Industries that Love Winston-Salem, and Why: Part 2
Advanced Manufacturing is building in W-S.
In economic development, individual regions tend to focus their efforts on specific industries. In this series of posts, we’ll examine why several individual industries have focused their expansion efforts, ultimately, in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County.
Advanced Manufacturing
Is it fair to say that manufacturing in the U.S. is making a huge comeback? Perhaps, especially when you look at the kinds of manufacturing facilities that are developing. The key word in all of this is “advanced.” And Winston-Salem, Forsyth County is drawing more attention lately from companies in this sector. What makes this area appealing to the Caterpillar’s of the world? Here are three ideas.
Access to Markets
Location almost always comes first. In advanced manufacturing, this is particularly important. The Southeast U.S. is experiencing a bit of a manufacturing Renaissance as companies realize the value of expanding in this region. Standing out within the Southeast can present a bit of a challenge. But here’s where Winston-Salem, Forsyth County scores high marks. It’s more than location. It’s the relatively easy access to other markets that puts the city on so many short lists. With excellent options for transportation and shipping, including a FedEx hub close by, much of the world’s markets are within reach. In fact, more than half the U.S. population lives within 600 miles of Winston-Salem.
Workforce Quality
Like much of the South, manufacturing runs deep in the area. The difference for many is the level of quality associated with our manufacturing tradition. Textiles and furniture industries may not be the staples they once were, but the skilled workforce that characterized those industries remains. Companies that choose Winston-Salem develop a quick appreciation for the dedication to craftsmanship that permeates the workforce.
Less Haste. More Speed.
Frenetic could never describe life in Winston-Salem. The easy-going nature of people here is disarming, to be sure, but make no mistake: business here moves with purpose and pace. As manufacturing processes continue to become more innovative and technical, company leaders continue to marvel at how quickly their operations can get up to speed in Winston-Salem. One executive visiting Forsyth Technical Community College (FTCC) was shocked (and delighted) to find that the framework for training their workers was mapped out before he had finished his campus tour.
Other qualities come into play, of course, for individual companies. But when you combine workforce quality with easy access to major markets, then get operations up and running to a high standard on time or ahead of schedule — you end up with a formula for attracting the attention of advanced manufacturing companies around the world.
What other industries are looking our way? We’ll continue in Part 3.
Caterpillar Opens In Forsyth County
On November 16, the new $426 million Caterpillar advanced manufacturing facility opened in Forsyth County, North Carolina.
WFMY News2
We’ve collected some of the news stories of the grand opening event in the links below:
- Winston-Salem Journal article.
- Digtriad/ WFMY News 2
- WXII 12
- The Triad Business Journal article
- News 14 Carolina
Enjoy!
WSBI introduces free WS Business mobile app
Winston-Salem Business Inc. is pleased to announce the introduction of our new WS Business mobile app.
Developed specifically for WSBI, the WS Business mobile app serves as your gateway to important economic development news and events in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County, NC. The WSBI mobile App allows users to:
- Get updates on economic development news and events in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
- View available buildings and sites for your business along with maps and an overview of each site
- Get an inside look at Life in Winston-Salem and Forsyth County
- Stay connected with WSBI via Twitter and other social media platforms
Developed by Winston-Salem technology firm MobileClik, the WS Business App is available for download at the Apple AppStore.
For more information, please click here.
November 10, 2011 at 11:04 am Bob Leak, CEcD Leave a comment
Industries that Love Winston-Salem, and Why: Part 1
Life Science and Biotech thrive in W-S. Here’s why
In economic development, individual regions tend to focus their efforts on specific industries. In this series of posts, we’ll examine why several individual industries have focused their expansion efforts, ultimately, in Winston-Salem, Forsyth County.
Life Sciences and Biotechnology
With the steady growth of life sciences and biotechnology-related businesses, one might assume that any community has a legitimate shot at being the location of choice for one of these forward-thinking companies. In reality, there are key elements that tend to make certain locations stand out over others.
In the case of Winston-Salem, some of those elements revolve around where and how innovation tends to happen. For instance…
Academic chops
It’s fun when the hometown college has a great football team. But real academic quality tends to be the main attraction for big brains, big ideas and big business. More importantly, quality of academics has to extend beyond ivy-covered walls to state institutions and community colleges. And it’s not something that happens over night. For generations Winston-Salem has nurtured its universities and colleges as they have grown into regionally, nationally and in some cases globally recognized academic and research institutions.
Dedicated environment
Any community can throw the words “research park” in front of an office park and claim they have the perfect place for science or tech-related businesses. In truth, the research parks that succeed are developed with purpose in mind. Particularly for life science and biotech, parks must be designed and created with innovation and collaboration in mind. Piedmont Triad Research Park in downtown Winston-Salem is an urban campus based on those exact objectives with a hearty technology backbone and community-wide support.
Innovation street cred
Businesses and institutions want to be where innovation tends to happen, perhaps because they see it as a sign that an area is conducive to creativity and collaboration. Successful breakthroughs in regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, along with innovative programs in biotechnology have earned Winston-Salem a well-deserved reputation for a culture of creativity.
Naturally, other attributes play significant roles in the decision to start-up, expand or relocated here. But it is the community’s understanding of and commitment to creativity and innovation that companies love.
What factors make other industries’ hearts beat faster? We’ll dive into another industry in Part 2.
So good to be so low
Low cost of living leads to high ranking for Winston-Salem
A recent blurb in the Winston-Salem Journal reported that our fair city ranks as one of the least expensive places to live in the world.
The Cost of Living Survey for 2011, conducted by Mercer LLC, ranked Winston-Salem 18th out of 214 cities after comparing cost related to things such as housing, food, clothing, transportation and entertainment. Winston-Salem made the list in 2010 at number 17 as well.
This underlines one of the factors that makes Winston-Salem, Forsyth County such an appealing place for businesses interested in expanding or relocating. What makes this ranking all the more significant is when you realize how much you can get for your money here. Winston-Salem manages to be remarkably affordable while still offering an exceptional quality of life.
Although cost of living is only one of several data points to consider when deciding on where to grow a business, the area’s combination of positive attributes (i.e. infrastructure, relatively easy access to major markets and available workforce) is what makes Winston-Salem a ideal choice.
To learn more about the survey, visit the Mercer website (a copy of the report is available for purchase).
September 16, 2011 at 1:50 am Bob Leak, CEcD Leave a comment
UNCSA Chancellor to Conduct National Symphony At Kennedy Center
UNCSA CHANCELLOR JOHN MAUCERI TO CONDUCT
THE NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AT THE KENNEDY CENTER
Event on Sept. 8 To Commemorate 10th Anniversary of Sept. 11
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WINSTON-SALEM – Chancellor John Mauceri of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) will conduct the National Symphony Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during a private concert to commemorate, in words and music, the 10th anniversary of the tragedies that took place on Sept. 11, 2001. The concert is co-presented with The New Republic.
More than 2,000 people are expected to attend “9/11: 10 Years Later: An Evening of Remembrance and Reflection,” which begins at 7:30 pm on Thursday, Sept. 8. The by-invitation-only audience at the Kennedy Center will include members of the 9/11 community and other special guests.
Christiane Amanpour, moderator of ABC News’ This Week, will host the event. At press time, confirmed featured performers and soloists include Tony Award-nominated actor Raúl Esparza, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, folk and country singer Emmylou Harris, and Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. Commemorative remarks and readings will be delivered by speakers including former secretaries of state Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice and Madeleine Albright.
A world-renowned conductor, Maestro Mauceri will lead the National Symphony Orchestra as it performs the National Anthem, Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” Stephen C. Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More,” “A City Called Heaven,” and more.
Mauceri conducted the first public concerts in Los Angeles after Sept. 11, 2001. His three commemorative concerts at the Hollywood Bowl included the world premiere of a work by Jerry Goldsmith (“September 11, 2001″), composed for those concerts, which brought 54,000 people to the amphitheater. One year later, Mauceri led the first anniversary concert in New York City at the invitation of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in which orchestras in each of the city’s five boroughs performed in the city parks. Mauceri conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic that night, Sept. 11, 2002.
Both Maestro Mauceri and the School of the Arts have extensive connections with both Washington and the Kennedy Center. Mauceri served as Music Director of the Washington Opera, Music Director of Orchestras at the Kennedy Center, and Consultant for Music Theater at the Kennedy Center for more than a decade. Among the many UNCSA alumni who live and work in Washington are UNCSA School of Music alumnus Robert Oppelt, principal double bass for the National Symphony, and UNCSA Board of Trustees member Dan DeVany, vice president and FM general manager WETA, Washington.
John Mauceri is the Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) and the Founding Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. His distinguished and extraordinary career has taken him not only to over 25 of the world’s greatest opera companies and more than 50 symphony orchestras, but also the musical stages of Broadway and Hollywood, as well as the most prestigious halls of academia.
Maestro Mauceri has served as music director of four opera companies: Washington (National), Scottish (Glasgow), the Teatro Regio (Turin, Italy), and Pittsburgh. He is the first American to have held the post of music director of an opera house in either Great Britain or Italy. He was the first music director of the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall after its founding director, Leopold Stokowski, with whom he studied. He was Consultant for Music Theater at Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for more than a decade, and, for 15 years, he served on the faculty of Yale University. For 18 years, Mauceri worked closely with Leonard Bernstein and conducted many of the composer’s premieres at Bernstein’s request.
On Broadway, he was co-producer of On Your Toes, and served as musical supervisor for Hal Prince’s production of Candide as well as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Song and Dance. He also conducted the orchestra for the film version of Evita. Among his many awards and honors are a Tony, Grammy, Billboard, Olivier, and two Emmys. Last year, his recording of Erich Korngold’s Between Two Worlds was selected by Gramophone magazine as one of the 250 Greatest Recordings of All Time. In April, Gramophone named two of his recordings with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra among the “10 great studio re-creations” of classic movie soundtracks.
Chancellor Mauceri holds the lifetime title of Founding Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, which was created for him in 1991 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and with whom he led over 300 concerts to a total audience of over 4 million people. He has written for and appeared on radio and television and has delivered keynote speeches and papers for major artistic and educational institutions, such as Harvard University, the American Academy in Berlin, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Musicological Society, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He recently published articles for Cambridge University Press and Gramophone magazine.
Mauceri has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many genres of music and has supervised/conducted important premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Hindemith, Bernstein, Ives, Elfman, and Shore. He is a leading performer of music banned by the Third Reich and especially music of Hollywood’s émigré composers, and can be seen and heard on many recent DVD releases of classic films.
Recent performances include an October 2010 debut in Spain at the Bilbao Opera as musical director of Susannah, with composer Carlisle Floyd present; and a November 2010 debut in Denmark with The Danish National Orchestra, conducting “Emigrés and Protégés – The Hollywood Diaspora.” He has just completed a critically acclaimed run as musical director and artistic supervisor of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!, an all-UNCSA production and restoration of the original 1943 Broadway production which has been videotaped for broadcast on UNC-TV on Oct. 12.
One of the world’s preeminent experts on film music, Chancellor Mauceri appeared on June 29 at an event celebrating the life of film composer Bernard Herrmann, at WQXR in New York City, which can be heard online at WNYC’s The Greene Space. In addition, a studio recording of George and Ira Gershwin’s 1930 hit Broadway musical, Strike Up the Band, conducted by John Mauceri, has just been released (June 21) by PS Classics. Maestro Mauceri recently made his debut at the Aspen Music Festival conducting his edition of Dmitri Shostakovich’s score to Hamlet, adapted from the 1964 Soviet film score for six actors and symphony orchestra.
In August 2011, Chancellor Mauceri returned to the Hollywood Bowl, where he led the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Walt Disney’s Fantasia. He returns to Los Angeles in October to conduct a benefit performance for the Motion Picture & Television Fund. The annual event, “A Fine Romance,” features a breathtaking array of singers from film and stage musicals performing the songs that have tied New York and Hollywood together for decades. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Hugh Jackman will host.
And in January 2012, Maestro Mauceri travels to Denmark for a live, televised performance with the Royal Danish National Orchestra, honoring Queen Margrethe on her 40th anniversary as monarch.
The University of North Carolina School of the Arts is the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. Established as the North Carolina School of the Arts by the N.C. General Assembly in 1963, UNCSA opened in Winston-Salem (“The City of Arts and Innovation”) in 1965 and became part of the University of North Carolina system in 1972. More than 1,100 students from high school through graduate school train for careers in the arts in five professional schools: Dance, Design and Production (including a Visual Arts Program), Drama, Filmmaking, and Music. UNCSA is the state’s only public arts conservatory, dedicated entirely to the professional training of talented students in the performing, visual and moving image arts. For more information, visit www.uncsa.edu<http://www.uncsa.edu>.
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Location. Location. Lo — you get the idea.
The economy makes it clear — location is more important than ever.
Everyone knows the old real estate adage. Now that gas prices have shot up and property values have plummeted, what used to be a tired cliché has made a monumental comeback as a fundamental truth. Location is absolutely critical. Efficient access to markets both domestically and internationally is a mandatory for any business wanting to grow. But, even to maintain position in the marketplace requires careful consideration of where to place manufacturing and distribution facilities. The flow of activity coming into North Carolina, and Winston-Salem, Forsyth County is a good indication of the importance of location. Relocation and expansion has continued, due, in part, to Winston-Salem’s ideal spot in the Southeast. Positioned midway up the Eastern Seaboard, the area combines many of the economic advantages associated with setting up shop in the Southeast, yet closer proximity to more consumers who are ready to buy.
”Located within 600 miles of more than half of the U.S. population, approximately 60% of the nation’s industrial and consumer base is within a two-day drive, or a two-hour flight of Winston-Salem.” — WSBI Executive Summary
Throw in the region’s robust transportation and infrastructure, and Winston-Salem’s location comes close to being perfect. Of course, the businesses that are here already know that.
The key to Winston-Salem’s success?
Try these 3 on for size.
People often ask us what is the key to Winston-Salem’s success in attracting businesses to our area of the Piedmont Triad. We always respond that there isn’t one factor. Sure, there are times when one thing pushes us over the top. But in truth, it’s the overall combination of qualities and attributes that gets us into the game.
With that in mind, here are three key reasons why Winston-Salem, Forsyth County is where businesses want to be.
1. Workforce quantity plus quality
This is a big one. The combination of available workforce and advanced education programs has put Winston-Salem on many companies’ short lists for expansion and relocation. In fact, the training programs being developed by Forsyth Technical Community College have even attracted the attention of the last two Presidents of the Unites States, with both dropping by for visits during their respective terms.
2. More bang for your buck
A low cost of living is one of those attributes that many communities in the Southeast can claim. However, Winston-Salem can take it a step further. Not only is Winston-Salem’s cost of living at 92% of the national average; the community manages to offer outstanding infrastructure, schools, and amenities normally associated with more “high-dollar” cities.
3. Innovation is contagious
Winston-Salem calls itself the “City of the Arts and Innovation” for good reason. After nurturing a diverse arts scene since the city’s humble Moravian beginnings, Winston-Salem’s culture of creativity has now spawned innovations in life sciences, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing. The real difference here is collaboration, a vital part of transforming great ideas into real world applications.
Now, to be honest, these are three important reasons. But, they are not the only reasons. Although, in our experience, workforce and worker training has made a big difference in tipping the final decision in our favor, it truly becomes a matter of how all of the factors come together. In the big picture, Winston-Salem just about has it all.
Bob Leak, CEcD
WSBI Admin
