Southern Wisconsin And Northern Illinois Collaborating To Grow And Support Aviation Businesses

By Maxine Scheer

There was a great deal of buzz and many new faces with the opening of the EAA Innovations Pavilion at AirVenture 2013.  ANN talked with Mark Podemski, Vice President for Development at the Rockford Area Economic Development Council (EDC) to find out why they attended the opening and have an exhibit on the AirVenture site.

The Rockford EDC is a public private partnership, and about four years ago began a major focus on the aerospace companies in the Rockford Illinois area, approximately 2.5 hours (drive) south of Oshkosh.

Mark introduced the EDC's interest with a very candid opening, "We woke up one day and realized the industry that surrounded us; the Chicago Rockford International Airport and one of the largest Aerospace Clusters in the country." Over the last four years, the Rockford EDC has made a great deal of progress in doing what good economic development agencies do well, creating collaborations, helping grow local jobs.  An initiative established at Rockford EDC through a federal innovation grant program established the Rockford Area Aerospace Network (RAAN).  The RAAN reaches out to companies and gets them into places they wouldn't otherwise go, e.g. aviation trade shows in Paris and Farnborough, where they could make new contacts and create an international client base. He provided the example of a small company that repairs aircraft interiors, and was able to access new clients by participating with Rockford EDC at the Paris Air Show.

When asked specifically about the connection with AirVenture and general aviation, he mentioned the effort of Meridith Yeager from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and Director of AeroInnovate. She reached out to Rockford EDC to consider a regional collaboration drawing together the aviation and aerospace-related businesses in and around Oshkosh and other areas in Southern Wisconsin. Apparently, officials from the state of Wisconsin and Illinois agreed it was a good idea and encouraged joint-state collaboration and participation at AirVenture.

"Our goal as an economic development agency is to create awareness amongst existing and future businesses of the benefits to working as a cluster to make it easier to find partners and create a more efficient supply chain," said Podemski.

One of the programs they are most excited about is a business education partnership and the creation of a pipeline for engineers and technicians in a program called the Joint Institute of Engineering and Technology (JiET-A).

"Clearly, employers told us we need good employees," said Mark.  "We had pieces of the education programs and got the education community talking about the unique aerospace workforce needs and to come up with solutions." Employers offer internships and a particular focus now is helping small businesses, 50 people or less, to create internship programs.  "When kids see local employment opportunities and the attractive wages, it draws students into the program."   Rockford EDC is also working with Embry-Riddle, who is offering a dual credit enrollment program, starting at the high school level.

While the Boeing Dreamliner made its North American debut at AirVenture 2011, Mark asserts that the first flight of 787 was in Rockford, as the entire system was simulated in a Rockford facility.  I'm not sure if that meets the standard of an experimental aircraft test flight, but as a bi-state cluster, there are hundreds of firms and the communities they represent them, that can benefit from by collaborating and tapping into the spirit of innovation at AirVenture. 

FMI: www.rockfordil.com, www.aeroinnovate.org