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South Bend Redevelopment Commission <br />Regular Meeting –June 4, 2010 <br /> <br />6. NEW BUSINESS (CONT.) <br /> <br />B. Airport Economic Development Area <br /> <br />(5) continued… <br /> <br />students, freshmen and sophomores, and not <br />one disengaged student. <br /> <br />Ms. Hathaway stressed Focus. Karl King <br />and John Roos just completed a report called <br />Benchmarking South Bend. They say, “Our <br />legacy industry mix consists of nationally <br />dying industries.” We have to change that. <br />We have to be proactive in identifying what <br />our future strengths are going to be in <br />business. Michiana Tech Connect, which is <br />spearheaded by Project Future, is on the <br />campus of Notre Dame looking at the <br />research happening on campus and trying to <br />ascertain which research initiatives have the <br />greatest chance of commercialization to the <br />ultimate benefit of our region. That is so <br />important. They are now going deeper to <br />look at the processes that are going to be <br />necessary to take that from research in the <br />lab to commercialization. Hopefully, some <br />of our local businesses can assist with that. <br />Maybe a company already in South Bend can <br />build a prototype that is needed. <br /> <br />We, the community, must start to look at our <br />existing businesses. Research takes a long <br />time to commercialize. Often times it’s bio <br />based, which requires FDA approval, which <br />is very costly and very time consuming. <br />There are many innovative ideas that can be <br />commercialized much faster. And they are <br />sitting here in our back yard---our existing <br />businesses. We need a business asset <br />inventory. That is very crucial. <br /> <br /> 15 <br /> <br />