Program Directory

 
NW Ohio Journal - A New Approach to Economic Development February 3, 2006
The Journal
 
 
 
While traditional economic development plans focus on attracting new business to an area, a new "cluster" approach that concentrates on growing existing businesses is gaining attention. This approach will be featured on WBGU-PBS' weekly public affairs program The Journal Thursday, February 9th at 9 p.m.

Host Mike Carroll, Director of Bowling Green State University's Center for Regional Development will be joined in the studio by Tom Wardell of Wardell's Farm Market in Waterville and John Snyder from Thread, a Toledo marketing firm.

The discussion will cover the broader concept of using clusters to promote economic development and the specific efforts over the past three years to develop and "brand" a greenhouse cluster in Northwest Ohio. Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field. NW Ohio's greenhouse cluster project focuses on the greenhouse industry in a five-county area of northwest Ohio as a way to encourage economic development in the region. The success of the cluster approach is also being applied to the automotive, plastics and glass industries, according to Carroll.

February 3, 2006