In August 2003, AngelouEconomics began a four-month process of assessing Northern Kentucky’s preparedness as a location for high-tech businesses.

In August 2003, AngelouEconomics began a four-month process of assessing Northern Kentucky’s preparedness as a location for high-tech businesses. The study named Northern Kentucky New Economy Readiness Strategy, focused on revealing the region’s most marketable high-tech strengths and identifying actions to improve its viability for high-tech industry growth.

The first of four reports, the Community Assessment, created an economic profile of Northern Kentucky relative to the twelve site selection requirements of high-tech businesses. This report followed a similar methodology as the one AngelouEconomics uses when conducting site selection for clients in the high-tech industry.

The Industry Profiles report provided a snapshot of the industries targeted by Northern Kentucky. Each profile contained a description of the trends affecting each industry, as well as their unique site selection requirements. This report provided a background for the local leadership on the key “needs” of these industries and began a discussion of how well they can be served by Northern Kentucky.

Report Three, Preparedness Assessment, contains a side-by-side comparison of Northern Kentucky’s assets against the needs of target industries, and benchmarks Northern Kentucky’s performance against leading tech metros in the U.S. The report scores Northern Kentucky’s performance in 25 different high tech site selection variables relative to the performance of 11 U.S. high-tech metro areas. This analysis helped us identify the areas in most need of improvement and more narrowly define the high-tech industry sectors recommended in this report.

This fourth and final report, Economic Development and Marketing Recommendations, contained economic development strategies for growing targeted high-tech companies in Northern Kentucky. This final report contains recommendations designed to help Northern Kentucky’s leaders create a more attractive environment for tech companies including improvements to the quality of life amenities, workforce development programs, business inducements, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

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