Last year, Greater New Orleans, Inc., the regional economic development agency, published its GNO Future Report.
The report laid out the agency’s ten year strategy for the businesses and industries it looked to attract and expand in the region.
Then came the Coronavirus.
And while many industries and businesses were thrown into a tailspin, GNO, Inc. set about to rework the report—not a freshening up of last year’s effort—a whole new breakdown of challenges and opportunities faced by the region upended in the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s the post-COVID version of GNO Future or we can call it GNO Future 2.0.” says GNO, Inc. President and CEO Michael Hecht.
And while that may be tongue-in-cheek, the new report takes into account new opportunities and directions the region can expand to bring more business to the area.
Among the issues addressed in the new GNO Future report:
Rising dominance of logistics – New Orleans was founded on logistics, and no one else can offer our river, rail, airport and road multi-modal combination
Reshoring of technology – The low cost / high culture business case of Greater New Orleans is extremely attractive to tech companies looking to bring jobs back to the US
On shoring of manufacturing – A similar trend, over a longer time horizon, will happen with manufacturing. Our logistics, workforce, and low utility rates make GNO a natural location
Healthcare trends – Our regional institutions are national leaders in these areas like telemedicine and infectious disease; we also have great opportunity in neurodegenerative diseases
Lifestyle trends – Greater New Orleans is already seeing remote workers, Louisiana ex-pats, and others, leaving dense, expensive places like NYC and San Francisco, for the more hospitable clime of the New Orleans market
Among two of the most important issues which have moved to the forefront since the initial report are technology and bio-medical research.
The report states Greater New Orleans is “the next Austin,” with thousands of high-paying tech jobs, but with a more diverse workforce in the world of technology and programming.
In the past few months a number of sizable players from Silicon Valley have decamped to the Austin area to take advantage of lower costs and amenable states and local governments.
GNO, Inc. sees this as two-fold aim with bringing technology jobs to the region and bringing back for residents and new residents who are looking to move to an exciting location without the sky-high prices seen in West Coast, predominantly San Francisco and Silicon Valley locales.
Another point from the report is making New Orleans a medical research and treatment destination for people seeking help for neurodegenerative diseases.
“Greater New Orleans will become the next “MD Anderson / Texas Medical Center,” with multiple institutions partnering to drive destination healthcare in neurodegenerative diseases and other areas of excellence, such as infectious disease and digital health,” The report states.
In the same way university and healthcare networks have played a leading role in medical research for Cancers and Alzheimer’s, New Orleans is fostering growth in the sector as well.
“If we make the right investments in people and a narrative infrastructure today, we can come out of this really difficult and tragic year in some ways better than before,” Hecht says. “And that’s what we’re pushing for.”
