From The President / CEO Steve Paterson
Tech Corridor? We see it all around us everyday, new roads, new homes and buildings. We read and hear about a renewed space program, a spaceport under development, a medical village unfolding providing the most advanced medical care and training along with new companies and entrepreneurs putting down roots all in our region. Unprecedented growth, bringing a bright future and prosperity to our bay area region.
Since the 1960’ s, some of America’ s best and brightest people have come to our area. They have put down roots and become part of our communities starting with the Johnson Space Center. Out of this settlement has grown one of the best school systems in the United States, a four-year University and several vibrant Community Colleges training the best and the brightest in the Houston market. This education system has been one of the main factors that talented individuals have been able to be recruited to come to work here in our vibrant and diverse communities. Over the years this has been developed into an incubator of a intellectual brain trust producing a talented and skilled workforce.
In the 1960’ s, in another bay area in Northern California, they had similar development. They benefited greatly in their education systems, aerospace industry, medical research and development following World War 2. These post war years of technological development and conditions fueled by the GI Bill provided for an endless number of graduate engineers in all fields of engineering. As it happened in California, we see a similar mixture of conditions today occurring in our bay area, here on the Southeastern Texas Gulf Coast. The result in California was what we now refer to as Silicone Valley. Could it be repeated in our region? Far fetched? Maybe not.
We are blessed with an educated, innovative and inventive population, who today are involved in cutting edge technological developments in the area. From ventures involving outer space and inner space development it is occurring as we speak. At UTMB today incubators are developing cutting edge medical devices, treatments, vaccines, which will change the face of medical treatment and practice in the coming generation. The challenge of exploring Mars and our solar system is being solved today by NASA and the emerging commercial space industry companies. If business leaders, investors and industry can tap into this brain trust of talent and provide an infrastructure for those who are seeking assistance to develop their ideas into new technologies, we can only imagine. As it was the case in the San Francisco Bay area by those who saw this potential then, we could see the development of an I-45 tech corridor from southern Harris County to one day encompassing all of Galveston County.
Like and award winning cake recipe, all the ingredients are here to bake the perfect cake. It only takes the right pastry chefs to bring it all together. If all our communities in the Bay Area of Houston were to come together in a common cause to achieve this tech corridor, it could easily become a reality. In pockets of Houston it is already taking a loose collaborative cohesion. It is being nurtured with the help of the different Houston Technology Centers campuses and the incubators being formed around the Health Center District and at UTMB in Galveston. We have the land, location and transportation corridors, schools and quality of life to make this a reality. The only missing ingredient and the most critical part of baking our award winning cake are the master chef’ s having a laser focus and common vision.
Steve Paterson