“Allow me to please give a quick plug to the Rockford, IL region, located at the top in northern Illinois.”
by Ron Jr. (Reg) Gustafson, Project Manager, Clinkenbeard
Clinkenbeard attended the Paris Air Show principally in a supporting role to existing customers at the show so that we can better understand the showroom in Paris and the mockups which were used to communicate product design and solutions to attendees.
For the first time ever, the State of Illinois sponsored the Rockford booth in an effort to market the Rockford region to the aerospace industry. Clinkenbeard has been working with this industry for more than 20 years; but the region has more than 130 companies in the area that supply products to the global aerospace industry. Nearly 25 percent of the area’s workforce is employed in manufacturing, twice the national average. Rockford boasts 1.5 times engineering talent when compared to the Illinois average, and 1.3 times when compared to the US average.
As we looked around the show, we found that the size of our business cluster here in greater Rockford region, in total companies, was comparable to several other very well-known US locations, already recognized as key business and manufacturing clusters by the aerospace industry. This is very encouraging information for a rapid manufacturing company like Clinkenbeard.
Our Rockford Area Economic Development Council is taking the lead in marketing this region to aerospace manufacturing companies that exhibited at Paris–and even to those who didn’t. We are confident that by the middle of the next decade, when you hear “aerospace product design and rapid manufacturing,” your mind will instantly think, “Oh yeah. That must be Rockford, IL, which I read about in a blog on PD&D’s website about five years ago.”
Know anything else great about Rockford? Post your comments below.