Leaders from both SBC and GRE will be featured in an interview on the popular talk radio show Rochester Speaks.  The show airs this Sunday May 20th at 6:00am on 94.1WZNE, 96.5WCMF, and 98PXY and repeats at 7:00am on WARM101.3. Click below to hear the streaming webcast of the two part interview. Â

Part 1

MP3 File

Part 2

MP3 File

 

Transcription of the interview (provided by Execuscribe (www.execuscribe.com):

 

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂWelcome back and thanks for tuning in to Rochester Speaks.ÂI’m our host Teresa Principe and this morning we’re joined by two guests.ÂThe first guest is Tom Ioele.ÂHe’s the immediate past President of The Small Business Council of Rochester.ÂWe’re also joined this morning by Mark S. Peterson, who’s the Managing Director for the Greater Rochester Enterprise.ÂGood morning.

TOM IOELE          ÂGood morning.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂGood morning.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂI want to thank you both for joining me this morning.ÂWe’re here to talk about an event that’s taking place on June 12^th called Eyes on the Future.ÂDo you want to talk about that a little bit and what Eyes on the Future is.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂSure.ÂEyes on the Future is an Economic Summit that’s being jointly sponsored by the Small Business Council and the Greater Rochester Enterprise and our intention was to really over the last two years, we’ve really done a fairly good job of getting great connectivity to our government leaders, to our university leadership and to an important subsector of the business community but it’s now time to really involve a broader scope of the business community and really have everybody understand that economic development, moving this community’s economy forward, job creation and new investment in the community is really something that we all can play a role in and we’re hoping to highlight some of the best practices and bring that message to all the businesses in the entire region and give them an opportunity to see how they can play a role in our success.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂAnd Tom and Mark, how did you both decide to partner for this initiative?ÂTom, do you want to talk about that first?

TOM IOELE          ÂSure.ÂI really appreciate it.ÂYou know it’s kind of – it’s been a vision of both the SBC and GRE and our missions are somewhat similar.ÂIn the GRE case, they are responsible for a lot of the economic development that goes on the nine county region here.ÂThe Small Business Council has lots of members that are small businesses in the community that have families and friends here who are all responsible for helping Rochester be successful.ÂWhen we talked with GRE, it seemed like it’d be a very logical fit for our two organizations to work together to help promote this event and to hopefully help Rochester be a little bit more successful than it already is.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂLet’s give our listeners a little background briefly on who SBC is and who GRE is just so if they’re not familiar with the two, they can understand the partnership.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂGreater Rochester Enterprise is a regional economic development organization.ÂWe actually cover a nine county region, Monroe County, the City of Rochester and the eight contiguous counties and surrounding and the reason for our regional strategy is is that when businesses look at a community, they really don’t look at government lines and geographic lines.ÂThey really look at where are assets that can help move their business initiatives forward.ÂAnd so it’s much more effective to market the region as an entire region.ÂThis region has tremendous assets as far as its agribusiness and its agricultural community.ÂIt’s a strong base in the intellectual property area with universities and colleges in the region and we’ve helped -- over the period of time GRE’s role is really to help to define and put the messaging out for the key industry sectors that this region can be a world leader in and to help create the connectivity and the collaborations among government, universities and businesses both in the region and outside the region in order to make good things happen, new jobs, new investments and a fast growing economy.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂMark, I know also you focus also on organizations or companies that come in as site selectors to talk about relocating to Rochester which is crucial to our economic growth and vitality.ÂDo you want to talk about that and how it leads into this Eyes on the Future event and I notice they’re some panelists that are going to be –

MARK PETERSON:          ÂSure –

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂTalking about that –

MARK PETERSON:          ÂSure.ÂAbsolutely.ÂLove to do that.ÂOne of the things that we do is we act as the agency that responds to outside site selectors who are hired by and site selectors are individuals and corporate people that are hired by companies to look for where they might site a new expansion or a new company as a launch and it’s a very competitive environment.ÂTo give you some idea last year there were only eleven hundred opportunities for a hundred jobs or more as an expansion.ÂLess than one hundred and twenty opportunities for five hundred jobs or more and there were over forty thousand economic development organizations similar to GRE playing in that space so it’s a tremendously competitive space.ÂYou have to really be hitting on all cylinders to make it effective and you have a very short turnaround time very often when those outreaches come so we act on behalf of the entire region.ÂWe have an extensive database.ÂWe have four full time researchers who spend all of their time preparing for when those RFPs come in so that we can be responsive and the most recent example of that was the Barilla Pasta company.ÂThe Barilla America doing the expansion in the Northeast here.ÂThat was a very competitive situation and we were just one of a number of organizations playing a role in that but I think we played a key collaborative role in being able to put a lot of pieces together quickly in order to respond to the proposal request and be able to get us on the radar screen for those kinds of new jobs and new investment.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂThanks Mark.ÂAnd leading off of that before we get into Tom the SBC and the role it plays in the Eyes on the Future, the June 12^th event, how can we as a community help in supporting the process with GRE in terms of being part of the selection process or supporting GRE in that process.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂYes you know I think one of the things that we can do as a community is everybody really plays a role as an ambassador.ÂI mean it’s very easy for people to talk about being knowledgeable about our community, about things that aren’t working well in the community but there really are so many things.ÂThe glass is certainly half full or three quarters full.ÂIt’s not half empty and so it’s important to understand those assets.ÂIt’s important to understand all the good things that the community has to offer for businesses, for quality of life, for the opportunity for people to be successful in an entrepreneurial and in a growth area, in emerging businesses so we ask everybody that have an opportunity to act as ambassadors.ÂVery often they act as matchmakers as well, an opportunity for them to know something in their industry and know the assets of our community and say wow, here’s an opportunity for businesses in our community to do businesses in another part of the country and to advance everybody’s initiative.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂSo it’s almost looking at the positive points of whatever knowledge base they may have and if they’re going on vacation and getting on a plane and they’re talking to someone they may never know who they’re talking with –

MARK PETERSON:          ÂSure –

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂAnd that influential conversation in regards to Rochester and that type of business could be part of a benefit in helping with the site selection processes.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂSure.ÂAbsolutely.ÂI mean we – it’s easy to talk about boy you’re from Rochester, New York and you get a lot of snow and isn’t Kodak laying people off but you know that’s really a very very one sided view of this region and this community.ÂInstead of talking about the world-class universities we have, the leading technology and alternative energy that’s being developed here and all the leadership we’ve shown there, the fact that we’re the leading optics area in the country, all of those kinds of initiatives, those are the kinds of things that we really – we really want to promote.Â

In fact, we’re doing something right now and people will see it right now out in the Democrat & Chronicle.ÂWe’re doing a joint project with the Democrat and Chronicle called Talk it Up Rochester and they’ll very frequently see on the little mastheads or the lower part of their papers, they’ll see messages, positive messages and advertisements about things that they can talk about when they’re out with people that are positive messages about Rochester and the Rochester region related to business and we certainly hope people will read those pieces and maybe cut a few of them up, put them in their pocket and their portfolios and take them with them on the road.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂIf you’re just tuning in, we’re joined this morning by two guests who are talking about an event that’s going to help support the revitalization of Rochester and its economic growth.ÂWe’re joined first by Mark Peterson who was just talking.ÂHe’s the Managing Director from the Greater Rochester Enterprise.ÂWe’re also joined this morning by Tom Ioele who is the immediate past President of the Small Business Council of Rochester which brings us to our next question Tom.ÂDo you want to tell our listeners about the SBC?

TOM IOELE          ÂSure.ÂAbsolutely.ÂThank you.ÂThe Small Business Council is actually an affiliate of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce or the Rochester Business Alliance and we’re celebrating our twenty-fifth year.ÂThe Small Business Council really is here in the community to help our smaller companies be more successful.ÂOur number one mission is really to train and to teach and to coach and educate our members which are small companies.ÂIt’s really meant to help some of our younger folks in the city school district through scholarship programs be entrepreneurs.ÂWe help fund those.ÂIt’s really meant to foster almost an incubator sense of environment where businesses can learn a lot about what they want to accomplish and then we provide resources to go and help them do it.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay Tom and when you ay small businesses, what’s the size of your members generally for that?

TOM IOELE          ÂYou know our average member has about twenty-five employees in its company currently.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂAnd if they’d like to know more if they’re a small business owner, where would you direct them to?

TOM IOELE          ÂIf they wanted to know more about anything with regard to the Small Business Council or being part of it or some of our educational programs that we have, they can visit us at our website.ÂThey can come to the Economic Summit on June 12^th and learn more there or they can participate in many of the events that are coming up over the next twelve months.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂThank you Tom.ÂSo let’s talk a little bit more about this Eyes on the Future, this June 12^th event.ÂIf you’d like to find out more and you’ve got to run for the rest of the day, you can log onto www dot Eyes on the Future dot biz.ÂThat’s Eyes on the Future dot biz or you can contact Cindy at 256-4619.ÂRegistration is free in advance and twenty-five dollars the day of the event so you want to be sure to sign up early and sign up soon.ÂThe event is scheduled for the morning of the Tuesday, June 12^th.ÂIt’s going to take place at St. John Fisher College from 8:30 am to 10:30 am with a VIP reception from 7:30 am to 8:30 am.ÂThe purpose as we see here of Eyes on the Future is to promote economic development, job growth and entrepreneurship in the nine county Rochester region.ÂSo let’s talk about the how and how that’s going to happen with this June 12^th event.ÂMark or Tom?

TOM IOELE          ÂYou know when you take a look at this event and you take a look at people that are coming to the event, economic development officials from around the country, the mayor from the fastest growing city in America from Sugarland, Texas, some of our site selectors, our goal really is to have these people together in a group and a panel discussion to really talk about some of the successes that they’ve had and to give our community both – a couple of things.ÂOne is hope that you know we’re probably not as bad as we think we are and we’re really moving in the right direction.ÂAnd two, it’s to – it’s to learn from them.ÂIt’s to learn about some of the good things that they’re doing so that we might be able to use some of those techniques and policies and practices in our community.

I think that as Mark said earlier, it’s really everybody’s responsibility in the community.ÂIf you’re a business owner, it’s your responsibility to help your community be more successful.ÂIt’s everybody’s responsibility to be an ambassador and a rainmaker, to be positive.ÂI think what we’re going to find from the folks that are coming in for the panel is that while they’re growing at warp speed, they’ve also got their own challenges.ÂThey’ve got challenges that we don’t have so I think we’re going to learn both about their successes and some of their challenges and I think -- hopefully the audience will leave with some inspiration that we’re on the right path and with some ideas on what we can do individually to go out and make a difference every day in our own lives in this community.Â

MARK PETERSON:          ÂI think what Tom said earlier is super important as well.ÂThe membership of Small Business Council is right down the fairway as far as important areas of where potential growth is for a community.ÂLet me give you some statistics.ÂFive years ago, only one in ten people were employed by a company of less than a hundred employees in this community.ÂThat number’s now two and ten.ÂAll right?ÂSo what that means is the fastest growing companies and this isn’t news to the Rochester region.ÂWe’re maybe accelerating on that pace but nationally the fastest growing companies are small to medium sized companies.ÂThat’s where the growth opportunity is and any organization or any region in the country grows about eighty percent of their growth in new business and employment growth comes from organic meaning existing companies doing better.ÂAnd so if we’re really going to get the economy going as fast as we would like to and I think that’s the message we’re going to hear from some of those folks from outside is hey we focused on those small, medium sized businesses that had terrific growth potential.ÂWe’re already growing and we fed into them all the necessary resources and opportunities and matchmaking opportunities and really helped them to get their businesses to explode and that’s how you get this wheel really turning quickly.

You know I just have to say that the Small Business Council and really under Tom’s leadership has really been visionary on putting this thing together.ÂThey really have and we’re excited about being a part of it, being able to bring some key site selectors to the panel but it really is their thought process and their ideas and Tom’s vision that’s helped put this thing together and it’s going to be a very exciting event and we’re expecting a big big turnout.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂLet’s talk about some of the panelists.ÂTom, do you want to talk about some of the – I noticed there’s some economic development panelists.

TOM IOELE          ÂI’m excited about all the panelists.ÂWe’ve got a great set of people attending this.ÂIf I take a look at for instance the Mayor of Sugarland, Texas, Dave Wallace who’s coming in, Sugarland, Texas is growing about a hundred and fifty eight percent under his leadership in the last six years and they’ve attracted seven or eight Fortune 50 companies to the area all through as he’ll say supply side economics and doing all the right things from a taxing standpoint, from a policy standpoint.ÂHe talks a lot about brining common sense back to government and the community and helping these companies be successful both new and existing companies.

We’ve got Ron Weisinger, the Economic Development Officer from the City of Las Vegas, which is Carson City, Nevada.ÂHe talks about some of the things that they’re going through and the growth that they’ve had.  He also talks about some of the challenges that they’re having with water and power issues but he’ll be quick to tell you that they rally around what they’re doing and everybody rows in the same direction for the purpose of winning and I think that’s a really important message for his role.

We’ve got our own local Dennis Mullen who is doing a phenomenal job with Greater Rochester Enterprise and it’s really good to wake up in the morning and know that we’ve got a group in town focused on growing Rochester and every day it’s their mission when they wake up to go out and make Rochester a better place for us to all live and work and grow.Â

We’ve got Larry Pelton, the Economic Development Officer from Port of St. Lucie, Florida who is growing at warp speed down there.ÂI think they’ve grown at about eighty percent over the last year over year over the last three years.ÂAnd then we’ve got people from Charlotte, North Carolina and Charlotte’s a really interesting story.ÂThe economic development officer from Charlotte’s a guy named Ken McDonald and Ken is going to talk about how fifteen years ago Charlotte wanted to be a banking hub and a banking capital and they had this vision and they went out to some of their existing banks and financial services companies and they talked about brining their operations down there and nearly fifteen years later, they’re the third largest banking center in the United States so it had a vision, they had some focus, they put some resources to it and here they are today as the third fastest banking community in the country which is very nice.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂI think that’s a lot about what this Economic Summit will be about is really being able to hear from people like that and they’ll be some people Teresa that’ll say well look you’re from you know Charlotte, North Carolina or Nevada or something and as Tom says, I think it’s going to be important to hear from them some of the challenges that they have with their growth, some of the challenges they’ve overcome that we can maybe learn from but you know we have tremendous assets that some other communities don’t have.ÂWater’s not a problem here.ÂWe have a tremendous asset in fresh water here that can really draw a lot of industries here.ÂWe have some real things to promote in this community and we’re really trying to just get everybody to really understand what works here, what’s the best kind of industries for us to focus on.

You know one of the things that I think we’ve also added to the panel is we’re brining in two key site selectors, folks who it is their full time job.ÂGene Dupree you know who does a lot of the site selection work for IBM Global Services and many other companies.ÂThat’s going to be a really really important member of the panel because they can really talk to this is what corporation are looking for.ÂThis is what their opportunity to move their business forward is.ÂThese are the kinds of assets that you’re looking for and this is the way to present yourself as a community.

And then we have Dennis Donovan who’s also a site selector who brings a tremendous amount of experience.ÂHas sited a number of companies in regions around the country.ÂAnd just to have those people here, physically here, to really hear the dialog about this community and how this community is coming together and how we’re collaborating as a unit, that’s a big part of getting on the radar screen nationally with these key site selectors and with these companies so the Summit is just another opportunity too to bring key site selectors to the community, make them a part of this panel, have them interact with our leadership and our economic development professionals and who knows what they an lead to.ÂI mean there are several examples already of some of the deals that I’ve done, that I’ve been involved with at GRE, the Barilla pasta deal and the Garlock Ceiling technology, job saving opportunity a couple of years ago, all of those were really driven by relationships with site selectors that GRE developed over a couple of years so I think the real message too partly for the Economic Summit is one of collaboration.ÂI think what we’re going to hear – I’m pretty sure what we’re going to hear from a lot of our panelists is they really work well together.ÂThat whatever their challenges are, that as a community they come together whether it be their government entities, their partnerships with business, their partnerships with their university assets, whatever it is, they come together as a unit, they work out those challenges and they move forward in a one step, lock step kind of way in order to be successful as a community and I think that’s something that we are doing a much better job of but we’re not there yet and I think as we build that level of collaboration and coordination, we’re going to become even more competitive than we already are and that’s when the real exponential growth can start for the region.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂThanks Mark.ÂAnd before we continue in this conversation, we’ve got to go on a break but when we come back, I want to find out more about this Eyes on the Future event that’s taking place again June 12^th.ÂSave the date.ÂTuesday at St. John Fisher College at 8:30 to 10:30 in the morning with a reception at 7:30 in the morning.ÂIf you’d like to find out more, you can contact Cindy.ÂRegistration in advance is free.ÂHer number is 256-4619 and that’s in area code 585.ÂAlso, you can log onto www dot Eyes on the Future dot biz.ÂYou’re listening to Rochester Speaks.ÂWe’re joined this morning by two guests Tom Ioele who’s the immediate past President of the Small Business Council of Rochester.ÂWe’re also joined by Mark Peterson who’s the Managing Director for the Greater Rochester Enterprise.ÂStay tuned.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂWelcome back and thanks for tuning in to Rochester Speaks.ÂWe were just talking with two members who are talking about an upcoming event with Eyes on the Future.ÂThe event is June 12^th.ÂMark your calendar in the am.ÂSeven thirty am is the reception.ÂEight thirty am is the event at St. John Fisher College.ÂIf you’d like to find out more, it’s www.eyesonthefuture.biz.

We’re joined this morning by two guests.  The first guest is Tom Ioele, who’s the immediate past president for the Small Business Council of Rochester.ÂAlso, we’re joined this morning by Mark Peterson who is the Managing Director for the Greater Rochester Enterprise.ÂGood morning and welcome back.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂGood morning.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂSo we’ve been talking about this Eyes on the Future event.ÂDo you want to again mention to our listeners briefly what the purpose is and then we’ll get into some more after that.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂYes, I think one of the broadest purposes is to really get connected to the entire business community.ÂOver the last couple of years, we’ve had some great success in better connecting to our government leaders, our university leadership and to a subset of our business community but the goal is really to expand the understanding of the entire business community about what it takes to be successful in economic development and that they have a role to play and that they can play a role as a positive force to make this region successful economically and we’re going to give them some insights and some examples basically from other communities that have had some wonderful success recently and hope to learn some things from those communities that we can take home and put into practice right away.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂAnd this is exciting.ÂBrining them to Rochester because they’ve had success in their regions and their cities.ÂNow getting into all the time and energy and effort that you put into it and the overtime hours, why in your opinion are you doing this and what do you see as the opportunities that Rochester has?ÂTom, do you want to talk first?

TOM IOELE          ÂSure.ÂThank you.ÂIt’s funny I – I’ve been fortunate to have lived all my life in Rochester and I have a family here and a mother here and have a business here and have had one for almost twenty-five years so I’m really passionate about our region and our community and I think if you meet most people from this region, they’re tell you the same thing.ÂThey want to stay here and they want to have their families here and they want their kids to go away to college to come back and stay in Rochester.ÂSo my interest is really just more to help Rochester be more successful going forward and if this is just one thing that we can do or that I can do to help out, I’m happy to do it because it matters so much to each and every one of us who want to be here for a while and who have kids here and want to stay here.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂI think like Tom, I have the same situation Teresa.ÂYoung children here and a growing family and although I grew up in Syracuse I’m a native Upstate New Yorker and really enjoy this region and want to see it successful and I think it bears out a little bit of frustration too.ÂI think we’ve all felt some frustration seeing other parts of the country maybe grow and have success at a rate that we think we could do and we know we have tremendous assets and it’s just a matter of getting everything aligned up appropriately, learning the right lessons and doing things in the right order and in the right way that we can be successful.

You know I know a lot of people that I talk to have expressed to me, my neighbors and friends, have expressed to me some frustration in the performance of the economy in this region.ÂI understand that frustration but I’m sort of the mindset that if we’re frustrated, that’s great.ÂNow let’s use that and let’s do something positive to make it move forward and I think this Economic Summit is a great example of what happens when organizations like SBC and GRE come together, work together collaboratively and you know I think Tom has said it very well many times in our meetings and that is that we don’t really care who gets the credit, we don’t really care how it moves forward.ÂWe just want to make something positive happen.ÂLet everybody know that we’re out there working hard and we want them to join us.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂAnd not to play off of taking credit, but let’s talk about some of the individuals who have made this summit possible who have supported this to be able to support our region.ÂDo you want to mention some of the sponsors that have helped contribute to this?

TOM IOELE          ÂSure.ÂFirst of all Greater Rochester Enterprise and the Small Business Council together have rallied to put the event together so Greater Rochester Enterprise has been an incredible partner in this event and it couldn’t happen without their support.

Our other sponsors are Acts Advisors, the Bonadio Group, Citizens Bank, Empire State Development Corporation, Employee Relations Associates, Eric Mower and Associates, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, Johnson Controls, Eastman Kodak Company, OS Cubed, Peradyme Environmental Services, Philips Lidle law firm, Ralph Benefit Advisors, The Rochester Business Journal and our host site, St. John Fisher College which has really really helped us with this event in a very big way.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂOne of the things I think that Tom did very wisely when we put the panel discussion together and we had a lot of discussions as a group about putting the panel together and knew that in order to be really effective we needed a great moderator and we were able to get Brain Taft who hosts the Capital Tonight show and that a lot of people are familiar with and really watch on a regular basis.ÂHe’s going to actually do a live broadcast from the Economic Summit that morning and so to have Brian involved and have him be as professional as he is be the moderator for this event, I think is going to just make it a tremendous opportunity for us to really gleam some pearls of wisdom from our outside guests and be able to really take those home and do something.Â

I think the other thing that’s important about Brian’s work with us and the involvement is that you know we’ll have a lot of our government leaders there.ÂWe’ll have a lot of the state leadership and the county and city leadership there and I think it’s important for them to hear the messages that are going to come across.ÂIt’s not just a matter of what we think needs to happen for this region but real life experiences in other communities in the nation where they’ve tried things and it’s been successful and if it’s worked somewhere else, there’s no reason we can’t learn from that experience and have it work here for us too.

TOM IOELE          ÂYes, Brian, he really understands a lot of the issues and when I asked him to do this, there was absolutely no hesitation.ÂHe jumped in and said this works out perfect for what we’re trying to do.ÂHe goes I’m sympathetic to Western New York.ÂI don’t know what that meant but he’s sympathetic towards us so I think he –

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂHey, what does that mean?

TOM IOELE          ÂYeah.ÂI think he’s really excited about coming and I think he feels like he wants to help out and be part of it and he’s here the next couple of nights doing some live shows in preparation for some of the things that he’s doing and for the Summit so having him as a moderator, somebody who really understands our issues is going to be of great value to the Summit.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂSo let’s talk about this live broadcast.ÂThere’s going to be an opportunity for our listeners to be able to see this broadcast simultaneously as it is actually happening.ÂHow can they find out more about that or find out about the broadcast?

TOM IOELE          ÂWe are going to actually have this Summit webcast and we’ll have some information on that and it will be webcast right live from our website at Eyes on the Future dot biz and as far as the actual television broadcast that will be broadcast live I believe on R News.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂSo if you’re interested in finding out more about this, you can again log onto Eyes on the Future dot biz or you can contact Cindy if you’d like to register.ÂRegistration in advance is free which is wonderful.ÂBut the day of if you hustle in last minute, you’ve got to fork over twenty-five dollars so be ready for that.ÂIf you want to call ahead you can call Cindy at 256-4619.

So Mark and Tom, in your opinions, what do you think are some of our best economic drivers and assets of Rochester.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂWell I think one of the things that Greater Rochester Enterprise has tried to do over the last couple of years is to really identify and promote both in the region and outside the region key industry sectors that we know we can be winners at.ÂThose are – some of them are obvious.ÂSome of them are less obvious.ÂOptics and imaging, clearly we’re a leading city in optics and imaging and have tremendous assets there.ÂBiomedical for us the play is really medical devices and medical imaging and there really is some great connectivity there, some great opportunities for our precision manufacturers and others in that area.

Food and beverage manufacturing.ÂConstellation Brands, LeDestri Foods, Birds Eye and a hundred other companies in this region in the food and beverage manufacturing area.ÂIt’s a tremendous asset.ÂMost people don’t remember or realize that New York still is the third largest agricultural state in the union and so it’s a great asset for us and we want to continue to leverage that asset and finally for us it’s alternative energy.ÂLeading fuel cell research at GM and Delphi.ÂIt was all over the paper this week about the test for GM’s fuel cell car.ÂEthanol plants, biofuel, solar, technologies and thin film technologies, wind turbine production, wind turbine manufacturing, every part of the alternative energy space is a significant play for this region and we’re very excited about the future of alternative energy in Rochester.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂIt sounds exciting.ÂIt’ll also help our environment in the interim which would be nice.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂAbsolutely.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂTom, do you have any thoughts on that as well?

TOM IOELE          ÂYeah.ÂThe only thing I would add to what Mark said is our small businesses in the region who continue to – who help out the economy when we’re struggling a little bit and there’s a lot of small businesses here who are adding one and two and three and ten people and that segment of our economy really continues to grow and I think our colleges and universities which continue to add a tremendous economic engine through all the research they’re doing here in the area which I think is just really critical to our future success.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂOkay.ÂSo a lot of great things.ÂBefore we go I just wanted to talk about your organizations and business separate from this and aside from this because you have also helped to support our economy.ÂLet’s talk about what roles you play.ÂSo Ton, do you want to talk about your role and what you do and also at SBC.

TOM IOELE          ÂSure.ÂThe Small Business Council is – it’s near and dear to my heart.ÂI’ve been part of it for the last ten years.ÂI’ve been associated in a board capacity for the last eight years.ÂIn its twenty-fifth year, it continues to improve and enhance and help the economy every year and help our small businesses grow.ÂIt’s a not-for-profit.ÂAll our support comes from sponsors like I talked about in the economic future earlier.ÂIt comes from people who attend our events, small businesses who pay dues to belong so it’s a great organization.ÂIf you’re not part of it now, you should consider joining.ÂIt’ll certainly bring value to you.

As far as m own company, I own a human resources company that I have for the last twenty-three years and we’re fortunate that we’re headquartered here.ÂMost of our work is both here and outside of New York State so we’re fortunate in that regard too.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂWhat’s the name of your human resources company?

TOM IOELE          ÂEmployee Relations Associates Inc.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂAnd Mark, do you want to talk about the GRE a little bit?

MARK PETERSON:          ÂYes.ÂI’m – we’ve talked about a lot of what GRE focuses on as far as business attraction from outside the region and also helping existing businesses within the region through partnerships with great organizations like Small Business Council to help those businesses to grow but one area we also have played a major role in is in the emerging business sector, in the entrepreneurial sector and one thing I will plug a little bit Teresa that we have coming up at the end of May is the Golden Horseshoe Business Challenge, which is an international business plan competition.ÂThere will be top entries from four different regions including one from Canada vying for a hundred thousand dollar cash prize to move their business forward and this is just a way for us to help to spotlight and highlight the tremendous entrepreneurial spirit that is part of this region and part of this entire state and an opportunity for us to grow new businesses.Â

We’ve worked very closely with the Rochester Angel Network that we helped to create and still help to manage, which is really a way for new businesses to get off the ground and get some initial seed capital.ÂWe’re building membership for Tom’s organization for Small Business Council but it’s all a good – it’s all a good thing to be able to create some new businesses that are really going to take off.ÂThis community was build around entrepreneurship.ÂKodak, Xerox, Bausch & Lomb they were all about young entrepreneurs getting together with an idea and who knows where the next Kodak or the next Paychex is.ÂIt may be in the Angel Network at GRE right now.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂNice.ÂSo I have one more thing for you.ÂI had the mayor on probably a month ago and I brought up an idea and you both being very familiar with the business world is an idea that I had between all of our corporations so we’ve got Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Helluva Good, Kraft, Barilla, all these different types, even the smaller businesses that have retail, imagine if you’re a Rochester resident or if you come into Rochester, you’re able to purchase these goods and services at a discount price just for coming to Rochester a) which will promote tourism and b) which will promote living here so Bausch & Lomb, you get all your contact needs at a cheap cost so what greater benefit than that?ÂWhat do you think about that?

MARK PETERSON:          ÂWell we’ve talked a lot about the fourth leg of the stool for economic development being a destination strategy.ÂMaybe that’s part of – a small part of a destination strategy but there certainly needs to be something that the community gets known for, something that is innovative and unique.ÂYou know for cities in the past it had been things like in Cleveland it was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and I’m not suggesting we put a Hall of Fame here or anything like that but there are a lot of ideas.ÂWe’ve been working with strategies surrounding alternative energy and demonstration projects on that but certainly anything creative like that that could get some legs with broader community to bring more people to come and see what we have to offer, I think seeing is believing.ÂWhenever we have site selectors in, they’re amazed about this community and it starts a conversation that’s very exciting so we’ve got to get them here so if that’ll get ‘em here, I’m all in favor of that.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂNicely put.

TOM IOELE          ÂI’m ready.ÂSign us up.ÂWe’ll call it the Teresa Principe idea and we’ll run with it.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂYes, the mayor said just right the business plan and then we’ll be ready.

TOM IOELE          ÂYes, we’ll get it done.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂI go oh okay.ÂWhen am I supposed to do that but we’ll work on it.ÂSo if you’d like to know more about the SBC, first the Small Business Council, you can log onto Rochester SBC dot com and that’s www.ÂIf you’d like to know more about the Greater Rochester Enterprise, you can log onto www dot Rochester biz, B-I-Z dot com.ÂAnd don’t forget this event Eyes on the Future taking place Tuesday, June 12^th, St. John Fisher College, 8:30 am.ÂSign up in advance is free.ÂDay of is twenty-five dollars.ÂThe number (585) 256-4619 or you can log onto Eyes on the Future dot biz.ÂThat’s B-I-Z.ÂAnd again, the GRE has another event that’s sooner is May 31^st, Thursday.ÂIf you’d like to know more about that you can log onto Rochester biz dot com and also the SBC, congratulations to twenty-five years.ÂIf you’d like to see about their events coming up this year, you can also log on again, Rochester SBC dot com.

Again, we were joined this morning by Tom Ioele who is the immediate past President for the Small Business Council of Rochester and also a business owner in Rochester.ÂAlso, we’re joined by Mark Peterson who’s the Managing Director for Greater Rochester Enterprise among other things.

I want to thank you both for joining me this morning.

MARK PETERSON:          ÂThank you.

TOM IOELE          ÂThank you.

TERESA PRINCIPE          ÂAnd thanks for tuning in to Rochester Speaks.ÂI’m your host Teresa Principe getting you in the know on your community each and every week at sunrise.ÂHave a great Sunday.

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