{"id":4542,"date":"2018-09-11T11:09:35","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T11:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adirondack.org\/tapping-the-old-economy-in-new-ways-the-innovation-challenge-in-greater-old-forge\/"},"modified":"2022-06-20T20:13:47","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T20:13:47","slug":"tapping-the-old-economy-in-new-ways-the-innovation-challenge-in-greater-old-forge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adirondack.org\/north-blog\/tapping-the-old-economy-in-new-ways-the-innovation-challenge-in-greater-old-forge\/","title":{"rendered":"Tapping the old economy in new ways: the Innovation Challenge in Greater Old Forge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blog by Jeffrey Grimshaw,\u00a0Executive Director of\u00a0View Arts Center<\/a>
\nLike many places in the Adirondack Park, we rely on tradition as a component of our economic development engine. Also, in many places there have been entrepreneurs who have a need, find neighbors and others that have a similar need and then share their skills, product or expertise to help others.<\/p>\n

In today\u2019s economy we call those people Makers and where they do their thing \u2014 Makerspaces. This has been going on for a very long time, but what if we found a different set of eyes to look at what we do and how they do it?<\/p>\n

In the greater Old Forge Area, we started with exploring the Makerspace concept. We found that people wanted to learn more. This conversation interested SUNY Poly in Utica and a project called Innovation Challenge New York (ICNY) \u2014 the brainchild of Dr. Robert Edgell, Interim Dean of the College of Business Management.<\/p>\n

The concept of ICNY is that students from around the region converge on a community over a two-day span, explore, investigate and then generate ideas based on a \u201cChallenge Statement\u201d developed by a community committee. The students hear from experts in areas identified in the statement and read literature provided prior to their arrival in the community.<\/p>\n

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Photo:\u00a0Winners of the 5th Grade \u201cTrout Tank\u201d Business Plan Competition sponsored by the Town of Webb School and View Arts Center<\/em><\/p>\n

After the first day of information gathering, the students meet and brainstorm potential solutions to the issues posed in the Challenge Statement. The students then pitch their ideas to a group of local judges who weigh the ideas against a rubric of criteria created for the location. In the end, the students leave with practical applications of classroom concepts, and the community gets all the ideas generated and an opportunity to see their community through new eyes.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0ICNY \u2013 Reimagining Greater Old Forge<\/a><\/strong>, college and university students are scheduled to come to the area on October 12th and 13th to engage the challenge set forth in our statement. The statement set forth some areas of concern that include;<\/p>\n