I ran into this article about Charlotte’s recent progress in becoming a better tech hub (ever since Raleigh beat them out as an Amazon HQ2 finalist).
But as I started reading their work and their to-do list, I realized Charlotte is doing some great things that I think Raleigh could also improve. A regional dashboard to keep an eye on how many jobs we create/recruit in the Triangle (and each city in it), better talent retention and meaningful business-local partnerships, capital to fund early-stage startups,… I don’t know about y’all, but I wish Raleigh had more of those perks.
Click here if you want to see other 'nice-to-have' lists people made in the past.
Friendly reminder: we have a separate thread to fawn over how Raleigh is currently getting attention. I’m here to look beyond the hype, talk about constructive criticism, and see how we could get even more of those headlines.
For starters, there’s a state-level report from 2016 at:
You could also read the original report or read the key takeaways of their most recent report.
NC State also recently made strategic task forces. They came up with ideas to re-envision education as a lifelong process, get their heads out of the sand and make the most out of external partnerships, and pushing State’s brand to thee world more thoroughly.
Want to look back in time? The Harvard Business School has a 2001 case study (see PDF page 134; print page 105) that looked at the Triangle as a model of regional high-tech innovation. Here’s a figure that summarizes key observations back then:
Would you rather look at things at the human and social level? Equity and growth was examined systematically by the University of Souther California back in 2015.
Something more recent? Here’s a 2020 retrospective about the HQ2 pageantry on TBJ.