WKU News

A unique approach to economic development is happening here in Bowling Green, providing talent from all over the world the opportunity to come here to live and work.

WKU’s  Amy Bingham explains how the CO/CREATE Talent Database is setting the entire region up for success in this week’s View from the Hill.

It was the old mall, then the Center for Research and Development, now WKU has made it the headquarters of the Innovation Campus and one key component is the CO/CREATE Talent Database.

“We’ve got to have a vision for how we want Bowling Green to grow because it’s growing no matter what.”

It’s been more than two decades since WKU took ownership of Bowling Green’s first shopping mall. Now called WKU’s Innovation Campus, it’s taking resources for economic development to the next level.

“We want to make sure that entrepreneurs who live here, talented people who would love to come back, economic developers in the rural counties in our service area, all know that they can come here.”

To that end, the recently launched CO/CREATE Talent Database allows professionals from anywhere in the world to confidentially add their name and resume to a secure database.

“We can take this database and go to potential employers that might want to come to Bowling Green and say look at this, I’ve got this work force ready to go, skilled professionals all willing and ready to come back to Bowling Green.”

Innovation and Culture Fellow Sam Ford says it will also be helpful in attracting companies based on database trends.

“If we have a whole bunch of data scientists or electrical engineers who’d love to come back here, could that help us recruit companies based on just not the talent that currently lives here, but all the folks who would love to come back.”

Also gaining traction is the recently opened Collaborative SmartSpace, a 30,000-square-foot area where professionals from different employers and backgrounds can share talent.

“Once you enter this building and this room you know you are kind of entering into a sort of ecosystem of development right, you come in and anyone can come up to you and strike up a conversation and start tapping into knowledge you bring to the smart space.”

Innovative ways that the Innovation Campus is committed to applied research and workforce development.

“All of these programs are really about creating infrastructure that attracts and supports and retains talent.”

“As we like to say, come create at the WKU innovation campus.”

To upload your name and resume to the CO/CREATE Talent Database, simply log onto www.cocreate-IC.com.

To learn more about the Collaborative SmartSpace, log onto www.create-IC.com.   

The Innovation Campus at WKU was part of the vision laid out by WKU President Timothy C. Caboni during his Investiture Address in 2018.