Traveling through NC
I have been fortunate over the last three weeks to travel North Carolina as part of the Pathways to Opportunity Tour. The Research Triangle Park Foundation, which governs the Park, recently released a new master plan aimed at redeveloping the existing Park. They used this as an occasion to think even bigger than simply redeveloping by also focusing on reconnecting with North Carolina and reimagining our shared future through discussion focused on big ideas.
We were not sure what we would find as we hit the road. After all, it has been a long, long time since RTP traveled the state, and in a period of economic uncertainty it wasn’t clear that a message focused on optimism and competing globally would resonate. Bob Geolas, the President of RTP, argued that while we had no idea which direction the conversation would take, he believed that we would find a few shared values along the way.
First, Bob thought that we would find that many people still believed that North Carolina was a state with a great destiny.
Southerners are considered great storytellers, and it is a fact that North Carolina has developed a great story over the decades since World War II. We, as a state, believe that we are capable of greatness. We have undertaken big bets including the founding the community college system in the late 1950's, the launch of the University of North Carolina system which was built on the success of our longstanding investment in public universities, and even the founding of RTP.
I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see that a great number of people that we met from Asheville to Elizabeth City still believed in the North Carolina story, but it was incredibly encouraging to see that people want us to continue to aspire to greatness as a state.
Second, Bob argued that people would agree that we need to make a big bet once again.
Before we began the tour many told us that they were skeptical, and I wasn’t completely sure that the skeptics were wrong. After all, I have heard plenty of anecdotes over the last few years that indicated that a sizable number of folks believed that their options were narrowing.
In Asheville, which is about as far from RTP as you can get, a community leader closed out our dinner by saying, “You can’t think small, we can’t think small. RTP has to think big and do big things.”
Finally, Bob said that we would find people working together to solve their problems. The story of RTP is unparalleled cooperation between private citizens, the business community, our education institutions, and government.
Bob would tell the people that we met that those who travel from the world over to visit RTP are primarily interested in knowing the secret to the collaboration between RTP and the people of North Carolina.
Unsurprisingly we would find that this was entirely true.
Dan St. Louis, the Director of the remarkable Manufacturing Solutions Center in Conover, North Carolina, would tell us that they didn’t need credit, or praise, and that they would work with anyone, anywhere to find creative solutions that would drive manufacturing forward in any state in the country. He would tell us, “We aren’t waiting on a knight on a white horse from Raleigh, or DC, to ride in and save us. We have to do it ourselves.”
We found this same sentiment in Caldwell County where the community college has created a job fair, and accompanying programs, in cooperation with the Economic Development Commission. In Lee County the community college has the largest apprenticeship program in the state in partnership with Caterpillar, and every economic developer that we met would tell us that the community college, or local university, was their single biggest collaborator and asset as they search for new business.
At one stop Bob was asked who would lead the effort to make a big bet for North Carolina. He told them that, “Look around the room, everyone here has to lead that effort. All of us have to be leaders to move North Carolina forward.”
I was also pleased to discover that the understated eloquence that I associate with North Carolinians from every walk of life remained part and parcel of every conversation that we held.
Charles Becton, the Chancellor of North Carolina Central, would impress on all of us that our journey across the state mattered when he said, “RTP, please know that as you travel across North Carolina that we are with you. Know that our well wishes, and our dreams, are riding with you every mile that you travel.”
The warm embrace that Chancellor Becton delivered was matched at virtually every stop. Archie Davis, the man who raised the money that effectively launched RTP and a leader in the state until his death, told people that RTP would succeed because of a “generosity of spirit and mind” among North Carolinians. The greatest joy of the tour was to find that same generosity of spirit remains today.
