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Greater Binghamton - Home to
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Greater Binghamton Catapults Up Milken Institute's Best-Performing Cities Index
1/5/2010 (Source: Press and Sun Bulletin)
The Binghamton area climbed 60 spots to No. 65 on the Milken Institute's Best-Performing Cities Index, which ranks the 200 largest metro areas in the U.S. based on job, wage and technology growth or stability.
The Binghamton area climbed 60 spots to No. 65 on the Milken Institute's Best-Performing Cities Index, which ranks the 200 largest metro areas in the U.S. based on job, wage and technology growth or stability.
The region's technology-driven manufacturing base and work for military customers helped boost its performance on the index, said Perry Wong, senior managing economist at the institute, an economic think tank in Santa Monica, Calif.
The area is No. 13 on the list when it comes to concentration of high-tech companies - businesses that are typically associated with high wages and a skilled and educated work force, he said.
But when defense work dwindles, as it did with the cancellation of the presidential helicopter project at Lockheed Martin in Owego in 2009, "moving forward will become an issue if indeed the federal budget will need to face further cuts, not only in the next year, but the year after," Wong said.
That might hurt the region and its ranking on the index in future years, he said. The 2009 ranking is based on data from 2002 to March 2009.
"We would like to see regions with more diversified portfolios over the long haul because that gives the region more stability," Wong said.
A high-tech focus
Virtusphere is just one of the many companies in the Binghamton area that is trying to capitalize on an innovative, high-tech product.
The startup, at the Greater Binghamton Innovation Center on Court Street in Binghamton, launched in November 2008. It has three employees, but also gets help from interns.
Now, the company is selling its simulation training and entertainment device for about $35,000, Chief Operating Officer Jim DiMascio said. The system includes a 10-foot, hollow plastic sphere that can move freely on a base platform, as well as a wireless, head-mounted display that the user wears to experience the virtual environment while inside the sphere.
Plastic injection - or filling a mold with plastic to generate the sphere's components - is done in China, while the welding, painting and completion of the device is performed at the local Innovation Center by subcontractors, DiMascio said.
Additional Information:
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100103/BUSINESS/1040328/1108/BUSINESS/Area+cited+on++best+performing++index
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