2015: Enrollment records set in Northeast Ohio

Crediting the success of the region’s world renowned internship programs, the collective freshman class of Northeast Ohio’s universities and colleges is up 5% over a year ago.

2013: Fuel cell manufacturing plant opens near Canton

Access to graduates from Stark State program cited as main reason for operation locating in Northeast Ohio.

2012: Kent declared tech “hot spot”

Leadership in polymer-based LCDs cited by Forbes magazine.

2011: Hiram opens biodeisel station

University’s research prompts plan to power fleet of vehicles with biodiesel; other area universities considering following suit.

2010: Engineering graduates on the rise

Northeast Ohio universities said the number of graduates with a technical degree increased 15% in the last four years.

2009: GrafTech expands capacity to meet growing fuel cell demand

Parma operation to add 100 employees; satellite office to open near Stark State

This story, set in the year 2015, is designed to get you thinking about the impact this possible future might have from the perspective of just one type of person or group of people within the region. Think of it as a way of bringing home more concretely and in human terms the potential impact this future might have on our region.  

Look at the scenario description first; then consider the kinds of things that would be happening globally and locally if this really was our “world” in 2015. Then read the story and examine the possible headlines to the right of the story that you might see over the next ten years as this scenario unfolded.

You may or may not like or agree with everything you read here; but it should get you thinking. We hope you will share your thoughts with us through the Feedback link at the end of the story…

This is a world in which the technology and political developments of the 1990s have led—eventually—to a profound shift in business models, industry structures and notions of regional competitiveness around the world. This is a permeable world, with lots of connections and few boundaries. Faced with a turbulent business, social and technology environment, a new generation of connected leaders has emerged from unexpected places, finding new voice and exerting great influence.

• The communications revolution continues apace, with new wireless technologies connecting billions more around the world, and creating a more transparent, permeable world
• Small-scale energy and bioscience initiatives founded by virtual research teams lead to massive technology breakthroughs
• Microsoft breaks itself up, unable to cope with more nimble, innovative competitors; Hollywood struggles while independents thrive; Big pharma loses out to biotech firms.
• Technology and creative entrepreneurs are back in fashion – especially in creative cities worldwide
• Traditional intellectual property rules have crumbled – partly thanks to piracy, but also new alternative rules based on open source principles
• Many controversies center around the ethical issues of rapid technology change

• Case opens a virtual campus, a joint initiative with technical universities in Mumbai and Nairobi
• Record applications for technology-based entrepreneurship courses offered by Northeast Ohio colleges
• Local small healthcare and biosciences companies are reported to be experimenting with brain research and “human enhancement” – causing significant controversy
• Many high profile local redundancies as large, established employers struggle with the pace of competition and change
• 38-year old elected the new Cleveland mayor – she promises initiatives to attract young creative talent to the downtown area, while promising to break up old decision-making committees and structures
• NEO-blog becomes the most influential source of opinion on local technology issues

His heart pounding, Takafumi (Ted) Okamoto pulls the latest copy of Design Quarterly off the newsstand shelf and silent flips through its pages until he sees a familiar face staring back at him: his own. In the picture he was standing in front of the Union Club in downtown Cleveland—though anyone who had not seen the place recently wouldn’t have recognized it. “This has been an exciting project for me to work on personally,” the article quotes Okamoto as saying. “I think this design reflects the history of both the building and the region, but it also reflects the rich diversity of cultures who consider Northeast Ohio home—or at least one of their homes!”

The article highlighted the fact that the Brazilian-born designer splits his time between homes in Tokyo, Sao Paulo, and Akron, and noted that he makes sure to incorporate lots of different materials from the region into his re-design of the facility because, as he puts it, “This is the material world—Northeast Ohio is the materials capital. It’s where the world looks for the best of the best in materials—both new and old. We’ve incorporated nanotech fabrics throughout the interior of the building, in all the drapes and upholstery. The wall coverings include polymer substrates with embedded LCDs, and I think we’ve shown, in the new windows, lighting, and even in some of the building material and furnishings just what an incredibly flexible, durable, and enduring material plastic really is, especially the newer biopolymer materials companies here have developed.

“Okamoto,” the article continues” represents a new breed of Northeast Ohioans—a growing group of immigrants who call the region home, but also keep homes elsewhere. You can see it in the Chinatown areas of Cleveland and near Kent, which are nearly bursting at the seams. A large Russian community has sprung up on Cleveland’s west side, while in Akron Scottish, Japanese, and African immigrants have settled in what is rapidly becoming one of the regions most vibrant arts and entertainment centers. The region has become known for its well-designed and highly sophisticated consumer healthcare products, especially those that manage to integrate wireless communications technologies with the region’s hospitals and physicians. Arts and culture abound in the region. Even the Cleveland Symphony—which during the past decade fell on hard times along with the rest of the classical music world—has managed to reinvent itself and is now redefining just what an orchestra is, and what “classical” music means in a globalized, always-connected world.

“Most of Okomoto’s family still live in Sao Paulo, where his grandfather emigrated as a young man to go into the restaurant business. Ted, as he likes to be called, spends a few months each winter returning to Brazil where his services as a restaurant designer are in high demand. Polymers and other NEO materials are major features of his designs for clients in Brazil as well as in Japan, where a search for his ancestral roots led him to create a house built entirely out of plastic on a small plot a land the family still held in a suburb near Tokyo. “The house that was there had fallen into such disrepair it was cheaper to simply tear it down. But I couldn’t afford to build a conventional house. I wasn’t rich or famous then (not that I’m now either, though business certainly is very good!) and so I simply took advantage of what I had learned during my year as a visiting professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art to build a completely unique and inexpensive structure that suddenly led to me getting lots and lots of attention—and business.

I fell in love with Northeast Ohio during that year. Even the winter didn’t bother me—the snow is so beautiful, it just hangs around far too long—and I couldn’t believe the clubs and galleries I discovered in Akron. I built a small house there of my own design—again, because I wasn’t rich, I had to be very innovative in my use of materials—and I soon found clients wanting me to design new structures for them, too. It just made sense for me to expand my business, and now I spend six months a year here, three or four in Tokyo, and the rest with my family back in Brazil.”

Ted pulls six copies of the magazine off the shelf to buy, and then is overcome by a feeling of embarrassment that he should feel a need to have so many copies of an article about himself. “Must be the Midwesterner in me” he thinks to himself, as he approaches the counter and buys just the one copy. He’ll leave it casually on the coffee table in his apartment. Tonight he is meeting up with some friends at a club in Akron where his favorite group is playing. Hailed by The Source as “embodying the gritty reality of the industrial Midwest” and by Rolling Stone Magazine” as “a band that shows there’s still a lot of heart left in the heartland,” the group sometimes drops by his place afterwards to unwind. He won’t make a big deal out of it, but if someone should happen to pick up the magazine and see the article, well, that would be all right, wouldn’t it?

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