Big from Small
As you’ve heard on KXEL, the Iowa Association of Business and Industry and MidWestOne Bank are sponsoring a competition this spring, called the “Coolest Thing Made in Iowa”…they’re down now to the last four finalists vying for the title…you can vote online at coolestthingia.com, with the winner to be announced at ABI’s annual “Taking Care of Business” conference in Davenport on June 5.
The contest is bringing attention to all the various “cool” things that are created, manufactured, and produced right here in Iowa. But when I looked at the previous round, when eight businesses and products were in the running, what struck me was not the products—which were great. It was the locations of the businesses.
Here’s the list…Pella, Princeton, Oskaloosa, Peosta…Lake City, West Bend, Sheffield, and Lake Mills.
All great communities…but all far from being metro areas.
And that alone is what’s great about Iowa. Manufacturing is the largest single segment of Iowa’s GDP at more than 16 percent. And these world-renowned creations come from areas that would have to stretch to have populations in five digits…Oskaloosa and Pella are each barely more than 10,000 and most of the others far smaller than that.
Obviously, you don’t have to live in a large metro area to produce great things…in fact, it’s actually easier in many respects. And these are among the best examples of that which Iowa has to offer.
