NEXT up? Organization seeking consultants

Peoria NEXT is turning to the public for help in developing its future. Well, as long as it is interested public with knowledge or even expertise in one of the four disciplines that the organization will focus on in its next five years.

Peoria NEXT has completed a realignment process — which we first told you about in the November/December issue of The Peorian magazine — and identified the four disciplines on which it will concentrate. They are medical, energy, food products and safety and manufacturing, the four areas in which the Peoria region excels.

The organization now is putting out a call to people who specialize in any of those areas to join the Peoria NEXT Consultant Team. Jim McConoughey, president of the Heartland Partnership Family of Companies and Peoria NEXT, said the idea of the Consultant Team was to ensure future business ideas get needed expertise.

"We need the technical expertise available in each of the four disciplines to be able to counsel new companies and their investors on what is best for the company as it gets started," he said.

According to Peoria NEXT the four disciplines were selected because:

• NEXT Medical:  "Healthcare is one of the fastest growing industries and the Greater Peoria Region has a cutting-edge medical infrastructure that has witnessed over $600 million in recent investments, additions and renovations. The focus of NEXT Medical is to generate funding to sponsor and manage research in the areas of cancer biology, health informatics, medical education and medical device development. With vision that extends far outside the laboratory, NEXT Medical can aggregate funding from both public and private sources, develop research projects involving multiple institutions and actively manage their funding and accountability."
• NEXT Energy: "There is a need to cultivate new sources of power in order to support the world's energy needs. The question is how to harness renewable energy sources (solar, wind, hydroelectric and biofuels) more effectively and efficiently. Whether it involves upgrades in building materials to reduce heating/cooling needs, improvements to electricity grids, or new advances in geothermal or biofuel production, NEXT Energy is poised to assist as scientists and entrepreneurs turn today's cutting edge ideas into viable energy solutions for tomorrow."
• NEXT Food Products/Safety: "This region has long been an agriculture powerhouse. Couple that with the presence of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR) and it makes the Greater Peoria Region a prime location for developments in food products and safety. "With a powerhouse like NCAUR in its lineup, Peoria NEXT is confident that investments made in basic and applied research programs will generate new products and technology from U.S. agricultural commodities and continually improve the quality of life."
• NEXT Manufacturing: "With Caterpillar and dozens of other manufacturing plants, Peoria NEXT would be shortsighted not to include manufacturing as one of its core disciplines. NEXT Manufacturing will focus on advances in materials and manufacturing to ensure that viable ideas can be applied across fields of study. As advances are uncovered, NEXT Manufacturing will be there to guide them to fruition in the marketplace." 

Through its first 10 years in existence, Peoria NEXT has helped many small companies start — about 130 total — and all fall within at least one of the four disciplines. That's because these disciplines "have a commercial future and play to the strengths of this region in terms of skills and abilities. (Peoria NEXT) will closely monitor developments in each of these fields, looking for viable applications within each," the organization said.

The use of outside consultants is nothing new to Peoria NEXT; indeed, it's basically how the organization was formed in 2001. Fourteen agencies came together to start Peoria NEXT and they explored best practices used by organizations worldwide.

Anybody interested in being a part of the Consultant Team is asked to send an email to jsander@edc.h-p.org stating which discipline you are interested in and why you would like to be part of the team.

Paul Gordon is editor of The Peorian. He can be reached at 692-7880 or editor@thepeorian.com

About the Author

Paul Gordon is the editor of The Peorian after spending 29 years of indentured servitude at the Peoria Journal Star. He’s an award-winning writer, raconteur and song-and-dance man. He also went to a high school whose team name is the Alices (that’s Vincennes Lincoln High School in Indiana; you can look it up).