Ohio Tech Innovation Zone Looks to Play Up Regional Strengths
The Beta District’s new executive director lays out the nascent Central Ohio ecosystem’s vision for growth in areas like mobility and agriculture. The sectors, he said, “are definitely tied together.”
Central Ohio is positioning itself as a place to foster transportation innovation in areas like autonomy and electrification, particularly as they intersect with agriculture.
“Mobility, and smart mobility, and agriculture are definitely tied together,” said Doug McCollough, the inaugural, newly named executive director of The Beta District, an area stretching from Columbus through Dublin, Marysville and Union County. The Beta District, launched in 2021, is an economic development initiative that harnesses the region’s strengths in the transportation technology sectors to establish Central Ohio as yet another tech innovation zone.
“We’re trying to stay away from things that other places have greater strengths than us,” said McCollough, outlining The Beta District’s perks, while also distinguishing it from other innovation zones. “When you look at distribution, and agriculture, and energy, and logistics, we are actually the thought leader on that, in the middle of the country. So it makes sense for us to focus on those types of technologies.”
Each of the various parts of Central Ohio bring a piece of uniqueness to the district, McCollough explained, pointing out Marysville’s long history as a manufacturing location for Honda, and Columbus’ background in smart cities. Dublin is a central player in the Smart Mobility Corridor, a 35-mile stretch of U.S. Route 33 equipped with fiber-optic communications and other technologies to support connected vehicles and next-gen mobility ideas. Dublin brings high capacity communications fiber and data centers into The Beta District folks, said McCollough, who was named executive director in late July.
“It competes on a global basis in the intelligent community movement,” he said, noting both cities are all or partially in Union County.
Happening alongside these tech clusters is the region’s agriculture industry, a leader in the production of commodities including dairy, eggs, tomatoes and pumpkins. The state ranks first in the nation in the production of Swiss cheese, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. These industries are also ripe for transportation innovation when thinking about the possibilities of electric or autonomous farm equipment, or advanced air mobility, the executive director said.