Try Harder

Much has been said over the last year about the Lake Nona biotech cluster and how it will bring many, many needed professional jobs to the Central Florida area.

So it was with great anticipation that we were to read an article in Business Facilities magazine about "The New Biotech Clusters" and how "locations outside the traditional biotechnology capitals are proving their worth to a growing industry."

Certainly, we thought, there would be a cute tag line on how Central Florida was no longer just the home to theme parks.

Guess what? We didn't make the list.

The mentioned markets? St. Louis. Houston and San Antonio. Phoenix. Saskatoon (Saskatchewan, Canada). India - home of technology outsourcing.

Then they wrote a separate article on what it takes to attract biotech clusters, a list which includes:

* Strong research
* Venture capital
* Incentives for commercialization
* Highly educated workforce
* Specialized real estate
* Tax and other incentives

And they go on to list a number of areas which are using these types of incentives to try and make the growing biotech cluster list. That group includes North Carolina, Central Kentucky, Roanoke Valley (Virginia), Kansas, and Iowa, as well as the aforementioned San Antonio and Austin TX.

So that's not to say we're completely shut out. After all, there are certainly regional theme parks throughout the country that do a fine business, but none of them are Disney. We just need to know as we move forward that we're not the only ones in this competition for biotech outside of the "traditional areas" of San Diego and Boston, and that there are many other areas that seem to be further along, and manage our expectations accordingly.