting in old buildings in old towns. It’s not about nostalgia. It’s about effective reinvestment in valuable assets. Conservation-based community development protects traditions and creates affordable housing, generates jobs, supports independent businesses, increases civic participation, and bolsters a community’s sense of place.
Fresh perspective
Photos Courtesy of Wheeling National Heritage Area
Before: The Wheeling Stamping Plant, circa 1990; After: The Stamping Plant rehabbed as Orrick Global Operations Center, 2001, 2121 Main Street, Wheeling.
Revitalization and community development projects under the banner of renewal often threaten distinctive resources inherent in structurally sound old buildings, many of which are excellent candidates for adaptive re-use. Short-term thinkers often claim they are too costly to renovate. “The greenest building is one that is already built,” is more than a snappy T-shirt slogan; it’s a fresh perspective on existing building stock. We have largely ignored the inherent economic and ecological advan-
tages of building reuse, including the primary one: embodied energy, a term that may be unpleasant to the ear, but one with which we need to get comfortable. It takes the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to make, deliver and install eight bricks. One ton of coal contains enough energy to make and deliver 1,775 bricks. Preserving old bricks instead of dumping them and making new ones means the energy of a gallon of gasoline or a ton of coal can be used to meet other pressing needs. Reusing old buildings saves energy required to demolish and replace them with new buildings. A properly rehabbed old building requires no more operating energy, on average, than a comparable new building.
Hold that Wrecking Ball!
Older buildings embody sustainability. The list of energy-saving characteristics of existing buildings is long, but the list of sins against these structures, inadvertently eroding their green characteristics, is equally long. The fact is, rehabilitation is the most environmentally responsible action in building community. Societies need growth and new investment, but it should not come at the expense of heritage and character. Today’s teardown trend is an example of how we sometimes throw away our most valuable assets in the name of progress.
Miller, president and CEO of Hunter-Miller Associates, is a design consultant who has worked in historic preservation and community development in many West Virginia communities. He will expand on the topic, “What’s A Building Worth?” in a Quality of Place session, 11:30 a.m. Monday, October 19.
Wha tha?! Building creative communities for the New Economy Create WV and Vision Shared wish to thank the following organizations for their generous support and investment in building creative communities in West Virginia: Create Huntington
City of Huntington, WV
www.createhuntington.com
www.cityofhuntington.com
Cabell-Huntington Convention & Visitors Bureau www.wvvisit.org
Platinum PR
Maple Creative
Dream Catcher Creative
www.platinumpr.com
www.maplecreative.com
www.dreamcc.com
Katalyst Development Strategies
Mountainside Media
The Media Center
www.mountainsidemedia.com
www.themediacenter222.com
WELD
Thomas R. Fletcher
K.D. Lett Photography
www.wedltheweb.com
www.proseandphotos.com
www.kdlett.com
www.katscandu.com
Generation WV
TechConnect WV
Gary Bowling’s House of Art
www.generationwestvirginia.com
www.techconnectwv.com
www.garybowlingshouseofart.com
We would also like to thank the tireless and inspiring volunteers across West Virginia who have invested so much passion and energy into making this conference possible.
Is your community ready to become a creative community? Visit createwv.com
6’6”240’s new CD, Hard Work & Dedication, is the West Virginia hip hop artist’s first profanity-free project. “I don’t want to alienate kids from my music,” says the popular author of “The Gold N Blue” football anthem. E1/Koch, world’s largest independent distributer, just released 6’6”s song, “Up to No Good.” Look this month for “Monstalung: The Brand,” a new CD featuring 6’6”240, A Breezy, Ace Beanz, WillzP and DJ Monstalung, showcasing Morgantown-based writers. Coming up in November, Soundvizion debuts A Breezy’s first CD, “The Spaceship Project.” The WVU junior’s “WV Gurlz” track is on the latest 6’6”240 collection. Learn more about West Virginia’s hip hop industry at www.myspace. com/soundvizionrecordingz
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Home Power Stations on Rise the Warren-Garlands with a grant to cover approximately half the cost of buying and installing components for home-based wind and solar generation. The Warren-Garlands bought a sturdy pole, a small turbine, eight top quality solar (photovoltaic) panels, a set of 12 batteries for power storage, and a heavy gauge power line to run the power from a nearby field to their house. By 2001, they were generating from 25 to 50 percent of their household power needs. Their savings show up in the form of smaller electric bills.
Some notable changes have occurred in West Virginia since the late 1990s, when Carol Warren and her husband Todd Garland began thinking about an alternate power source for their home in a rugged, sparsely populated part of the state. Then, most people would have told you that the concept of getting credit from your electric utility for power you generate for your home or small business was improbable if not impossible. But in 2005, federal legislation required states to consider “net metering” rules that would require all utilities to allow residential and small commercial customers to offset their bills by generating wind or solar power for their own use.
Off the Grid
Save Twice
As of February 2007, West Virginians who generate their own power could see the savings reflected on their electric bills. This year, the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill giving a 30 percent tax credit, not to exceed a total of $2,000, for expenses incurred in installing residential and small commercial solar energy systems. Such encouragements were non-existent in 2000, when Warren and Garland decided to create their personal power station. “Our water pump is run by electricity, so if the power goes out for any reason, we don’t have water either,” Warren says. “We considered all the standard alternatives—a lot of people around here use propane— but we knew about different kinds of power systems and things that people could do. We decided to experiment.” Garland researched various types of small power generation systems to figure out the best type for their ridge top home. “If I had known then what I know now, I would have gone totally solar,” he says.
Photo © Thomas R. Fletcher/ www.proseandphotos.com
This backyard power station supplies solar and wind energy. “But then, we weren’t doing it just for ourselves. We were doing it as a demonstration project for us and others to learn from. We might have built a much more productive system, but we might not have learned as much.”
Creating Personal Power Both Warren and Garland are associated with the Rochester Franciscans, a Minnesota religious order that is actively engaged in Appalachian ministry. The Franciscans, who foster knowledge and growth of sustainable community practices, supported
Matt Sherald of PIMBY (Power in My Back Yard), a small energy assessment and technical support company based in Thomas, says they are among many West Virginians who have been quietly producing their own power since the 1970s. “At least 60 to 70 percent of the folks I service are entirely off the grid,” Sherald says, with no need even for net metering. “They are part of a quiet group of people who decided to take the initiative to produce their own electricity. “Sometimes making power with solar or wind is less expensive than paying the power company to bring it in. Some people would rather own the asset than pay to rent electricity each month,” Sherald says. “I think interest is way up. This year has been a good one for me. My business is steady and growing.” Jim Ellers of the West Virginia Public Service Commission said Appalachian Power, which serves the Northern Panhandle and most of southern West Virginia, has five net metering customers. Allegheny Power, serving central and eastern West Virginia, has 26 net metering customers and 15 requests pending.
Fall 2009
Innovation Zones: Imagination, Wisdom at Work By Tim McClung At the 2008 Create West Virginia conference a speaker said, “Almost everyone wants schools to be better, but almost no one wants them to be different.” But different they must be, and difference requires an “ecology of innovation.” The West Virginia School Innovation Zone Act, designed to encourage pilot projects at schools around the state, passed in June 2009. It gives the state board and the Department of Education (WVDE) the option to waive certain rules and policies to give teachers and principals greater local control over the curriculum, schedule and staffing in their schools. Giving teachers the opportunity to make changes in their schools is an important step to implementing research-backed 21st century teaching and learning, an essential component of the WVDE’s 21st century improvement plan called “Global21: Students deserve it. The world demands it.” At the 2009 Create West Virginia conference, the WVDE will discuss the application process and criteria for being designated a School Innovation Zone. Creative communities should begin to discuss with their schools how they can participate in this initiative. To learn more about this opportunity to help meet the needs of your diverse student population, bring your teachers and principals to the 2009 Create WV conference. McClung created the Education Track for the Create West Virginia Conference in 2008 and 2009. He has been an IBM systems engineer, founded and directed the University of Charleston’s Entrepreneurship Center, worked at the State Development Office, and presently focuses on science and technology enterprises for Wells Fargo Insurance in Charleston.
Fall 2009
www.createwvconference.com
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Sewer Side: Waste Not in Rural WV
“Green” builder Glenn Carlson loves Fayette County’s steep, forested ridges. After his river guiding career, he turned to home building. His philosophies regarding mountain life led him to seek ways to build homes with the tiniest footprint possible in The Ledges, his eco-sensitive community near Fayetteville. Pretty brochures never mention what happens moments after people flush, shower, or brush their teeth. For Carlson, the sewage issue loomed large. To his delight, he found Orenco Systems, an Oregon company whose tagline reads “Changing the way the world does wastewater.” Carlson’s goals were to keep his trees, preserve the dramatic landscape, and provide reliable sanitation in his rugged setting. Orenco’s high tech, compact, highly effi cient bio systems were just the trick. “Orenco systems are very cost effective when you look at them in comparison with huge multimillion-dollar public systems,” Carlson says. “Creating infrastructure, huge gravity lines, miles of underground pipes and processing plants—it’s not feasible or even desirable in rural West Virginia. With these new systems, it’s not necessary.”
Not so fast… Carlson’s system impressed Jeff Proctor at Class VI Mountain River, an outdoor vacation company that in 2005 was planning a complex of eight rental cabins in the woods near the rocky rim of the New River Gorge. “We didn’t want to kill trees to put in leach lines,” Proctor said. “The typical leach field for a septic system is as big as a soccer field. We wanted to preserve our
tling coal camp where 22 homes remain. Entrepreneur Sharon Walden, proprietor of the Ashland Company Store, is happy that the Ashland ATV Resort, a collection of prefab log cabins built on a strip mine site, made the need for sewage treatment urgent. This past spring, years of work with Canaan Valley Institute, state agencies, and non-profits culminated in the inauguration of the McDowell Wastewater Coalition’s first decentralized community system, at Ashland. After percolating through a series of mountainside filters, outflow goes into a constructed wetland, sparing beautiful, trout-laden Elkhorn Creek which has served as an open sewer for more than a hundred years. “In a place like McDowell County, you have to do alternative systems,” says Karen Robinson, treasurer of the Presbyterian non-profit that in 2003 paid to install the state’s first Orenco system for a Head Start program near Welch. “You have to innovate.”
Photo by Steve Clark
Glenn Carlson’s “green” model home in The Ledges, his Fayette County eco-sensitive community, features a high-tech bio sewage system that in pro-tech states doesn’t require traditional leach fields. woods.” In the course of installing the state’s first commercial Orenco system, Proctor experienced the perils of being a sewage system pioneer. The computer- monitored bio-sewage system worked perfectly from the day they flipped the switch, but a skeptical health department did not rush to approve it. “There was a learning curve on
everyone’s part,” Proctor says. Despite the fits and starts involved in getting the first project in operation, “it’s worked really well,” he says. “We’re installing another system to support an expansion.” Orenco and similar high tech systems have proven in many cases to out-perform complex, expensive traditional sewage systems, producing clean, safe effluent through micro-processing onsite plants that require minimal land disturbance, but West Virginia laws don’t recognize the high tech breakthroughs, and still require traditional sewage processing. Proctor understands reluctance to accept new technology. “When folks aren’t familiar with something, they don’t want to be the first to embrace it. If it doesn’t work as well as the manufacturer claims, they don’t want to be responsible for approving it. It might be simpler, cheaper and more effective, but as far as they’re concerned, it’s unproven.”
‘You have to innovate.’ Development of the Hatfield-McCoy trail system in southern West Virginia created a market reason to deal with untreated sewage in old coal mining territory. Thousands of ATV riders from around the country demand civilized services. Ashland, McDowell County, is a stop on the National Coal Heritage Trail. Scores of visitors come to the once-bus-
A Better Tomorrow
Strengthening the economy, reshaping communities, promoting progressive government and improving the quality of life for all West Virginians.
For more information visit our website:
www.visionshared.com
Photo by Rick Lee
The New River Gorge Preserve gated community in Fayette County features West Virginia’s first professionally designed and constructed network of hiking trails. Artist Troy Scott Parker, a nationally recognized authority on natural surface trail design, spent months studying the terrain to frame stunning intimate and panoramic views. Trail construction specialists hand-cut paths, created to appear part of the ancient landscape. “You’ll think you’re in Costa Rica,” one hiker said. Visitors may hike the trails free of charge. Call 304 574 1802 for permission.
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Fall 2009
LEED Standards Inspire Marshall County Community
The opening of a new school is always an exciting community event, but Marshall Countians celebrated their new Hilltop School in August with extra fanfare. The building will be among the state’s first educational facilities to be offi cially cited for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Hilltop School will apply for a LEED silver certifi cation from the US Green Building Council, which sets rigorous standards designating levels of excellence in sustainable building practices. Although it does not presently use solaror wind-generated energy, the building is designed to accommodate either or both types of power, and ranks in the nation’s top 15 percent of energy-efficient buildings. Among its technical features is a weather station and equipment that student/teacher teams can use for continually upgrading the school’s sustainability. Architect Thomas Worlledge designed the building to serve as a continuous learning environment for the whole community.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Worlledge
Hilltop School is designed for flexibility, growth, and community collaboration. Worlledge collaborated with Mark Swiger, a John Marshall High School teacher and the USGBC’s green schools advocate, to coordinate the school’s facility design with a learning program that reaches beyond school walls into the community. “The LEED Framework for 21st Century
Schools allows teachers to create curriculum by aligning local standards with the LEED rating system,” says Swiger. “The program brings teachers, various industry professionals, teachers’ unions, departments of education, architects’ associations, and other interested groups
together to deliver content that is unique to a particular school. The curriculum is not ‘canned.’ Students and teachers have an opportunity to design projects that relate to their specific place. These fresh learning opportunities excite teachers and students because they are often learning together.” The new Cameron Middle/High School in rural Marshall County, to be built in the coming year, will also incorporate cuttingedge sustainable technologies. Students there run an award-winning aquaculture and related hydroponics business. Swiger and the Cameron school staff are collaborating with Worlledge in the school’s design phase. Swiger, who is also working with the State of New Jersey’s USGBC green school’s advocate John Henry to pilot a similar program there, will participate in the panel, “Schools as Community Epicenter,” at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, October 20, at the Create West Virginia Conference in Huntington.
Keeping it Rural: Roane County Goes to Market If you’re from Arnoldsburg, Clendenin, Elizabeth, or Glenville, the City of Spencer has a deal for you. Hear about sales, shopping at the antique mall, and the Black Walnut Festival on a radio station out of Parkersburg. Clip an ad from the Traders Guide, or go online, to cityofspencer.com where you can sign up for the e-newsletter. Become a friend on Facebook. “You can plant trees and build sidewalks and face-lift buildings,” Spencer Mayor Terry Williams says, “you can do all that, but at some point, you have to market.”
Doing It Right
Photo by Jacob Fetty
Spencer’s Robey Theater is the state’s oldest operating movie house.
The mayor scooped up 30-year-old Jacob Fetty, recently returned from Athens, Georgia, and named him the town’s first-ever marketing director. “Most cities and towns are cutting positions, not adding them,” the mayor says. “After I’d talked about bringing on a marketing director for a couple of years, I started hearing it back from other people. Finally I said, if we’re going to do it, we need to do it right.” Fetty talked about the coalition of businesses that have come together to help fund and launch the city’s marketing cam-
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Phone: (304) 732-6707 Fax: (304) 732-6963 Website: www.wyomingcounty.com Email: christylaxton@wyomingcounty.com Executive Director: Christy Laxton Loans & Operations: Laura Lambert • Accounting & Finance: Leisa Breeding Our purpose is to promote, develop and advance the business prosperity and economic welfare of Wyoming County businesses and citizens. Call or Email for more information.
paign. The quaint old town looks cheerful, spruced up and ready for company. “We’re not pushing anybody too fast,” Fetty says, “We know what we have here, and we’re gauging the market to fit what we’ve got to sell. What I’m trying to do is raise peoples’ thresholds. I think if we start close to home and get everybody comfortable with what we’re doing, we can build on that.” Fetty has taken cues from Wal-Mart, which he says is Spencer’s ally. “Most people don’t believe it, but it’s true,” he says. “They’ve actually helped us. Because it’s adjacent to downtown, and because there are no Interstates nearby, no beltways or four-lanes, Wal-Mart brings people to us from several neighboring counties. They have about 30,000 checkouts a week. “People come from places like Clendenin to this Wal-Mart because they don’t like driving to Charleston. While they’re here they go to our restaurants. We have specialty stores they like. There’s a jeweler here in town whose family has been in business since after World War II. You don’t see that much anymore, a place where you can get a watch repaired by somebody you know.”
Entrepreneurial Mayor Mayor Williams operates as one of the city’s most active entrepreneurs. He bought the old Murphy building, formed a commit-
tee to put an antique mall in it, and initiated an inventory of other empty buildings and problematic rental properties. He recently purchased another large downtown building, and is considering ideas for development. “One of the biggest problems towns everywhere face is empty and derelict buildings,” he says. “I’ve talked to our banks about it. We need to make sure there are attractive loan packages so people can afford to take these buildings, repair and restore them.” Williams helped blacksmith Jeff Fetty, Jacob’s father, reclaim a junk-strewn parcel of land above the town, and now offers it to art and craft entrepreneurs as Chestnut Ridge Artist Colony. Its anchors are Fetty, Phil Holcomb, a luthier and fine woodcrafter, and his wife, Teresa, who creates and markets jewelry as Sierra Designs. All are full time artists who travel, make contacts all over the world, and like coming home to Spencer. Townsfolk might not have warmed to the art colony idea if they hadn’t seen Fetty’s 10-foot daffodils in prominent places around Charleston, and if they hadn’t seen that the Holcombs live well, even if their livelihood seems unconventional by local standards. “We do things a little differently here,” the mayor says. “We dig a little deeper, run a little faster, work a little harder.”
Fall 2009
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Talking Trash: Toyota Walks the Walk Zero waste. They said it couldn’t be done, and some keep saying it, but they have to ignore the reality at any Toyota plant. Putnam County’s Toyota engine transmission manufacturing plant, like all other North American Toyota facilities including headquarters, doesn’t trash so much as a gum wrapper. Brothers and sisters in the manufacturing business regard the auto giant with awe, and sometimes maybe just a little irritation. Toyota does what others insist is impossible, or at least not cost effective. Kevin Butt, general manager and chief environmental and safety officer at Toyota’s Erlanger, Kentucky headquarters, respectfully disagrees. Not only does the company achieve its zero waste goal, it profits from the program.
Net Gain “In some cases we spend money, and in
some cases we earn by sale of some of our recyclable material such as metals. We’ve made anywhere from a million to almost two million dollars in North American operations by achieving zero landfill. Some plants spend more than they make, based on regional demand for the type of waste they generate. It’s a volatile market, but overall, Butt says, “there’s a net gain.” Toyota’s policy evolved from a 1969 environmental initiative. “Our guiding principles have always led us in the direction of improving environmental performance,” Butt says. “As we considered our use of energy, water, and raw materials, evolution to the present policy was inevitable.
Targeting Waste “We began looking at the amount of material we were recycling. Getting paid for it was fine, but we were paying to have some
of it hauled away, so we set an internal target to reduce that waste. That forced us to closely review the design of process equipment and the use of particular raw materials that may have Toyota’s recyclable been more difficult to sell engine dust cap. or even give away. Over all, it’s made us a more efficient company.” Butt says it has become corporate culture. “You have to embrace the desire to— I hesitate to use the phrase “green up,” it’s become such a cliché—but it’s a company mindset to look at details, to aspire to optimum awareness. When your environmental performance is at its peak and you’re operating without any injuries, you know you’ve achieved optimal efficiencies. And that equates to profitability.”
Green Pros Organize
The organizer of BuildGreenWV, the state’s chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), is determined that West Virginia will get its share of emerging opportunities in the design-construction sector of the new economy. Sarah Halstead Boland worked as a consultant in California’s community college Economic and Workforce Development Program for seven years, three of them from a remote offi ce in Charleston. She cites a recent McKinsey & Company study that says the overall green building market is likely to more than double to as much as $140 billion by 2013. “The green construction market was two percent of non-residential construction in 2005,” Halstead Boland says. “By 2008, it climbed to between 10 and 12 percent, and McKinsey forecasts it will reach 20 to 25 percent by 2013. We have an opportunity to provide entrepreneurial support and excellent workforce training for West Virginians who choose to move forward in this arena. With this kind of money and job potential on the horizon, we can’t afford to wait until everybody else proves it’s real.”
Broad and Strong
Halstead Boland says the process of founding the USGBC chapter has brought many LEED projects to the group’s awareness, and has revealed surprisingly broad and strong interest in efficient building practices among the state’s construction professionals. “We have 61 LEED-accredited professionals in West Virginia and more in the pipeline,” she says. “Design and construction professionals here have been quietly aligning with the organization that is setting global standards.” LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Halstead Boland has also been named executive director of the newly formed West Virginia GreenWorks, which will serve as a statewide information clearing house for the broad spectrum of green activity.
Collaboration is Key
“GreenWorks is positioned to provide training in emerging energy, building, conservation, and pollution prevention sectors,” she explains. “We will also support training planned by other organizations. With so many stimulus dollars out there, everybody is talking about training, but few have professional workforce training backgrounds and even fewer have curriculum development and instructional design expertise. Training must serve industry needs. “There’s a lot going on in this arena, and it’s important to communicate with each other, to map our skill sets, and pull together a strategic plan to move the state forward. The key to success is collaboration.” For more information on BuildGreenWV, contact Halstead Boland at Katalyst Development Strategies, 304 343-2880, www.buildgreenwv.org
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Fall 2009
Help Yourself to Broadband By Jeanne Mozier Almost a year to the day from when the Morgan County business community determined to make 21st century telecommunications available to 85% of our residents, we achieved the broadband goal. We’re on our way to becoming a creative economy hotbed, impossible without significant cell, broadband, and emergency communications connectivity. Using the Internet to survey residents, documenting current capabilities and engaging in extensive dialogue with telecommunications carriers, the Morgan County Economic Development Authority Telecommunications Taskforce persuaded Verizon to substantially expand coverage. On June 11, 2008, more than 50 Morgan County business people met in a first economic summit. Top priority was improving telecommunication infrastructure. No other goal even came close. Telecommunications veteran Jerry Berman volunteered to manage the project. His essential skills: unparalleled knowledge of telecommunications policy, and experience in dealing with service providers on Internet issues. We hired Ken Dabkowski to work with Berman. They built a website, documented and mapped where service existed and where it was wanted, and examined the county’s technology requirements. More than 10% of the county’s population completed surveys printed in the newspaper, available in hard copy at key locations, and posted online.
Print media and email blasts promoted it. Most response came online proving that even in a rural county people will go online to collect information. Involving the schools was crucial. Students “get it” and are a technology-savvy future workforce. The data impressed providers and led to broadband deployment to more than 85% of county residents. The report also sets out next steps for achieving cell and 911 improvements. You must understand that telecommunications service providers act in their own economic interest. Demand must be demonstrated to motivate capital investment. Our survey proved and located demand. Providers, comparing our EDA report with their data, learned enough to justify a business case for expanding service. Verizon and Sprint both publicly acknowledged the importance of the county taking the initiative to study its needs and were impressed by the survey response which indicated pent-up demand. We offer our survey and website as a model for any county or community that wants to accomplish similar goals. With better communications infrastructure, Morgan County can attract businesses that will provide job opportunities for a new generation. Our future depends on it. For more information, see www.morgancountywv.gov/eda and www.wiremorgan. com. Mozier is an award-winning author, chair of Morgan County EDA’s creative economy task force, and winner of the fi rst Creative Cone award at the 2008 Create WV conference.
Photo by George Brown
New Kids on the Block
Kids in Rand, West Virginia relate to kids in Harlem, New York City via Skype as part of The Block: An Urban to Rural Connection. The Block, developed in partnership with Create WV and The LeRoy Neiman Arts Center in Harlem, is designed to broaden the scopes of city and rural young people through Internet, video, photography and art creation, poetry and dialogue. Participants also created community service projects designed to remove or reduce obstacles that threatened to impede their dreams. Create West Virginia’s Crystal Good, organizer of the Create WV conference diversity tracks in 2008 and 2009, says the Block project altered the perception of West Virginia as an “all white” state among the New York participants, and made New York City real and accessible for the Rand participants. Pictured clockwise from left are Helen Edict, Christian Smith, Yasmeen Stubblefield, Delores Burton, Sheree Clayborn, Good, Leigha Smith, and Lyneshia Weldon. Edict and Burton are supervisors at the Rand Family Cares Association, where the Rand students are involved in after-school and summer programs. The Block project takes its name from a collage/painting by artist Romere Beardon depicting people from his childhood who helped inspire his career.
Fall 2009
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Conference Agenda C O N F E R E N C E
Sunday, October 18, 2009 NOON
Conference Registration - Noon to 7:00 pm - Big Sandy Arena
1:00PM
Pre-Conference Workshops – Big Sandy Arena Social Media Training Business Plans That Attract Investment Unlocking Creativity Good Jobs, Green Jobs
Special Sunday Options Available
2:00PM
Reception - Huntington Museum of Art - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
2:00PM
Generation West Virginia - 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm Legislative Priorities Discussion
4:00PM
Welcome Reception – Big Sandy Arena
Social Media Training – Learn the basics of using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media and communication tools to build and connect your community. Business Plans that Attract Investment – Whether you’re an entrepreneur or a community-builder, developing a powerful business plan that attracts investment is critical to success. Unlocking Creativity – Anyone and everyone can (and should!) be creative. Learn the secrets of unlocking new ways of thinking that can improve your community, company, school or non-profit.
Tamarack and West Virginia Department of Agriculture
4:30PM
Special Music Reception - Frederick Hotel
7:00PM
Mountain Stage Concert - Keith Albee Theater
Good Jobs, Green Jobs - What are “green jobs,” and how can they help shape a vibrant future for West Virginia? Join us for a stimulating afternoon of ideas and discussion about finding green solutions to our economic woes. Discussions will focus on innovative policies and practices and on specific steps that we can take to advance green jobs in the Mountain State.
(Conference attendees gain entrance via their registration)
Monday, October 19, 2009 7:00AM
Continental Breakfast
8:30AM
Welcome and State of the Creative State
9:00AM
Keynote Speaker - Kevin Stolarick, University of Toronto - Creative Economy Impact on the ‘Best Places’ Tracks
Education
Business
Place
Diversity
Technology
10:15AM
Creating The Capacity for Change in WV
Virtually Connected
When Thinking Small Wins Big
Elitist or Opportunity for All?
Hurdles & Solutions in Tech Based Economic Development Steps to Engaging Citizens
11:30AM
Creating Great High Schools
Beyond Borders
What’s a Building Worth?
Lessons From the Diversity Leadership Academy
Breaking Down Collaboration Barriers
12:30PM
Resources
Projects (Re)Building a Sense of Community
Sustainability: What’s Love Got to do with It?
Lunch and Keynote Session - David Wiley, Brigham Young University - Open Source Education Tracks
Education
2:15PM
Creating Personalized Learning That Works-Part 1
3:30PM
Creating Personalized Learning That Works-Part 2
Business
Place
Diversity
Technology
Resources
Projects
Creative Destructive
Hey Honey, You Need to Know This about Service
Race and Sexual Orientation in West Virginia
How to Develop Your Idea
Partnering With Your Local Government - What you should or should not expect
Town and Gown: A Path to Success
Innovation Gone Green
Law & Order: Establishing a Creative Mindset
Developing Cultural Opportunities
WV Technology Showcase
4:30PM
Break – Free Time – Networking
5:30PM
Choice of Events and Dinner Venues Around Downtown Huntington
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7:00AM
Continental Breakfast
8:30AM
Updates and Announcements
8:45AM
Keynote - Anya Kamenetz, Fast Company Magazine - MicroGrid Energy and New Economy Innovation Tracks
Education
Business
Place
Diversity
Technology
Resources
Projects
Creating Opportunities for Young Adults in West Virginia
The Tech Empowered Government
Realizing a Creative Community
The Elephants in the Room: Dealing with a Community’s Big Problems
Overcoming the Barriers to Diversity in West Virginia
The Evolution of Energy
Developing Leadership Skills for the New Economy
10:00AM
Creating Personalized Learning That Works-Part 3
Art Deco
Creating a “Best Place to Live, Work and Play”
11:15AM
Creating An Ecology of Innovation
WHY, West Virginia Story Tellers
Schools as Community Epicenter
12:15PM
Lunch, Final Keynote and Awards - Marcus Jadotte, Managing Director, Public Affairs and Diversity, NASCAR
Register Now! Sponsors
www.createwv.com/2009conference 304.346.2230
Mountain State Blue Cross Blue Shield WVHTC Foundation Cabell County Commission Entrepreneurship Alliance West Virginia State University Extension Triad Engineering Mine Safety Technology Consortium Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC
Unlimited Future, Inc. CISCO Systems Generation West Virginia Good News Mountaineer Garage Natural Resource Partners WV Lottery WV Department of Commerce
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Fall 2009
Life. Experience. Artist.
An accomplished painter and artist, Mary brings a blank canvas to life, conveying a message with color and brush strokes. She also applies her creativity as a litigator, where she uses ingenuity and open mindedness to help businesses evaluate and follow the best course of action. meet Attorney Mary Sanders Litigator, Charleston
ASHLAND 606.329.8771
CHARLESTON 304.344.9869
HUNTINGTON 304.529.6181
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www.HUDDLESTONBOLEN.com Marc E. Williams, Responsible Attorney