Re-Engineering the Region

Roundtable Discussions

June 3 and 4, 2015

Report prepared by Good Group Decisions

Contents

About the Roundtables

Overall Themes

Themes by Group

Boat Building/Composites

Forestry/Wood Products

Tourism/Hospitality

Bioscience/Healthcare

Emerging Tech Companies

Agriculture/Food Production

Construction/Skilled Trades

Discussion Notes - All Groups

What Success Looks Like

Promising Opportunities

What’s Needed

Appendix A: Meeting Agendas and Ground Rules

Appendix B: Roundtable Attendance

About the Roundtables

The Re-Engineering the Region is an initiative of Eastern Maine Development Corporation (EMDC), Mobilize Eastern Maine, and the Bangor Region Development Alliance (BRDA). The goal of the initiative is to develop a strategy to support economic growth and stability in a region severely impacted by shifting and disappearing economies. As part of the initiative, industry representatives were invited to a series of 7 roundtable discussions on June 3 and 4, 2015, in Bangor, to discuss questions such as:

What needs to happen in order to re-engineer the economy of the region?
What do promising industries need in order to grow?
What single things can be done to help multiple industries?

The roundtables were organized around the following sectors:

Boat Building/Composites
Forestry/Wood Products
Tourism/Hospitality
Bioscience/Healthcare
Emerging Tech Companies
Agriculture/Food Production
Construction/Skilled Trades

The roundtable meetings were professionally facilitated by Craig Freshley and Kerri Sands of Good Group Decisions. During each meeting, key ideas were written on paper and organized on the wall, and facilitators also captured a summary of themes on the screen.

See Appendix for sample agenda, ground rules, and list of attendees.

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Overall Themes

While many ideas were unique to each group discussion, there were a few ideas that consistently surfacedthroughout the different groups about critical factors for the region’s economic success. We are calling these the overall or “cross-cutting”themes:

Collaboration and partnerships
Among businesses
Among the private, public, and education sectors
Promotion of the Maine brand: quality workmanship and a strong work ethic
Promotion of the region’s opportunities
Highly skilled and innovative work is happening here
A fun, healthy place to live
Skilled, educated workforce
High-speed internet access
Expanded public transportation options between Bangor and larger hubs
Business mentorship for entrepreneurs

Themes by Group

During each meeting, facilitator Craig Freshleycaptured a written summary of themes on screen, and key ideas were also written on paper and organized on the wall.

Boat Building/Composites

Themes

Collaboration
Among business leaders
Business with higher education institutions
Business with government
Develop small specialized home-grown businesses to serve other businesses
People with passion and expertise, wherever they are from, are highly valued

Key Ideas

Success Factors

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Mentorship and encouragement
Partnership with Community College
Nimble
Financing assistance
Skilled labor
Investment willingness
Technical assistance
Ready buyer
Not getting wildly into debt
Work with competitors for the benefit of the industry
People creating their own jobs in their own industries
Hard work
City assistance with property development
University of Maine partnership
On-the-job learning
Good product at a fair price

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Promising Opportunities

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Sell ourselves as an industry
Brunswick technologies as aggregators
Displaced millworkers
Specialized machining
Electricians
Water jet cutting
3D printing
Small service providers/contractors
High-tech heavy equipment servicing
Diversification in boat building
IP development
Bucksport

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What’s Needed

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Learning economy
Nimble curriculum
Apprenticeships
University Customer Pull
Workers with skills or willingness to learn
Better roads
Recruitment of young people
Motivated people with special expertise
Attitude and passion
Brand “Maine built boats”
Sales/markets
Space

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Forestry/Wood Products

Themes

Success Factors
Re-investment in plant infrastructure
Research AS a business in itself
Partnership with the University
Expertise
Financing
Graduates with engineering degrees
Meeting customer demand
Customer relations
Knowing what customers want
Collaborative relationships and networks among businesses
What’s Needed
Promotion
To young people that job opportunities in wood are innovative
Public education about the value of wood
It’s wood, fiber, and chemicals
We are sustainable harvesters
New product development as a habit
Connecting specialty products to markets
Protect the wood supply
Positive attitude about ourselves
Lower energy costs
Maine branding

Key Ideas

Success Factors

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Re-invest in the physical plant
Innovative materials handling and transportation
Research itself as a business
Making connections
Collaborations
Relationships
Partnership with the university
Expertise
Funding
Workforce
Specialization
Finding niche markets
Learn and meet what customers want
Highly-focused customer relationships
Branding re: Maine working forests

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Promising Opportunities

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Promote ourselves
New product development as a habit
Custom, case-by-case manufacturing
Partnerships, collaborations, clustering
Collaborative marketing (The Maine brand)
Shared export logistics
Shared innovation
Shared access to capital

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What’s Needed

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Positive attitude about ourselves
Educate young people: Wood is new and innovative
Lower energy costs
Protect the wood supply
Improved infrastructure
Public education - the value of wood
Educate that jobs in wood are innovative
Consider more than just wood, also: fiber and chemicals
Promote ourselves as sustainable harvesters

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Tourism/Hospitality

Themes

Key is branding not just the state, but within Maine
And not just lobsters and lighthouses
Workforce supply is key
Seasonally and year round
Good wages are key to worker retention
At local level, lack of resources is a challenge
It’s a challenge to integrate statewide efforts with local efforts
Tension between working forest and recreation
What will be the future handshake between forest land owners and the tourism industry
Success factors
Public-private partnerships
Risk taking
Diversity of businesses working together
Regional identity as “an arts corridor”
What’s Needed
National and regional branding
Heritage and place-based tourism
Better use of technology
Pride in what we do

Key Ideas

Success Factors

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Infrastructure - hotels
Bangor infrastructure supporting the region
A great product experience
Great stories
Unique products/expertise
Think broadly
Embrace diverse opportunities
Embrace diverse partners
Sum of the parts supported by prudent risk taking
Single large investment: the casino
Visitors recognize Bangor as a hub
Risks: Building appetite for culture and the arts
New businesses launched by existing businesses
Public-private partnership
Millennial entrepreneurs
Downtown workers
Collaboration among organizations
Emphasize the value of quality of life

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Promising Opportunities

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Co-marketing shows and events
Can-Am games
Make more of moose and Katahdin
Farm-to-plate experience
Make grand opportunities digestible to families
Make more of heritage
Develop heritage sites and access to such sites
National park
Create perception that Collins and University of Maine are part of Bangor
Maine Sports Commission
Bike trails
Market as a healthy region
Brand Moosehead Lake
Our Katahdin (to address education)
Marketing through social media

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What’s Needed

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Good schools
Regional prioritization
Support hospitality schools and curriculum
Guides:
Birding
Brook trout
Moose
National branding of Maine and the region
Youth
Pride in what we do
Better use of technology
Outside of Bangor
Places to eat, sleep and shop
Protect what we have

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Bioscience/Healthcare

Themes

The region has valuable assets
Anchor institutions
JAX
MDI BL
EMHS
St. Joseph’s
U. Maine
High concentration of students and faculty
Bangor is a happening place
Expertise in healthcare management
Opportunities
Brand our region as “healthy”
STEM conferences and education
Key success factors
Capital investment
Leadership
Infrastructure
IT
Facilities
Transportation
Favorable public policy
Skilled workers
Critical mass
We need a cultural shift
Awareness about opportunities here
Toward innovation and entrepreneurship
We don’t rely on paper mills so much anymore
Higher aspirations

Key Ideas

Success Factors

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How we measure success: patient to population outcomes
Focus on prevention and personal responsibility
Youth groups working with hospitals
Sharing best practices
UPS and FedEx
Work through new channels
Collaborate with courier services
Sharing information about customers
Patient focus
Concentrate on serving customer needs (painless)
Very helpful landlord
Access to IT infrastructure
State bond funding for research infrastructure
Good leadership
Steady income from NIH
Capital investment matched with government sources
Other sources of revenue
Other customers

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Promising Opportunities

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Brand us as “healthy”
Bangor is a “happening place”
Help young entrepreneurs scale up
Help unemployed/displaced/retired with start-ups
Existing institutions in the region
Genetics analysis cluster
Community health needs assessment
Greatest concentration of students in the state
STEM Education
Conferences at Jackson Laboratory and MDI BiologicalLaboratory
Mill closures

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What’s Needed

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Educated workers
Need a critical mass of institutions
More awareness of the opportunities here
Favorable public policy
Invest in Biotech
Long-term planning
Cultural shift to innovation and entrepreneurship
Funding and expertise to access funding
High speed internet as a utility
Public transportation

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Emerging Tech Companies

Success Factors
Broadband/High Speed Internet Access
Mentors and other professional connections
University of Maine and other Higher Education Institutions
Partnerships
Interns
Partnerships with municipalities are key
IT Champions
Funding
Policy
What’s needed
Broadband/High Speed Internet Access
Connections with each other
Knowing that each other exists and what we all do
“Drafting” each other down a predictable development pipeline
Promotion to students
There IS opportunity here to work in high tech
Funding
For the last mile
For broadband development
For capitalization of company growth

Key Ideas

Success Factors

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University partnerships
Small companies spinning off small companies
Contracting for services from national companies
One large need served as the catalyst
Municipalities with vision and leadership
Grow our own talent at the University of Maine
Maine quality of life as an attraction for top experts
Local investment
Connections to right mentors and expertise
University of Maine resources
Three-ring binder
Connect Maine - new law
Need/motivation
Broadband
Knowledgeable IT people in municipalities and communities

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Promising Opportunities

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Municipal planning and development leads broadband
Broadband leads private investment in Maine towns
Educate municipalities about the need and opportunities
Current momentum re: broadband public awareness
University gaming products
Three-ring binder last mile
More funding for broadband development
Some municipalities are leading by example

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What’s Needed

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Distribution channels
Educate young people about the opportunities
We need to know about each other
More collaboration within education
Internship opportunities
More mentoring and educating and encouraging students
Fiber optic infrastructure
Last mile solutions exist - funding
Public transportation with wi-fi
Sharing crowd funding needs
A pipeline for business development (drafting)
Resources to help companies “take off”

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Agriculture/Food Production

Themes

Opportunities
Emerging popularity and interest in local food
Young farmers
“Natural”
“Local”
Community identity – valuing local food
Favorable public policy
Food Hubs
Land and farmers
Needs
Facilities
Cold storage
Processing/ Value-added
Investment to finance them
Public-private partnership
Access to internet technology
Technical expertise
Marketing
Patience and persistence

Success Factors

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New relationships between consumers and food
Connection with producer closer to the market
Aligning with a famous person
Not giving up
Incremental Growth
Great product
Public policy
Public funding
Access to technology
Word of mouth
We have the land base

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Promising Opportunities

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Regional food hubs
Access to technology
“Local” and “Natural”
New and young farmers
A national leader
A growing workforce
Food as a community value
Food security - traceable food
Value-added opportunities

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What’s Needed

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Market the Maine brand
Attitude shift
Business mindset
Confidence
Breaking the institution price barrier
Immigration policy
Food entrepreneurs
Cold storage shared facility
Access to technology
Local grain production
Grain processing
Grain processing expertise
Promote “natural” rather than “organic”
Technical expertise
How to scale up
Food science
Food safety
Federal law implementation
Financial business expertise
More meat processing facilities
Investment capital
Tax breaks for agricultural land use

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Construction/Skilled Trades

Themes

Things we have
High quality workers leading to productivity and technical prowess
Strong work ethic
Specialized expertise
Employee buy-in
Innovative
Available paper industry displaced workers
U. Maine and Technical Education providers
Things we could do
Document and promote our authentic work ethic
Encourage young people into the trades and into high tech jobs
Help with recruitment for management and specialized jobs
Business leaders helping business leaders
General promotion of the Bangor region
Improvement of downtown Bangor – continuing revitalization
Readiness to serve for manufacturers
Facilities available
Good management-worker environment
Education and training
Small business management training
Prepare future workers to replace upcoming retirees

Key Ideas

Success Factors

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Work ethic
Skilled and efficient workers
Workers from the paper industry
University of Maine engineering graduates
Deep technical expertise
Employee ownership and buy-in
High quality employees
Worker retention

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Promising Opportunities

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Promote Maine’s authentic work ethic
Shortage of people going into the trades
There’s money to be made on small jobs
Apprentice programming
Increased global appetite for electricity
Machine tool technical education
Revive downtown buildings

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What’s Needed

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Future qualified workers
Help market the Bangor area for top management recruitment
Improve impression of management-worker relations
More flights to/from Boston and Bangor
Business leaders helping other leaders with recruitment
Competitive business recruitment
Prep space
Readiness to serve
Small business management training

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