Innovate ABQ Supporters Issue Challenge to Private Sector

At Wednesday morning’s NAIOP forum on building an innovation economy, it quickly became clear the developers and business leaders in attendance weren’t just being asked to listen, they were being asked to contribute their time, talent and dollars to the push.
“If we expect things to happen, we have to take risks. We have to do,” said Stuart Rose, founder of the Bioscience Center and one of the forum panelists. “We have to start thinking about the upside of opportunities and not the downside.”
A central focus of the local push to grow an economy around entrepreneurship is Innovate ABQ, a public-private partnership among the University of New Mexico and local education, government and business groups that aims to bring entrepreneurs, students and business leaders together to live, work and learn. Panelist UNM President Dr. Robert G. Frank explained how Innovate ABQ was built on the ‘rainforest’ model of economic development.
Rose riffed on that to further his argument about the need for Albuquerque to build a startup economy that can withstand, learn and grow stronger from failure: In the rainforest, he said, “things die and decay, the DNA mixes and new life forms are created.”
And panelist Bill Bice, chairman of business accelerator ABQid, said Innovate ABQ “has energized entrepreneurs in this community to come together to make things happen.”
But to keep the momentum going, panelists said, Albuquerque’s private sector must embrace the concept. Frank noted the importance of the $3 million funding commitment for Innovate ABQ by New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union.
Rose called on attendees to invest in and mentor startups, create services that meet startups’ needs, and start initiatives that can solve New Mexico’s problems. One of his startup ideas that he hasn’t had time to fully develop, he said, is a homegrown airline that could address the state’s challenges with passenger air service.
Moderator Paul Silverman of Geltmore Inc. took up the call, urging attendees to get involved in the Innovate ABQ push and to turn out to support Wednesday night’s City Council vote on ABQid funding.
“We’ve been so focused on building buildings,” he told the commercial real estate development group. “If we don’t build the economy, we’re not going to build very many buildings.”
By: Rachel Sams (Albuquerque Business First)
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