Whose the safest of them all? Michigan

According to NCDC (National Climatic Data Center) Michigan is the top ranked State for weather safety. Now I don’t know which of you can use this fact in your marketing but someone should. In fact, I’m going to send a copy to the Governor. In 2007 Michigan was the lone State in the lowest disaster category, in 2008 we had some flooding and so we’ve moved up a level but even so we’re still the lowest ranked State in the union. That means we’re #1.

The fact of the matter is that over the last 20 years Michigan has suffered fewer disasters than any other State. Why is this important? Because it means we’re a safe place to store important things and from here you have the best chance at making sure important things get done on time and here you have the best chance at not losing a big investment from natural causes. So if what you do is important to someone, then Michigan is the place they want it done. Don’t forget to let your customers know that. Here they have the least chance in the whole Country of having that important work being disrupted. Work gets done on time and without disruption in Michigan.

We also have a great reliable underused telephony infrastructure (read fast and reliable internet and communications), a lot of engineers looking for jobs, plentiful office, warehouse and manufacturing space and excellent Universities. What does that add up to? Tech. High-Tech. They should be moving here in droves. Are they?

According to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation:

The study reveals that 79 percent of all students who graduate with a high-tech degree from Michigan universities choose to remain in Michigan as they begin their careers. These facts blast a hole through any anecdotal perceptions that our high-tech graduates are fleeing the state. One revealing statistic from the study is that 55 percent of out-of-state students who come to Michigan and graduate from high-tech programs at our universities choose to remain in the state as they begin their careers. Michigan is one of only 11 states that can claim this high of a retention rate.

• In early December, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams to Michigan State University in East Lansing. The particle accelerator is expected to bring 400 jobs and $1 billion in economic activity to our state. The $550 million project could become a focus of research for as many as 1,000 scientists worldwide. They'll examine the forces that bind atoms, discover new particles and their quirks and help explain the very nature of stars and the universe.
• The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor announced plans to buy the nearby, now-empty, 30-building Pfizer Inc. research campus for $108 million. If the deal is closed in June, as projected, it would create 2,000 jobs - many of them laboratory jobs in drug and medical research.
• …the development of a new $54 million movie production facility to be built in Pontiac as part of an ambitious and costly plan to build a film business amid the ashes of the auto industry. The studio -- to be built in a shuttered General Motors Corp. facility -- is expected to create about 3,600 new jobs, marking one of the most audacious attempts by a state to attract new industries by offering generous tax incentives.

For my part, I’m attempting to talk a couple of my friends that own data centers to build their next one in Michigan. Calfornia? Texas? Florida? I don’t think so, companies should want their data in Michigan. We got bright people to run them, ample facility space and we’re safe, safe, safe.