Recent research contract with Canadian government: they were proactive, they found us We need to be out there finding opportunities Be of others’ needs Tell them what we can do, building relationships Often it takes a long time to secure funds for research, but when the money comes through, we want to be first in line Other businesses thrive with proximity to R&D Encourage other businesses who use R&D resources to be here and use those resources more fully Potential area: New product development Get undergrads thinking these lines as a habit - not a special project you do once every three years Help it become part of workforce thinking Because you can only do so much to cut Innovation engineering and interacting with existing businesses will help with this Take more advantage of internship/apprenticeship opportunities They do not always have to be at large companies - small businesses can take interns too Aroostook example “cluster” are 5-6 businesses working together as opposed to going at this separately - biofuels, dimensional lumber, panels board, pulp Hospitality industry examples We compete with each other but we have a blast doing it Clusters are unique to each region signals” in forest products industry “Weak There is the perception that we are at the end of the line, but we’re not We are close to a huge population base, and we are also close to Maritime Canada We can deliver small amounts the next day to Boston, Montreal Whereas shipments from China have to get on the next boat Marketing and collaboration Maine is known for hardwood products Largest manufacturer of popsicle sticks in the world Dovetail Bats Sells its best bats to Major league and second grade bats to Japan Vic Firth top notch drumsticks in Newport All these tie into R&D, marketing There are things they might do better together than alone, but collaboration doesn’t happen because they are overwhelmed For example:
Recent research contract with Canadian government: they were proactive, they found us We need to be out there finding opportunities Be of others’ needs Tell them what we can do, building relationships Often it takes a long time to secure funds for research, but when the money comes through, we want to be first in line Other businesses thrive with proximity to R&D Encourage other businesses who use R&D resources to be here and use those resources more fully Potential area: New product development Get undergrads thinking these lines as a habit - not a special project you do once every three years Help it become part of workforce thinking Because you can only do so much to cut Innovation engineering and interacting with existing businesses will help with this Take more advantage of internship/apprenticeship opportunities They do not always have to be at large companies - small businesses can take interns too Aroostook “cluster” example are 5-6 businesses working together as opposed to going at this separately - biofuels, dimensional lumber, panels board, pulp Hospitality industry examples We compete with each other but we have a blast doing it Clusters are unique to each region “Weak signals” in forest products industry There is the perception that we are at the end of the line, but we’re not We are close to a huge population base, and we are also close to Maritime Canada We can deliver small amounts the next day to Boston, Montreal Whereas shipments from China have to get on the next boat Marketing and collaboration Maine is known for hardwood products Largest manufacturer of popsicle sticks in the world Dovetail Bats Sells its best bats to Major league and second grade bats to Japan Vic Firth top notch drumsticks in Newport All these tie into R&D, marketing There are things they might do better together than alone, but collaboration doesn’t happen because they are overwhelmed For example:
Roundtable%20Summaries.docx