Jobs group looks to medical technology
The Future Industries Initiative taps Pete McDonald, president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College, to lead.
Floyd County is going to have strong manufacturing opportunities in the medical field as new technologies become available, according to the chairman of the Future Industries Initiative of the Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce.
“Manufacturing in the U. S. is going to become more the specialty highend products — and not so much the mass- produced things traditionally made in the past,” said Pete McDonald, president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College.
McDonald accepted the top slot last week on the initiative, which is an outgrowth of the chamber’s Rome-Floyd County 20/20 long-range economic development strategy.
Chamber President Al Hodge said the initiative specifically seeks to make connections between the county’s medical community and its K12 and post- secondary educational systems to grow local jobs.
The group created the annual Confluence technology symposium and the Technology Squaretable event aimed at encouraging innovations for the digital economy by local “makers.”
“It is also the entity that helped us to recruit the Medical College of Georgia and has been nurturing them in a supportive way,” Hodge noted. “It was also instrumental in the recruitment the Georgia Tech Research Institute office.”
McDonald said the county’s college presidents, hospital CEOs and other leaders in the community would continue to work together.
“Of course Dr. Ferguson and Mr. Barron will continue to be our senior leaders, and we will continue to listen to them,” McDonald added.
Frank Barron, retired Coca-Cola bottling executive, and Dr. Paul Ferguson, a retired neurosurgeon and former head of Harbin Clinic, were instrumental in the decision to create an initiative focused on new technologies.
Hodge said the Future Industries Initiative could play a major role in the city of Rome’s plans for the redevelopment of the former Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital site. A team of city consultants has recommended a heavy emphasis on technology-driven uses.
The initiative also seeks to address what Todd Jones of Georgia Highlands College said is one of the greatest challenges facing postsecondary educators — training young people and displaced workers for jobs that may not even exist yet in today’s workplace.
McDonald said that is partly why programs such as the Confluence conference are so important.
This year’s conference is scheduled for April 1415 at the DeSoto Theatre in Rome. The primary presenters have not yet been announced.