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Peoria NEXT enters new phase with new director, updated approach

There are four areas where Peoria and its business community excel — medical, manufacturing/materials, clean technology and food products/safety.

It is in those areas that Peoria NEXT, which has entered its second decade, will focus its energy in its next phase of strategic planning, said Jim McConoughey, president of the Heartland Partnership, which includes Peoria NEXT.

Indeed, the 130 businesses Peoria NEXT help start and grow in its first decade fell within those four areas.

Now, with new leadership bringing expertise that will focus on developing those areas further and building on the strength of the area's skills and abilities, the future looks bright for the organization that has been about the future since it was launched Sept. 11, 2001.

"Our third five-year plan will be taking what we know and what we have established in the community and leveraging it out to the rest of the country and the world," McConoughey said. "We have identified the four disciplines we've been really good at, things we've been doing here for 100 years at least, and we will focus on those and build on those strengths."

Peoria NEXT, he added, will focus its resources and energy on those four areas of concentration and will "closely monitor developments in each of those fields, looking for viable applications within and across each discipline."

Peoria NEXT recently announced it will merge with one of its original partners, Biotechnology Research and Development Corp. Dr. Grant Brewen, the BRDC president and CEO, will be the chief operating officer of Peoria NEXT. He replaces Kyle Ham, who left to become chief of staff for Illinois Treasurer Dan Rutherford.

With Brewen working on the operational structure of Peoria NEXT, Dr. Peter Johnsen, former head of the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, or what is better known around here as the Peoria ag lab, will work as the subject matter expert for the medical discipline.

With Caterpillar Inc. in its front yard, Peoria is well versed in global operations. With technology as it is today Peoria NEXT should have a global vision for the companies it helps to start and grow, McConoughey said. It recognizes it must "cast a wider net" and make itself and what it provides known well beyond the Peoria city limits or even the Illinois borders.

Peoria NEXT was founded to focus on developing small businesses, with the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center acting as an incubator. Fourteen agencies came together to start Peoria NEXT and they explored best practices used by organizations worldwide. But rather than be like everybody else, it wanted to jump ahead, McConoughey said.

Peoria NEXT set out to establish five-year strategic plans, with the first five years focusing on changing the culture of the community to give small business more of a role in the area's economic development. The second five years was demonstrating how to get that done.

McConoughey likened the first 10 years to the 1960s and 70s when a set of the Encyclopedia Britannica was in every living room. "Everybody then was getting basically the same information. We don't need to read from the same book any more; we can be more organic and move forward on our own," he said. "With instant communication now, everybody can participate. It's an exciting proposition."

McConoughey said the four disciplines that Peoria NEXT will focus on are naturals for this area.

NEXT Medical will take advantage of this area's strong health care community, with three top hospitals, the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria, the Cancer Research Center and developments in medical equipment.

NEXT Clean Technology will tap into the area's growing expertise in cultivating renewable energy sources and meeting ever-changing regulations.

NEXT Food Products/Safety will use the presence of the ag lab, one of its founding partners, to continue finding ways to develop food safety and food products.

NEXT Manufacturing/Materials will tap into what Peoria is best known for, including founding partner Caterpillar, to help solve problems and find innovations to use in all fields of study.

In a brochure about the next steps for Peoria NEXT, the organization states that "The world will never run short on problems — or the talents of creative individuals who diligently search for solutions. Peoria NEXT is poised to transition innovative concepts into applications that hold potential for worldwide change."

It invites that "inquisitive scientist who dares to wonder how far-reaching a discovery could be" and the entrepreneur "longing to take an idea from infancy to adulthood" and investors "willing to back the next big idea" to join the effort.

McConoughey said the Peoria NEXT vision is that by 2015 "our regional economy will be more diversified and be a desired location for new technology-based businesses."

With the groundwork already laid and that to be coming in the next five years, he added, "we will be more than ready."

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