What People Say about Finger Lakes Wired

Peter Robinson, Finger Lakes Wired Chairman & Chief Operating Officer, University of Rochester Medical Center
"WIRED has allowed us to think and ultimately act as a region. Areas like Rochester are having hard time competing in the National Economy, but if region is not working together it is going to make it that more difficult. I’m very optimistic about both what Wired has done and its sustained effect on the community.”

David Zorn, Managing Director, Finger Lakes Wired
“The numbers have shown that we have reached the audience that we set out to reach. There is always more that can be done.  But we have tracked and monitored the programs and we’re seeing in the numbers that we’re affecting regional workforce and talent development and economic development.”

Dr. William Destler, President Rochester Institute of Technology
“We expect the impact (from training through Wired) to be a revitalization of the local economy, a retraining of our workforce to take advantage of new employment opportunities, new sectors such as clean technology and green technology. And I think a revitalized small business community that basically can provide a source for many of the new jobs to be created in this economy over the next few years.”

Maggie Brooks, Monroe County Executive
“The value of the Wired initiative in its totality is that it has been some very smart, strategic investments in different programs. There are programs that support entrepreneurship. There are programs that support and expand workforce development and training so that we will continue to have a highly skilled workforce that meets the needs of our employers in the future.”

Dr. Anne Kress, President, Monroe Community College
“Finger Lakes Wired has helped us prepare the students to be ready for job one, and it has also let us know what are going to be the changes in the future, so that when there are transitional workers who are coming back looking for a second career or a third career, maybe because they know the industries they are working in now won’t be there in the future, we know through Finger Lakes Wired what will be expected, how those industries are changing, how they can come back and get the skill set that they need. That’s part of what MCC does and that’s been facilitated by Finger Lakes Wired.”

R. Thomas Flynn, Former President, Monroe Community College
“In the last 10 years, for community colleges, one of the very highest priorities, is to be attuned to the needs of the local community. And primarily the business needs of the local community. So as we’re developing all of our curriculum for a local workforce, Wired comes along and it just fits right in. What is does is it helps us bring together groups that we can even do more at the college.”

Mary Pat Hancock, Chair, Genesee County Legislature
“We have made ourselves sustainable success, that’s the crucial part. We have found that working together as a region working together in terms of when the water rises all boats benefit and float higher, we have learned that the hard way, we have really worked together, through thick and thin, and sometimes it wasn’t easy. To explain to an urban business the importance of agribusiness, you have to really not only  be able to explain it to others, but before you can do that you really have to understand it yourself. So our knowledge has deepened. And we are now been able to make our cause for this region with real conviction.”

Robert Duffy, Mayor, City of Rochester
“Finger Lakes Wired’s substantial investment in people has helped these businesses improve their operations making them more likely to succeed and thrive. That is imperative if Rochester is going to retain our current businesses and attract new ones.”

MIke Mandina, President, Optimax
Without having central leadership, without having some type of regional oversight to help move this forward, we’re going to become fragmented again, and won’t be able to accomplish what this region should accomplish. And I think the Wired initiative is showing us the way that is this possible, and sustaining is my concern now because there’s been so much benefit that has come from this initiative.”

Rick Richmond, CEO, SiMPore
“Wired has helped us in several ways. Two of us has attended the TEN program which is an excellent program for entrepreneurs especially for folks who do not have the experience of building a program and getting it going. It’s programs like that that actually take it from being a scientific discovery to being a product in the marketplace. Over the next 5-10 years I believe you will see a lot of economic activity as a result of the TEN program.”

Jay Martinez, Executive Director, Technology Council of Upstate New York
“Competing effectively in the 21st century is going to require that some of these communities really begin to find ways to compete with communities of 3-5 million people. People understand the challenges that all communities are facing are quite large and it is going to take a team approach to help communities move forward and if we do that al working together we’ really creating an environment where we have a much greater community promoting itself and that can only be good for this region.”  

Shelia James, Vice President, Urban League of Rochester
Based on the Emerging Worker’s Grant, the Urban League partnered with MCC, RIT and other High Tech employers to design a program that would take minority students and provide them with specific labs in high-tech fields like architecture, engineering, design, printing, mfg, and green industries and provide them with very specific curriculum that is designed to expose them to these fields.”

David Gottfried, Manager, Government & Community Affairs, Infotonics Technology Center
“Kids know they need to get Science, English, and Math – they don’t necessarily know what that leads to. A lot of kids will say, they want to be an engineer, but what does that mean? There are 1000’s of different options for them if they want to be an engineer. So what we’re trying to do it taking those kids that maybe need a little bit more of a push.”

Updated 1/10