Iowa does it Again in Wind

February 26th, 2009 at 11:35am Bob Trojan

I attended the Wind Energy Seminar this morning which I found very valuable in understanding the industry and what it takes to be a supplier to this growing industry.  I’ll have more later.

The session was well attended by maybe 70-80 participants including 2 men from Sweden who I don’t know.

As the presenters talked through the various issues, first I heard that Ohio funded an exploratory group to determine what was necessary to utilize their people in this industry.

Then I heard that the state of Iowa assisted the closed Maytag facility to help them enter the Wind market.  Well, I couldn’t contain myself and when I mentioned the story about IBM and Iowa (see here… IBM ) one of the Swedish men said that his company too, tried to get the state of Illinois to assist and all he got was a big zero.

Now I realize that both of these comments are a bit short on details, but the trend seems to me to be clear…if we as a region are going to prosper in the manufacturing field and take advantage of opportunities, we are simply going to need more involvement of the State of Illinois and funding capabilities.

We can’t keep losing opportunities because we are unable or unwilling to “join the party”.

We need to make the appropriate connections to see that we get any and all funding that is available.

Oh, by the way, Richard Hrynkow, Workforce Connection, explained how he got involved with this Wind Project.  In his job there, he sees skilled workers OUT OF WORK that meet the skill requirement for this industry.

So much for Rockford not having the skills….

Entry Filed under: People, Economy