Excerpts from "Memo to Pasadena"

John Sampson
President/CEO of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership

Never heard of the historic link between Indiana and Pasadena, which was nearly named “Hoosier” in the late 1880s? Consider this: In what might be thought of as a prototype of sorts for 2008, some 120 years ago in 1888 the region around Pasadena suffered a collapse in the local real estate industry. The city, founded by entrepreneurs from Indianapolis, cast about for an idea to prop up the economy of the region. The solution? A Pasadena academic declared in 1889: “Let us hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.”

Local organizers thus put together an Olympic-style event in the middle of the mild California winter, complete with chariot races, track and field events, and bronco-busting demonstrations. In a public relations coup, the organizers invited the editors of Indianapolis and Midwestern newspapers to serve as judges to secure widespread publicity. They called the event “The Tournament of Roses” and it was an instant success.

Today, with an overcrowded region and an international reputation, there obviously exists no need to raise awareness of the former Indiana Colony’s attributes.

As Southern California residents watch highlights of the Vera Bradley float passing before the cameras on Orange Grove Boulevard, perhaps local residents of the former Indiana Colony would do well to Google Indiana’s recent economic performance. There they would find that CNBC named Indiana as “the most improved state for business” and that Standard & Poor’s recently awarded the state its first ever triple-A bond rating. They would further find that Indiana was one of a small handful of states who finished their recent fiscal year with a billion-plus surplus, rather than a deficit of titanic proportions. If they Googled Indianapolis, the place where Pasadena was dreamed up, they would find that it is home to BioCrossroads, a highly successful biotech association busily building new technology bridges with Southern California.

And if they wanted to take a look at Vera Bradley’s hometown of Fort Wayne in Northeast Indiana, they might be surprised to find that wireless communication – the origin of cell phone technology – was invented and put into production here. They would also find a multi-billion-dollar high-tech commercial defense industry, a state-of-the-art digital truck design facility at NaviStar, a growing medical device sector, and a region that generally reflects an increasingly progressive state of Hoosier growth.

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