The Business Record’s Power Breakfast on the Cultivation Corridor on Feb. 25 brought together four development heavyweights who are fully versed in collaboration, working on a regional scale and promoting an area. All four said the fledgling Cultivation Corridor – Central Iowa’s answer to the California’s Silicon Valley and North Carolina’s Research Triangle – will be a success. It will take time, they all stressed, but they expect Central Iowa to see expansions and new businesses in the agricultural biosciences arena within a couple of decades, and broader success in less than the 50 years the Research Triangle took to develop.

To kick off the event, we had our panelists provide a look at the history and formation of the Cultivation Corridor, share lessons from the Research Triangle, and compare efforts here to those in Cedar Rapids/Iowa City. 

Panelists:

Jay Byers – CEO, Greater Des Moines Partnership

Steve Zumbach – Shareholder, Belin McCormick P.C.

Steve Leath – President, Iowa State University

Dee Baird – President & CEO, Cedar Rapid Metro Economic Alliance