> SOUTHERN INDIANA — More than a year ago, area lawmakers and educational leaders gathered to promote a program they hoped would sustain regional growth and development for Southern Indiana and metropolitan Louisville.

The program’s roots date back three years to a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, which created the Workforce Innovations in Regional Economic Development, or WIRED, program. The group added the 65 moniker to indicate the region and is a reference to Interstate 65 passing through the 26-county area it encompasses.

Last year, the focus was on a Talent Innovation and Place report along with a HIRE education forum to focus on improving education and preparing graduates for 21st century jobs.

The report outlined its goals as creating a strong pool of talent to allow businesses to flourish, fostering an environment that supports innovation and entrepreneurship and developing a quality of place that draws people and companies to the area while meeting the needs of current residents.

But a year later, WIRED65, like some of those students, is graduating onto its next phase and is trying to bridge the gap from developing the talent pool to connecting people with a possible career. To help in its next phase, WIRED65 launched a regionally focused Kentucky Indiana Exchange website called kix.com.

“It’s a ‘town square’ where employers, educators, job seekers, students, entrepreneurs and others can come together to talk, share ideas and spark innovation,” according to a description of the site provided by kix.com. “Most importantly, it’s a community gathering place of our own, where we can promote our ideas, and help people from our region grow and thrive.”

The website boasts area job listings, allows job-seekers to post a resume, includes an events calendar of attractions and cultural events in the area, local blogs and it allows individuals to create profiles to network with others in the region.

While the site and the programs were not designed to be exclusive, regionalism is clearly its focus and it’s what makes the website unique.



Not just another portal

With a number of websites that post job listings, sites that allow business-to-business networking and others that post upcoming events in the area, kix.com is not the first website with the aforementioned capabilities, so it had to set itself apart.

“It has to provide value, otherwise it’s just another portal,” said Beth Avey, president of Heartland Communications Consultants.

The value being provided is it is a one-stop-shop for Southern Indiana and metro Louisville.

“There’s so many of these [websites] out there now. This one is focused on the Louisville market and the 26-county region,” said Michael Dalby, president of One Southern Indiana. “[You] don’t have to go to multiple sites to find what you are looking for.”

Southern Indiana is inexorably linked to Louisville in a variety of ways, according to organizers.

“We’re tied at the hip in that where people live, work and play is in the Louisville area,” said Ron McKulick, executive director for Workforce Development Associates. “For our region what’s more distinctive is we do exist in a bi-state economic area. When you look at other areas in Indiana, Southern Indiana is more connected with a region outside of the state — we’re connected with Louisville.”

Although Louisville may be a more developed metropolitan area and has about 80 percent of the region’s labor market, there is a reciprocal need for Southern Indiana for Louisville, McKulick said.

“Southern Indiana has quite a bit of area to grow,” he said. “The sheer acreage and room for development ... that’s a real economic asset for Southern Indiana.”



Economic regionalism

Instead of having businesses compete with one another in the area, WIRED65 is looking to promote the whole region so it can compete on a much larger stage.

“An area has a much better chance of competing regionally,” Avey said. “You compete as a region [and] you compete globally.”

Kix is relying on cooperation from area businesses to help make its site sustainable, in turn positioning the area for growth. The site itself was launched out of the concept of cooperation.

“This came through internal motivation to work together,” McKulick said.

The source of funding, until June 30, came from a portion of the $5 million grant from the Department of Labor. As part of the WIRED65 initiative, the group developed a $2.5 million Quantum Project, which included entrepreneurship conferences, job fairs and a large portion of that funding went to the kix.com website.

Part of the quantum project was sponsored by online job board Monster.com and ERISS Corp., an employer outreach, surveys and work force technology company. The companies have helped to launch, and will fund until the end of the year, kix.com’s job boards, said Debbie Wesslund, WIRED65 coordinator.

Beyond the end of the year a sustainability plan is being pursued, Wesslund said. McKulick said a combination of state funding, especially in Kentucky, possible private and corporate funding may be sought. Other possibilities for funding include sponsorships and eventually advertisements on the site’s work force boards.

But to limit the site to a local jobs board would be a mistake, Wesslund said.

“It’s just not a job portal; it’s much more,” she said.