JUL 30
BusinessPremier
2008 Small Business Awards
AUG 6
inDC event
What are the Opportunities in a Diverse Marketplace?
OCT 2
WDCEP Annual Meeting & Development Showcase
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| Interview with John Kenny |
| Have rising gas prices caused any of the following lifestyle changes? click to answer |
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| Annual Meeting & Development Showcase 2008 |
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| Join more than 1,000 professionals from every corner of the development industry at WDCEP's 7th Annual Meeting & Development Showcase on October 2, 2008 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The Showcase offers - for the best price in the market today, free - the most comprehensive and relevant overview of development in the city. This year's luncheon features Katharine Weymouth, Chief Executive Officer, Washington Post Media and Publisher, The Washington Post. READ MORE |
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WDCEP Announces Winners of 2008 BusinessPremier Awards
 The Washington, DC Economic Partnership and the Government of the District of Columbia, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning & Economic Development are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2008 BusinessPremier Small Business Awards. READ MORE
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| What's Next for Creative DC |
On Wednesday, May 25, WDCEP and its partners held the kick-off meeting for the Creative DC Action Agenda, with winning contactor Mt. Auburn Associates, Inc. READ MORE
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Focus Groups Give Insight to Local Green Economy
As part of its Green Collar Jobs Demand Analysis, WDCEP along with its partners undertook four focus groups to explore the local green collar job economy. READ MORE
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Fashion & Economic Development Come Together
On May 28, 2008, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Washington, DC Economic Partnership sponsored a follow-up roundtable discussion from the April 18 initial roundtable. READ MORE |
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 Tell us about e-Luminate Group and why you chose to be located in the District.
Our company (www.eluminategroup.com) is an 11year old consulting company devoted entirely to the education, learning and technology space. We specialize in marketing communications and market leadership services. Our clients range from learning management platform providers such as BlackBoard to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (www.21stcenturyskills.org) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (www.imls.gov).
My business partner and I have each worked in the District for the past 25 years and knew that D.C. was a great place to form, nurture and grow a business that was based upon education, learning and technology. All the assets are here to create business opportunities around these areas and we knew we could attract and keep great talent here.
What are the biggest challenges you face as a District-based information technology company?
I think the biggest challenge of being a DC based company in such an exponentially exploding digital world is to stay focused. We wake each morning to so many new opportunities such as sustainability, health, environment etc. that it is hard not to want to chase all of them. The challenge, in order to succeed, is to narrow the focus and stick with the focus and become world class experts in one or two areas. We have done that in education/learning and technology.
How did you get involved in WDCEP's new technology initiative?
I was Vice Chair of the DC Tech Council and we became aware of the great work that WDCEP was doing in economic development in many sectors of our economy and wanted to work more closely with WDCEP. We felt there was a natural marriage between the interest of DC Tech, the technology and knowledge industries and the WDCEP agenda. We jointly concluded that this is the Knowledge Capital of the World and we wanted to merge our efforts to support this vision.
What's your opinion on where the District's technology ecosystem is today-do we have everything we need in place to grow our high tech industry, or are there things missing?
We have so much in place; strong technology infrastructure, good technology providers, world class technology education, impressive technology corporate presence and of course the entire array of the Associations that represent all of these players. We have a well educated and tech savvy workforce that is multicultural and multilingual. What has been missing is a way to craft the DC Knowledge Economy message and a vision for how to capitalize on this powerful set of assets. I believe that WDCEP is the organization to lead that effort.
Is there a way to make DC a geographic technology region without trivializing it?
I think it is already such a region, but in a unique way. We are not going to be Silicon Valley, or Washington State or Austin, but we already are the Knowledge Capital of the World as the home of the Library of Congress, the National Institutes of Health, the World Bank, the Smithsonian and our array of major universities, colleges and schools that run the gamut from the only urban grant college to land grant to the military colleges. I think we should think less about technology being the defining attribute and articulate that the differentiator for our region is knowledge and the economy supported by it: the law firms, the consultancies, the think tanks, the NGOs, the world organizations etc. the panoply of federal and international agencies, the embassies. They are all here, because we are at the center of generating, housing, disseminating and employing that knowledge to impact the entire global economy. We are to knowledge what New York is to finance and what the Silicon Valley is to technology ventures. The scope is vast, the impact is immense and the dollars associated with it impact the world.
What are the main challenges remaining for technology (knowledge) companies in the District?
Get out from under the rocks. Let the District and the region and the world know what they are up to and collectively their impact. Work with WDCEP and its partners to craft the story and get that message out. Let's not keep our position as the Knowledge Capital of the World a secret any longer! A mayor of New York did this for his city with "I LOVE NY". He got lots support from a range of people who told what they loved about it. We need to get the stakeholders in the District economy to start telling folks that DC IS THE KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD and crowing about their piece of the knowledge pie. |
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- There are 581,530 people living in the DC of which 39.1% have a bachelor's degree or higher.
- The job market is exploding with a current employment of approximately 3 million workers in the Washington metropolitan region and an estimated 23,000 job openings are expected annually.
- The top industries in the district are Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services; Health Care; Educational Services; Administrative Services; Hospitality; Information Services; and Finance and Insurance.
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