Cary-Raleigh Ranked 3rd in 2012 Best-Performing Cities

Cary-Raleigh (actually Raleigh-Cary, but I'm a little bias...) ranked 3rd in 2012 Best-Performing Cities by the Milken Institute.  See the report 2012 Best Performing Cities - Large Cities - Milken Institute.

Here is the data:

Raleigh-Cary, NC MSA
Overall Rank: 3

5-yr Job Growth (2006-2011)	Rank: 15
1-yr Job Growth (2010-2011)	Rank: 25
5-yr Wages & Salaries Growth (2005-2010)	Rank: 20
1-yr Wages & Salaries Growth (2009-2010)	Rank: 24
Job Growth (May 11 - May 12)	Rank: 51
5-yr Relative HT GDP Growth (2006-2011)	Rank: 94
1-yr Relative HT GDP Growth (2010-2011)	Rank: 66
High-Tech GDP LQ - 2011	Rank: 25
# of HT GDP LQs Over 1 - 2011	Rank: 17

I'll have to do some analysis, but how can you rank 3rd if your average rank is 37.4th...

NCSU Lulu E-games

$40,000 in prizes.

Major Sponsors:
Bob Young, Founder and CEO, Lulu
Bob Creeden, Director, Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network

Nothing like this existed when I was in Engineering School!

Entrepreneurship brings "the practical" to many of the classes we take in engineering.  Great ideas, but will anyone buy them...

I had a chance to talk to all of the teams.  I asked questions like "What problem are you trying to solve?", "Who is your market?", "What potential customers have you talked to and what did they think?" and many other typical questions.  I was impressed with the responses I received.  The ideas and state of the development of the projects spanned the spectrum.  Hopefully a few will have a chance in the market.

What struck me most was how well prepared these students were.  If I think back to the non-thesis project that got me through my Master's degree, all of these students are well ahead of where I was (and my project will remain shrouded in mystery to protect the innocent ;)

Kudos to NCSU, to their Entrepreneurship program and to all the students participating today!