Area Innovation Centers helping create jobs
An initiative promoted by Morehead State University’s two Innovation Centers has more people talking about job creation around information technology (IT) businesses in Eastern Kentucky.
The concept advanced by Johnathan Gay, MSU’s West Liberty Area Innovation Center director and further promoted and supported by the Innovation and Commercialization Center partner Eastern Kentucky University is to leverage economic development entities, local businesses and postsecondary institutions to create an IT cluster within the region.
Gay said he thought of the idea after seeing it in action on a limited scale in Breathitt County.
“Believe it or not, Breathitt County is a booming mini-IT hub,” said Gay. Jackson, the county seat, is home to more than half a dozen small IT companies.
In the center of them all sits Mike Bryant, an MSU College of Business alum and the owner of Dogwood Technologies.
“Mike Bryant was rural sourcing before rural sourcing was cool,” said Gay.
Bryant, who cut his teeth in the “dot-com” boom years in Atlanta working for big name companies like AutoTrader.com, decided in 2005 that it was time to come home and raise his family.
“We’d lived in Atlanta for nine years and had just had our first child. We felt our kids should grow up in a small town the way we did and we wanted them to be near their grandparents and the extended family… plus we wanted free babysitting,” joked Bryant.
At first, finding a sitter proved easier than finding a job. “Not many companies were looking for programmers in Eastern Kentucky, and especially not at the hourly charges I’d grown accustomed to” said Bryant.
Then Bryant had a revelation “just because you’re in Eastern Kentucky doesn’t mean your market is limited exclusively to Eastern Kentucky,” he said.
By hanging out a ‘virtual shingle’ he soon had clients calling from as far away as New York. “Once, I even did work for an Indian firm. I guess that’s called in-sourcing,” laughed Bryant, whose skills combined with his relatively low cost were what helped his clients. “I can live well in Jackson on much less money than I’d need in Cincinnati or even Lexington,” said Bryant. “I use that to my advantage when pricing.”
After a few years work as an IT developer in the region he began getting more work than he could handle himself. He shifted some of that overflow work to contractors. In time, he began to find other local opportunities, such as selling software he had developed to a local Internet service provider, and writing code for another Breathitt County entrepreneur who had invented the next generation kiosk.
Gay believes additional clusters, like the one Bryant has created in Jackson, are possible throughout the region, “we’ve talked about the possibility of partnering with an already established organization with the critical mass, infrastructure and resources to bring these creative individuals together so they in turn can take on bigger projects, create new jobs and wealth. The result could be more job opportunities for the skilled IT workers turned out by the colleges and universities in the area.”
To date, the cluster of area IT professionals has held two meetings, one this past spring at the annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference and the other at the Center for Rural Development in Somerset. The group plans other forums around the region in the coming months. “This is very exciting. By using our competitive advantages like low cost of living, love of communities, and strong higher education communities, we can create a mini-SiliconValley in Appalachia-say Silicon Hollow,” Gay added.
Additional information about future forums is available by calling Gay at (606) 743-4005.
Posted: 11-11-09
