This week, we partnered with a number of local groups to host “Building Business. Building Careers.” The event was a combined manufacturing expo and career fair that allowed area middle and high school students to explore various careers, and allowed manufacturers and suppliers to connect and grow their businesses.

This all fit perfectly into KXLY’s “Made in the Northwest” theme:

You can view photos from the two-day expo on the Greater Spokane Incorporated Facebook page.

Meg Lindsay, Not Riding to Work

It’s Bike to Work Week in Spokane, the annual celebration of two-wheel transportation and a healthy body and environment.

Meg Lindsay – GSI’s Program Coordinator – recently began pedaling her Trek mountain bike and her Bianchi commuter to work. She sat down to answer a few questions:

When did you start riding to work?
I started riding to work in April of this year because I was looking for a way to be more environmentally friendly as well as get a little exercise. Kind of a mix of both.

Have you noticed a lifestyle change?
I have noticed that I have spent less on gas – quite a bit less on gas, in fact – and I’m not paying as much for parking as I would have. I find that time wise, it’s the same amount of time getting to work. It does take me a little longer to get home in the afternoon because I live up on the South Hill. I really do enjoy that time between work and home. I kind of unwind on my bike on my way home.

What do you think the advantages are in riding your bike to work?
The exercise and the cost savings. I have to say that I feel better about my transportation choice as well. It’s just more sustainable in working toward having less of a footprint. (Biking to work is) just one of the ways I’ve been doing that.

Do you take the same route each day?
I do. I work in the core of downtown and there are certain roads with bike lanes that work better than others. For example, there’s a bike lane down Howard, which is nice. Going up the hill, I go a little bit west and then up because there’s a little less traffic.

What does it take to ditch the car keys and get on a bike?
It takes a little bit of pre-planning. You have to think about what your schedule for the day is. I don’t ride every day because if I have a meeting somewhere else that I can’t get to on my bike, then I don’t ride my bike that day. (You’ll also need) a little extra time, but not much, and a commitment to find a bicycle that works for you. With that, I mean if you’re not real comfortable on skinny tires then you’ve got to get yourself a commuter bike, one that is set up with the proper lights. It’s good to have your ‘blinkies’ on your front and back so the cars can see you. So, a little bit of commitment in getting your gear ready to go and coordinating your calendar. Really, truly – that’s about it.

*******
Washington was recently named the most bicycle friendly state. Bike lanes in Spokane are starting to sprout as well, and new transportation projects tend to incorporate a bike component to them. Even the North Spokane Corridor has plans for a bicycle/pedestrian trail to connect the corridor to the Centennial Trail.

Bike to Work Week lasts all this week with a number of events, but you can ride your bike to work anytime you’d like.

Need a bike? Purchase one from Two Wheel Transit, a longtime GSI member.

We joined the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and other groups around the state to submit brief testimonials from our region on why the state legislature needs to pass a transportation budget. Here’s all the testimonials put together in one video:

Support a transportation package now from Seattle Metro Chamber on Vimeo.

Jay Allert, President of Aslin-Finch Company and Chair of our AgriBusiness Council, was one of two Spokane representatives featured in the video. Scott Morris, CEO of Avista, was the other.

Tell your state legislators to pass a transportation package by sending them this video or emailing them. The Seattle Chamber has a nice pre-written letter to make it easy. If you’d like to write you own letter, look up your elected officials on our policy website.

Thanks to the folks at the Seattle Chamber of Commerce for producing the video and distributing it.

Take a look. See someone you know?

See previous member web videos at JoinGSI.org.

We’d like to thank Corner Booth Media for producing the videos and Zipline Interactive for creating the JoinGSI.org website.

Lastly, we’d like to thank our featured members for saying such great things about us.

In his member web video, Manley talks about how his membership allows him to build his contact base and help him find possible volunteers for his work at the YMCA. Take a look:

Watch other member web videos at JoinGSI.org. Thanks to Corner Booth Media for producing the web videos, and to Zipline Interactive for developing the JoinGSI.org web page.

Photo by Jeremy Marinos

Is your company prepared for a crisis? There are lots of crises that could arise, so being prepared is essential, and since we’re in 2013, you might want to be prepared for an electronic one.

We’re talking about e-warfare, which happens when your company’s electronic network is corrupted by an internal or external individual. Searching for the perpetrator and figuring out how to avoid this problem in the future takes a unique set of skills.

Thank goodness for Spokane’s Studio Forensics Academy.

With hackers out there looking to do bad things – the group “Anonymous” is most well-known – your company might consider assessing its IT security.

Raj Chauhan, an Air Force veteran, heads up the Academy, where he teaches classes for anybody who is interested in e-warfare solutions. He also contracts with companies looking to solve problems with corrupted networks (learn how Chauhan got started on the Spokane STEM blog).

For example, say someone within your company infected your network, harming its infrastructure and your company. Studio Forensics can work with your company’s IT folks to investigate what happened, find the employee at fault and help your company ensure security in the future.*

The education side of Studio Forensics aims to teach how e-warfare attacks occur, and will help people better prepare for a possible investigation into their company’s network. Classes also teach people how to prevent e-warfare.

With technology advancing at a rapid pace, it’s becoming much more difficult to defend against e-warfare. Computers nowadays can take down an entire network infrastructure. Just imagine the havoc that could create for your company.

Studio Forensics can help you defend your company.

*Studio Forensics does not make discipline recommendations. It is a fact-finding entity only.

Who do you call when you need to hear the voice of the business community? Answer: GSI.

Recently, we received a call from the Washington State Auditor office. It wanted to hear from Spokane area business owners about their experience with the permitting process in one of four focus groups it’s conducting around the state. Results of these focus groups are expected later this year.

Washington has approximately 1,400 permits, licenses and inspections managed by 26 agencies, not including federal and local municipalities (GSI continues to work on streamlining permitting on a local level). In this focus group, it was apparent that businesses have a unified voice on solutions to streamline permitting for all levels of government.

So what’s the solution? Businesses have consistently shared the following resolutions:

• Provide predictability (and ensure that the process won’t change mid-stream)
• All involved agencies need to be present at the beginning
• Implement a “champion,” or one point of contact
• Access to staff – shouldn’t have to wait a week or more for a response
• Performance-based management for state employees
• Accountability, giving consequences if the agency doesn’t meet the time frame
• Cost/benefit before regulations are put out, since too often state staff write the administration rules and legislators’ intent not followed through (especially with commissions)
• State agencies need to work more cohesively and accept each other’s data and research
• Communication from agencies ahead of time rather than after the fact
• Create a “Yes” culture

Sometimes it’s putting common sense back into the letter of the law. It shouldn’t have to cost $3,000 to, for example, dig a hole – believe it or not, it’s true in some cases. Businesses often hear from government staff that every situation is unique, but like a brain surgeon who figures out strategies to remove a tumor within weeks, it shouldn’t take six months to obtain a permit.

Businesses recognize there are some top-notch employees who work in permitting, providing exceptional customer service. Some noted that the Department of Revenue, Fish & Wildlife and the Liquor Control Board consistently had great people to get you through the process.

The end result is to increase business investment and job growth, which will ultimately benefit both business and government in saving time and money. We commend the State Auditor’s Office for taking the time to audit the process and make it easier for businesses to get to “Yes,” and we continue to applaud our region’s cities, Spokane County and various agencies for their efforts to make our region a great place to invest and grow business.

April 26, 2013

WASHINGTON D.C. - Could there one day be a freeway that runs from Canada to Mexico and passes through Spokane? That idea is just a concept right now, but it was one idea presented alongside a number of other, more realistic ideas to staff members of various Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho elected officials on Friday.

Spokane transportation advocates pushed for federal support for the Inland Pacific Hub – a transportation-focused initiative made up of 19 regional counties that strives to expand the region’s transportation system to support economic development.

The Hub is made up of 21 regional partners from Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Throughout the past five years, the regional partners have studied various transportation needs in the region to grow domestic and global commerce. Freight mobility transportation is the main benefactor of various projects, though all transportation users are considered.

The group has identified a number of key projects, some of which include the North Spokane Corridor completion, U.S. Highway 95 to Canada, upgrades to airport access infrastructure, truck routes through the region, and many more.

Projects that need expansion or widening would decrease the time it takes for freight to be transported to its destination, advocates say.

Washington Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA) said a transportation package from the federal government impacts everybody and can improve domestic and international commerce.

“The reason we need to complete our transportation system is so we can compete in a twenty-first century economy,” he said.

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) echoed Heck’s sentiments and said she is working to prioritize transportation projects that move freight. The North Spokane Corridor and projects within the Inland Pacific Hub do just that.

Finding the funding, though can be difficult, given the current economic climate, a number of aids told a group from Greater Spokane Incorporated during the group’s annual “D.C. Fly-in,” which concluded Friday morning.

The annual D.C. Fly-in is planned through partnerships between Greater Spokane Incorporated, and the West Plains, Spokane Valley, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene chambers of commerce.

April 25, 2013

WASHINGTON D.C. - Spokane civic leaders presented the region’s case for expanded graduate medical education Thursday to elected officials’ staff members as part of Greater Spokane Incorporated’s annual “D.C. Fly-in.”

With a new medical school at the Riverpoint Campus in Spokane and a new Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences building set to open this fall, the next step in expanding medical education is growing Graduate Medical Education (GME) slots in the region, civic leaders say.

The group presented the region’s position alongside Ashley Thompson of the American Hospital Association (AHA). In 1996, Congress put a cap on the amount of residency slots states are eligible for.

The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013 was recently introduced by Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Charles Schumer (D-NY). The legislation would create 15,000 residency slots (3,000 per year for five years), though there is a big roadblock.

“Funding is the issue,” Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) said earlier this week.

Residency slots are funded through Medicare, and reductions in Medicare funding impacts GME.

The Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2013 would make new medical schools with a rural location focus (like WSU Spokane) a priority, if it can pass. The amount of residency slots in Central and Eastern Washington is well below the national average.

Group Meets at Pentagon to Discuss Fairchild Air Force Base
A small group met with officials from the United States Air Force on Thursday to discuss Fairchild Air Force Base’s candidacy for being the Main Operating Base for the new KC-46A tankers. As reported yesterday, the Air Force’s initial recommendation has been delayed. The recommendation is now expected sometime in mid-May.

The Air Force will make its recommendation and the chosen site will undergo an Environmental Impact Study before an absolute decision is determined.

This annual advocacy trip to Washington D.C. is planned through a partnership between Greater Spokane Incorporated and the West Plains, Spokane Valley, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene chambers of commerce.

April 24, 2013 – UPDATED, APRIL 29, 10:07 A.M.*

WASHINGTON D.C. – Finding a solution to the sequestration issue won’t be easy and its impact on the Spokane region could be felt if Congress can’t resolve the loss of funding, a group of Spokane and Northern Idaho civic leaders were told Wednesday.

Forty business, community and higher education leaders are in Washington D.C. for the Spokane region’s annual advocacy trip. The group met Wednesday with all federal elected officials from the region, save for Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), who was preoccupied with a meeting with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

“This is the current crisis,” Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) told the group, when talking about sequestration.

The Spokane area is greatly impacted by sequestration cuts to the air traffic control towers at Spokane International Airport and Felts Field. Civic leaders say those cuts harm public safety and jobs. Reversing the sequester cuts will take some sort of legal challenge.

“The way the sequester was drafted, these are across the board cuts,” said Shawn Bills, Legislative Director for Senator Murray. Bills went on to say that the sequestration legislation mandated certain cuts. A legal challenge to reverse those cuts is pending.

Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) says the biggest and obvious question among members of Congress and especially members of the Washington delegation is simple: Why?

McMorris Rodgers said air traffic controllers are deemed “essential employees” during government shut downs – meaning those people remain on the job during shut downs for public safety reasons.

“I think across the board, this is not the way we want to go forward,” she said.

*UPDATE: The United States Congress voted late in the week to reverse the furloughs handed out to air traffic controllers, meaning Spokane’s Felts Field and Spokane International Airport’s control towers will remain on regular hours.

KC-46A Tanker Decision Delayed
McMorris Rodgers herself and members of her staff said the U.S. Air Force’s decision on where to base the first round of KC-46A tankers has been delayed. The decision was to be announced May 1, but the Washington Republicans said that decision has been “pushed back.” A new date was not given.

All members of the Washington federal delegation are supportive of Fairchild Air Force Base’s attempt to receive the new tankers.

McMorris Rodgers said the Air National Guard is pushing for the new tankers to be based at a site where there is a Classic Association between an active duty wing and the Air National Guard. Fairchild Air Force Base fits that request perfectly. It features a Classic Association between the 92nd Air Refueling Wing and the 141st Washington Air National Guard Air Refueling Wing.

A small group from the Spokane and Northern Idaho group will meet Thursday with U.S. Air Force officials at the Pentagon.

This annual advocacy trip to Washington D.C. is planned through a partnership between Greater Spokane Incorporated, and the West Plains, Spokane Valley, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene chambers of commerce.