Mag Lab key to COT attracting business

What role should the MagLab play in attracting business to #Tallahassee? Read the @TDOnline editorial board's ideas: https://t.co/0IPhdVNAKN #TheFutureIsMagnetic

— National MagLab (@NationalMagLab) January 27, 2018

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/opinion/editorials/2018/01/27/our-opinion-want-attract-business-look-no-further-than-maglab/1068657001/

So, what’s Tallahassee’s key to economic growth?

Is it state government?

Or the city’s two universities and large community college?

Those things are important.

But we would submit the answer is this: The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the largest and highest-powered magnet laboratory in the world, operated by Florida State University.

To wit, Tallahassee’s biggest private-sector, job-creating success story in recent years is Danfoss Turbocor, which chose the area almost exclusively because of the MagLab. It started as a 30-employee operation, which has now swelled to 200.

As the Democrat’s TaMaryn Waters wrote in Sunday’s edition, Danfoss Turbocor CEO Ricardo Schneider believes the MagLab can completely transform the local economy. But it will require a local economic development effort to adjust its shotgun approach toward something very different.

“I have been here for nine years,” Schneider said. “I have seen us try to recruit all kinds of companies with no success. If we do not have clear, what I call a rifle approach, to a very specific group of companies that have something to do with magnetic technologies, our chances to succeed are very small.”

What kind of industries have something to do with magnetic technologies? Think MRIs and it will give you an idea of the potential.

Schneider’s are powerful words. The man who has led one of Tallahassee’s shining economic success stories is laying out a blueprint for future growth.

He is heading a recently formed Magnetic Task Force, designed to accomplish his mission.

We enthusiastically support this group’s formation and are just as hearty in endorsing its recommendations.

A key one is to hire a “science salesman” to be a closer when it comes to luring new companies to Tallahassee.

Even if this position is pricey, the potential community benefits could be astronomical in terms of investment. An ROI should be easy to achieve.

One thing the MagLab needs is a marketing boost.

Here are some humbly submitted ideas:

1. Road signs: Nobody should be able to drive through Tallahassee without the MagLab punching them in the nose. Interstate 10 and all roads leading into Tallahassee ought to loudly proclaim this as “Home to the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory,” just as towns do when they are the birthplace to someone famous or are home to a Little League World Series champ.

2. More marketing: Los Alamos, N.M., home to the nation’s other national magnet laboratory, is known as the city “where discoveries are made.” That’s brilliant positioning of the city as a center of science and technology. How can Tallahassee pivot toward that type of brand identification?

3. Home field ambassadors: The MagLab holds an annual open house, and it’s usually a mob scene of kids playing science games. The MagLab also hosts lesser known monthly tours, where adults can learn more about the amazing presence in our community. More people need to attend these open tours – and schedule group tours – to learn enough to act as “brand ambassadors” to everyone they meet. Find a tour schedule and information at NationalMagLab.org.

4. Airport: Visitors to Tallahassee’s airport ought to walk smack dab into a three-dimensional display of the MagLab. Maybe this could be designed and executed by one of the schools at Florida State, in consultation with the MagLab itself? Surely the city of Tallahassee would free up the space. Again, the point is: This facility should be displayed as a crown jewel of Tallahassee, not squandered as a hidden gem.

Another thing this effort needs is cohesion and collaboration. We already have the task force, but this is also an opportunity for local governments to get on board, lending, at the least, full-throated support to this new area of focus.

The recent silly threat to move the capital of Florida from Tallahassee has already died a quick death. But it does reveal the city’s over-reliance on government jobs to keep the economy stable.

If Tallahassee could emerge as the eastern U.S. “city of discoveries,” our economy would truly achieve liftoff.