Fort Wayne's High-Tech Initiatives.

• Author: Mayer, Kathy
• Position: Focus - Indiana

A bevy of signs point the way to lien County's high-tech future, from the new Northeast Indiana Innovation Center to the soon-to-open 63-acre Greenwing Technology Community. Others include the state's first regional chapter of the Indiana Technology Partnership, Fort Wayne's new chief technology post, and a recently launched Tech WORKS training program. Painting the signs: a host of supporters for the growth of high-tech in the northeast part of the state, from the chamber to existing industries to city hall.

"We want to make northeast Indiana a national model for technology success," says Mike Fritsch, volunteer chairman of Indiana Technology Partnership Northeast and vice president of business development for Fort Wayne's Logikos Inc. The local ITP chapter was launched last February and already has 40 member companies signed on. "We want to reach out a little further than some people think we can," Fritsch says of the group.

"It's an understatement to say the city endorses this high-tech push," says Karen Goldner, director of economic development for the city of Fort Wayne. "It's extremely important, and Mayor Graham Richard is very supportive with all the resources we can bring to bear." Soon after taking office in January 2000, the mayor began an economic-development planning process that brought together about 125 community people. From that, high-tech became a priority.

"We've been giving birth to organizations the last three years," says Philip Laux, president of the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce who spearheaded several high-tech initiatives. "We began by looking at how we would attract medical device manufacturers," he says.

The chamber's work led to the 1999 founding of the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center, an incubator that launched operations in temporary quarters in August. It's now raising $4 million for a 35,000-squarefoot facility to be built on a new 53-acre innovation campus near Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. The land has been designated surplus by the state, giving the center a significant boost.

"This will be a mixed-use incubator, the first with a high-tech focus and the first public/private incubator," says Karl LaPan, the center's president and CEO, who also teaches at IPFW.

"My role is to create linkages with educational institutions and private industry, and to develop and run a quality program that can be recognized nationally for creating job growth in knowledge-based businesses," LaPan says. The center is targeting biomedical, biotechnology, information technology, telecommunications and advanced manufacturing businesses, mostly startup.

"We're pretty wide open," LaPan says. Services will include more than operating space. "We want to service the higher-level needs of entrepreneurs in a variety of areas, such as gap financing, product development, international and domestic marketing and capital formation, and more traditional assistance, like strategic alliances and partnerships."

Two companies are already under his wing in the temporary...