New Valley 105
A Silicon Future?

In its 2001 rankings, Forbes magazine placed the Sacramento region 11th out of the top 200 metropolitan areas in their annual listing of "Best Places To Do Business". Yuba City ranked 11th among 94 smaller communities in the same category.

Is the Central Valley undergoing a major "makeover?" Are traditional businesses that launched California to the forefront of agricultural abundance being overshadowed by a new "high tech" revolution? The names of "Hewlett-Packard" and "Earthlink" are as noticeable these days as "Monsanto" and "Del Monte". According to the Sacramento Business Journal the number of hi-tech companies in the Sacramento region jumped from 236 in 1996 to 714 in 2001.

Perhaps it was inevitable that the technological revolution would eventually catch up to the Central Valley. In the path of the population explosion the expansion into new business and manufacturing opportunities seems a certainty.

A report from the Great Valley Center titled "New Valley Connexions" states:

"If it fails to embrace the new economy values of speed, knowledge, and innovation, the valley runs the risk of losing its' youth and core industries to the new economy centers in California and the world."

From the U.S. Trade and Commerce Agency came this:

"High technology will continue to be a driving force in California's economy."

And from the Fresno Business Council:

"Technology is leveling old barriers to prosperity, geography, language, time and education."

It's apparent that horizons are changing in the Valley when it comes to who will be doing business and what kind of business will be conducted in the Central Valley of the future. These future prospects are being met with anticipation and concern. Anticipation of a new era of growth and prosperity pinned to the promise of innovative technologies, coupled with concerns that the Central Valley's future will go the way of Silicon Valley where swift, untamed growth led to overcrowding, traffic congestion, and bad air and reached critical mass when its' economy overheated. Welcome to the New Valley. Is there silicon in our future?

INTERVIEWS:

Clare Emerson
Exec. Dir., American Electronics Association

Mark Albertson
Senior VP, American Electronics Association

Linda Valenty
Professor, San Jose State University

STORIES:

Placer County
Produced by Pat McConahay

Hi-Tech Education
Produced by Jennifer Fischer

Hi-Tech Innovation
Produced by J. Greenberg

TRANSCRIPT:

The complete text of New Valley Episode 105 -- A Silicon Future?

Presentation also made possible by a grant from
the Great Valley Center