It's worth nothing that the movement that led to the recent appointment of the first-in-the-nation state "creative economy" director in Massachusetts began right here on the North Shore.
Jason Schupbach, 32, was named to the post by Gov. Deval Patrick earlier this month and will be charged with spreading the message that there's real economic opportunity in the thousands of businesses, many of them one-person shops, that rely mostly on brainpower and imagination to produce valuable goods and services.
It's a good move by the administration, which will use existing business development funds to pay Schupach's $70,000-a-year salary.
Among the first to realize the potential of these enterprises, and devise strategies for encouraging them, were Patricia Zaido, executive director of The Salem Partnership, and Christine Sullivan who runs the Enterprise Center at Salem State College. They're still spreading the gospel, most recently at a meeting of the North Shore Chamber of Commerce this week during which Sullivan noted that these businesses, which range from software designs firms to architectural concerns, account for a significant share of the North Shore's economic activity. More important, she noted, they're growing and their market is a global one.
Sullivan says a priority going forward is the development of a "bump strategy" that will get these entrepreneurs networking — or bumping into each other — on a regular basis. It's how the area around San Jose, Calif., became the center of computer development known as Silicon Valley several decades ago.
With any luck this region and this state can bump itself right out of a recession.
