2016 Innovation Summit: Keynote Speaker Announced!

Dr. Christian Ketels

We're excited to announce Dr. Christian Ketels as one of our 2016 Innovation Summit keynote speakers. Dr. Ketels is a member of the Harvard Business School faculty Professor Michael E. Porter's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness and President of TCI Network. He holds a PhD (Econ) from the London School of Economics and further degrees from the Kiel Institute for World Economics and University of Cologne. Dr. Ketels has led cluster and competitiveness projects in many parts of the world.

The Innovation Summit will be held February 8-9, 2016. More info on early registration to come!

Willoughby District Stakeholders meeting to be held next week

JEDC will be hosting the Willoughby District Stakeholders meeting on August 25th from 4-5:30PM at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center (JACC). Attendees will gain a greater awareness of plans for the Willoughby District, activities underway and meet other stakeholders in the District.

Paul Voelckers will share plans for an Ocean Interpretative Center and Beth McKibben,CBJ, will speak about to housing in the Willoughby District and the New Housing Plan. There will also be short presentations on development activities in the District from various groups, including Foodland IGA.

FIRST teams in Alaska gear up for another season!

We're getting ready for another season of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The mission of FIRST is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.

This year's theme is Trash Trek and will explore better ways to manage trash. We will have more information on August 25th. For more information please email: cweiss@jedc.org. JEDC supports K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) as part of our Talent Development efforts.

Over 20 decision-makers from the Juneau community participated in the Alaska Glacier Seafood tour coordinated by JEDC. In this picture, Alaska Glacier Seafood workers are removing bones from Alaska King Salmon.

JEDC takes Juneau's decision-makers on a tour of Alaska Glacier Seafoods, Inc.

Rarely do Juneauites get to see the inside of a seafood processing plant so JEDC took our community's movers and shakers on a behind-the-scenes tour of Alaska Glacier Seafoods, Inc. Owners and operators, Jim and Kristie Erickson, along with their son Camden, showed the group various parts of the plant that processes salmon, halibut, black cod, crab and sea cucumber. They also demonstrated the processes used that make Alaska Glacier Seafood one of the most sustainably-managed plants in Alaska. The medium-size plant was proud to show how it was moving towards full utilization of their seafood product. Value-added products include pet food and a scrap meat program from salmon fillet backbone that is utilized as food-grade product for salmon burgers.

To see our full photo gallery of this outing please visit our Facebook page.

Adelie McMillan and Maya Ross launch an egg to test the strength and accuracy of their catapult at Girls Rock Science camp.

STEM Summer Camp Recap

We had great attendance at all of our STEM Summer Camps this year. Third through eighth graders participated in Girls Rock Science, LEGO Robotics or SeaPerch programs and got to learn everything from circuit boards to programming an EV3 Robot.

We want to give a huge thank you to Alaska Airlines and Holland America for their strong summer camp investment, as well as local supporters AEL&P, NOAA and Wostmann & Associates.

Results of Legislative Session Business Visitor Satisfaction Survey presented to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce

JEDCs lead researcher, Eva Bornstein, presented the findings of the Legislative Session Business Visitor Survey to the Juneau Chamber of Commerce earlier this month.

Findings indicated that downtown revitalization efforts, including the installation of rain canopies over sidewalks and reconstruction of Main Street, have been noticed and appreciated by business visitors to Juneau. The increased availability in choice of restaurants has also been noticed by business visitors to Juneau since the 2013 survey. To view other findings, as well as the full survey, please click here.

Featured Economic Indicator:
First quarter 2015 jobs picture for Juneau is mixed

Employment in Juneau's private sector for the first quarter of 2015 was higher than the same quarter 2014 by 229 jobs and has increased since first quarter 2011 by 372 jobs. However, first quarter to first quarter comparison of federal government jobs shows a different picture: a continually shrinking job count over the same period. Local government also had a steady decrease in job count, but with a small turnaround from first quarter 2014 to first quarter 2015. Combined, there are now, in first quarter 2015, 490 fewer federal and local government jobs in Juneau than in the first quarter of 2011. State jobs have held mostly steady, down only 28 over the same period.

Employment data for First Quarter 2015 has recently been posted by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research and Analysis Section, and is available at http://laborstats.alaska.gov/qcew/qcew.htm. The information includes employment and earnings for all individual boroughs and census areas, as well as the state.

JEDC Investor Spotlight: BP Alaska

We want to thank BP Alaska for its ongoing support of the work of the Juneau Economic Development Council, especially our STEM program.

"BP Alaska is focused on creating jobs for Alaskans and continuing to invest in the future of this great state. We are pleased to support the work of the Juneau Economic Development Council, helping to grow and sustain economic opportunity across Southeast Alaska."

Tamera Lienhart,

Director of Community & Public Affairs,

BP Exploration Alaska Inc.

BP opened its first office in Alaska in 1959, and for more than four decades has led the oil and gas industry that drives economic growth in Alaska. BP operates nine North Slope oilfields in the Greater Prudhoe Bay area and owns significant interests in six producing fields operated by others. BP also owns significant non-operating interests in the Point Thomson development project, the Liberty prospect, and in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). Key aspects of BP's business strategy in Alaska are the safe, reliable and efficient development of the significant undeveloped light oil, viscous and heavy oil, and natural gas resources within the existing North Slope fields.

Invest in Juneau!

Become a JEDC Investor and show your support for the work we do to forward Juneau and Southeast's economy. The investor program gives supporters unique access to comprehensive community research, promotional activities, and networking. Most importantly, it helps JEDC deliver services to help make our economy strong and sustainable.

Learn more and invest today!