These days, the Spokane nonprofit known as Intec seldom uses the full name its acronym represents. Inland Northwest Technology Education Center just doesnt seem to describe the organization as well anymore, says its new CEO, Lewis Rumpler.


Launched three years ago during the dot-com boom to help supply Spokanes then-growing high-tech sector with trained workers, Intec since has had to broaden its focus as high-tech jobs became scarce. Today, Intecs staff of five full-time employees spend a lot of their time exploring new ways to rebuild the regions economy.


Sometimes that means strategizing ways the Spokane area can capitalize on the strong cluster of energy technology companies that operate here. Other times it means exploring the idea of developing an industry that makes money from agricultural waste. Last month, it put on the big Launch Pad event aimed at invigorating economic development here.


Now, it wants Spokane to emulate an innovation economy strategy made successful in San Diego.


People ask what we do, says Rumpler. One of the things we do is bring forth ideas like this, he says, referring to the San Diego initiative.


Asked whether Intecs broader focus might make other economic-development organizations here feel threatened, Rumpler shrugs his shoulders and says Intec will continue to do all it can to promote economic growth here, even if that means shaking up the status quo. I think its a good thing, he says. I think its good for the community.


An innovation economy


What isnt good for the community, Rumpler says, is the growing gap in per-capita incomes between Spokane and the Puget Sound region. This is not an acceptable path, he says, pointing to a chart showing how incomes in Western Washington have grown relative to the U.S. average over the past three decades while those here have declined.


He argues that to change that path, Spokane will have to look for new ways to expand the economy. The dimension thats been missed in our economic-development efforts is the innovation economy, Rumpler says.


He says that means more than just recruiting companies. It means also recruiting talented peopleor bringing them through schools herethen capitalizing on their innovations.


The University of California at San Diego, with its Connect program, has done just that, he says.


Launched in 1985, UCSD Connect guides people with marketable ideas through the commercialization process and connects them with possible funding sources. It has assisted in the formation of hundreds of companies, Rumpler says. He credits UCSD Connect with helping to drastically lower San Diegos unemployment rate, and says that metro area now has one of the nations highest concentrations of biotech and wireless-communications companies.


We want to use the San Diego example, Rumpler says. How do you help entrepreneurs make ideas a reality? The A ideas always seem to find help, but what about the B, C, and D ideas? Where do they get plugged in?


Rumpler believes Spokane can recreate the Connect idea to provide that help here, and says the Inland Northwest already has some of what it needs to make such an effort successful. One such resource is that the regionincluding Spokane, the Tri-Cities, and the Pullman-Moscow areaattracts $750 million in research dollars annually.


If we didnt have that, we wouldnt be having this conversation. It would be game over, he says.


Another resource is what Rumpler refers to as human capital. He estimates that nearly 60,000 students attend colleges and universities in the Inland Northwest, and that the regions population is now more than 900,000.


What the area will have to do, he says, is realize that Spokane, the Tri-Cities, and the Pullman-Moscow area must rely on each other to grow economically.


He points to North Carolina as an example. In the 1950s, it had the second-lowest per-capita income rate in the U.S., he says. In 1958, the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and North Carolina State formed the Research Triangle Institute. Later, the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill began cooperating on economic development. Today, that research triangle area has an unemployment rate of about 2.4 percent, he says.


What Rumpler wants is to get the private sector in the Spokane area to buy into the idea of establishing a Connect program here, mentored by UCSD Connect.


Send businesspeople from Spokane to San Diego to learn, he says. Then let them (UCSD Connect) help us create it. We dont have to do this on our own.


UCSD Connect co-founder Mary Walshok was scheduled to be in Spokane this week to do presentations about the organization.


Intec already has the ear of the city of Spokane, which has agreed to give Intec $16,000 to pursue its innovation strategy, one component of which is the Connect idea. The Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute (SIRTI) is tossing in $4,000 toward the effort, and the Washington Technology Council will provide another $10,000. Intec plans to spend another $10,000 from its own budget on the effort, raising the total to $40,000.


I think it is worth exploring, says SIRTI Executive Director Patrick Tam. I dont know how much of it (the Connect model) will be applicable here, but we need to understand what attributes we could take and use.


The innovation strategy that Intec has embraced was developed jointly by Intec, the Spokane Area Economic Development Council, and SIRTI. The plan was unveiled at Launch Pad recently.


Rumpler says its not his intent that a Connect effort here would take over the economic-development jobs that other organizations here perform, nor does he envision it being solely an Intec effort.


Every agency has a role in this, he says. Everybody should play.


He acknowledges that a lot of what a Connect program here would do has been tried in different ways by various organizations over the years. He argues, though, that such efforts would be much more effective if organized under an umbrella program.


Though economic development has become a major initiative for Intec, it continues also to pursue its original mission of helping to ensure the region has enough trained workers. In the past year, it landed five grants totaling $1.1 million, focused mostly on education and work-force development in biotechnology and information technology.


It currently is seeking two other grants, together worth about $1.3 million, aimed at producing more health-care workers here.


Meanwhile, Intec is in the process of reorganizing its staff. Since Rumpler took over as CEO in March, succeeding Randy Long, Rumplers previous job as CFO and director of biomedical technologies has been left unfilled. Rather than hire a new person for those roles, Intec has decided to hire a director of education programs. In connection with that, the organization, which until now has simply facilitated training programs that ultimately are performed by other entities, plans in the future to conduct some training itself.


Bill Kalivas, who formerly headed Intecs information-technology cluster programs, has become vice president for business development and will pursue new revenue streams for Intec. Those revenue streams could include furthering the Launch Pad event, investigating fee-based income ideas, and perhaps asking companies and others to join the organization as paid members.


Julie Wallman, who had been a project manager at Intec, has become director of operations, and Leslie Miller, who had been a part-time grants coordinator there, now will work full time in work-force development. Recent Gonzaga University graduate Patrick OBrien will handle marketing communications.


The bulk of Intecs funding comes from the state of Washington and Spokane County. The 2003 Legislature appropriated $485,000 annually for Intec for the current biennium, which began July 1. That amount is somewhat less than the $1 million it received last biennium. Spokane County has allocated about $245,000 this year. It provided $575,000 over the previous two years.