Flyover Country? Not This Kansas City

Farms, cows and Dorothy? Try entrepreneurship, high tech and the arts.

The Kansas City Metropolitan area is becoming the envy of individuals on the East and West coasts who have long since considered it merely flyover country. The City of Fountains has been praised as a great place to live, work and visit for many years, but recently it is becoming a hot bed for entrepreneurial investment, high culture and the innovations of the future.

Kansas City, Missouri, is home to the world renowned Kauffman Foundation. The foundation's mission is to help individuals attain economic independence by advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success. The Kauffman Foundation's focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, education, and research has helped fuel Kansas City's global presence as an attractive place for creativity and business. Nearly 300,000 individuals from throughout the world have been part of the Kauffman FastTrac program, which has helped entrepreneurs start and grow their business. In addition to the Kauffman Foundation, the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Graduate Entrepreneurship Program was recently named the 2012 National Model Graduate Entrepreneurship Program by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). Entrepreneurship is booming and alive in Kansas City.

The entrepreneurial spirit in Kansas City has led the city to become a national leader in technology. Google recently announced it will build its first ultra high-speed broadband network between Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas City was chosen over 1,100 other cities. Google Fiber will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans experience. The Wall Street Journal recently coined Kansas City as "Silicon Prairie" and believes that the first Google Fiber network "will likely bolster cloud-based technologies and pave the way for high-definition streaming services that will be hard to find elsewhere." Combine this with the friendly business climate on the state and city level and the low cost of living, and you will understand how Kansas City is gaining innovators and entrepreneurs from coast to coast.

Entrepreneurship and innovation have also led to Kansas City, Missouri becoming a thriving arts and cultural community. In late 2011, The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opened its doors. The $326 million dollar center was paid for through all private donations and sits in the heart of the Kansas City Crossroads Arts District, which has become a hub for artists, digital media and advertising firms, filmmakers, and forward-thinking businesses. The area also is home to the offices of Kansas City's Major League Soccer franchise, Sporting KC, who recently built the nation's most innovative and high tech soccer specific stadium in the country Livestrong Sporting Park.

Entrepreneurship, innovation and a thriving arts scene all add up to Kansas City being a city on the move. Take a chance on Kansas City, you won't be disappointed.

 

Follow Jason Grill on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jasongrill

Comments

[trilingual]

01:08 AM on 05/19/2012

Good article! When mentioning "Silicon Prairie," you might mention that Kansas City is home to Garmin (the GPS maker) and Cerner (now the largest health care industry software provider). Sprint is headquartered here, too. The city has always been a telecom hub and still has a surprisingly diversified economy, ranging from large-scale manufacturing (major Ford and GM plants, for example, and Hallmark Cards) to transportation (we're the nation's second largest rail hub) to financial services (American Century, Waddell & Reed, State Street, etc.). There's also big pharma and Kansas City is the center of the animal health industry, with companies like Bayer having large facilities here. The varied economy helps make us somewhat recession-proof, even though this latest one has been an exception to the usual rule. We're also still a big agribusiness center and current high commodity prices are actually bringing a lot of prosperity to the farm country that surrounds Kansas City. The city is a growing regional medical center and one of the ten principal Federal government regional office centers, so there are huge facilities like the IRS and Social Security processing centers as well as many other regional agency headquarters. And there is a burgeoning arts scene in both the performing and visual arts. It all makes up a very diverse economy. Of course, Kansas City has problems to solve, especially in the inner city, but there's movement there, too. The city isn't just sitting on its hands.

[StartingPointKC]

01:11 PM on 04/16/2012

Jason, great summary of why Kansas City is a entrepreneurial hot bed and gold mine for venture capitalists. One additional aspect of what is happening locally and probably worth a second post is the transformation that is occurring within the bio science industry. State and federal investments, a regional concentration of animal health companies and livestock production and the growing centers of expertise in bioscience innovation, e.g. Center for Animal Health Innovation, Ennovation Center in Independence, MO encourage industry and job growth. Examples of early successes include Aratana Therapeutics, SCD Probiotics and Orbis Biosciences. Let me know if you would like more information.

[CityCampKC]

09:45 PM on 04/14/2012

Great article and fascinating comments. KC is approaching an inflection point. Hope you all can make it to an upcoming event where these issues and many more will be on the tabe. It's called CityCampKC. http://citycampkc.org

[CityCampKC]

09:42 PM on 04/14/2012

Great article and fascinating comments. KC is at an inflection point. Hope you all turn out for http://citycampkc.org where these issues and more will be on the table in a fun, collaborative and open-minded event.

[Jason Grill]

01:53 PM on 04/11/2012

Interesting takes from everyone commenting. This is the great thing about Kansas Citian's...we're all passionate people about our community and future. No city or community is perfect. We all understand KC has its own issues. However, the focus of this piece is on the great and interesting things being done with entrepreneurship, technology, and the arts in KC. Kansas City should be proud of the direction it is going and has taken in these specific areas. People are noticing KC on a worldwide level. Thanks for reading, sharing, creating a dialogue, and representing KC!

[posttheist]

10:31 AM on 04/11/2012

Kansas City Metro also is the home of Garmin, Sprint, YRC Worldwide, at the confluence of 3 Interstate Highways, the largest rail center by tonnage in the country, a city of 2.5 millions people, beautiful gorgeous architecture, one of the ten largest collections of Asian art in the western world...on, and on, and on....

[Patrick Connor]

09:34 PM on 04/10/2012

There is some legitimacy to this article. However, what this article fails to mention is the lack of innovation and 'entrepreneurial efforts' invested in the public school system. It's one of the worst, if not the worst in the country. The Kansas City School District shut the doors on nearly half (28) of its school fleet in 2011, with the remaining schools losing their accreditation. In my opinion, a city is only as great as the education it has to offer. One could argue that the University of Missouri Kansas City is thriving,especially with all the noticeable on-campus renovations, but I could talk for hours about pathetic student retainment and the graduation percentage.

I'm not going to bash the Kauffman Foundation, they've done wonders for our city. However, if anyone is familiar with Kansas City, then you're well aware of the "Troost Divide." If you're not from Kansas City, let me sum it up for you really quick like. It's literally a street that splits the city via race and socioeconomic class. This epidemic is a result of racist real estate dating all the way back to the early 1900s. Seriously though, one side is black and the other is white. So, the way I see it, until something is done about severity of this suppressive divide and lack of initiative to better our school system. KC is really just another struggling American city with rich people, cool art, and a lot of vacant space.

[BasketWeaver]

12:37 AM on 04/11/2012

I'm a Kansas Citian, and while what you say is certainly true, there has been significant improvement in the city's continued desegregation over the past ten years. I remember reading a study that cited KC as the second fastest desegregating city in the country, which was measured by the change in the % of the city's residents that live adjacent to households of different ethnicity.

[Patrick Connor]

09:45 AM on 04/11/2012

Great. Let's keep going. Remember though, because KC's segregation is so drastic, even a significant percentage change will only reflect a small number.

[TheRealestRealist]

01:35 AM on 04/11/2012

Don't be bringing our renaissance down, man!

[Patrick Connor]

09:41 AM on 04/11/2012

I'm not trying to bring down our "renaissance," but how can KC actually progress if we only glorify the good and turn our check to the reality?