BRIDG & the Future of Florida Manufacturing: Innovations, Bold Ideas & More

We caught up with Chester Kennedy at the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2018 Learners to Earners Workforce Summit to discuss the future of Florida’s manufacturing industry- and the importance of bold ideas to Florida’s economy. Watch the interview below:

Manufacturing continues to be a leader in helping Florida diversify its economy and create new jobs. Florida’s manufacturing has grown 3.4 percent over the last year. And in the last four years, Florida’s manufacturing has continued to grow at a rate more than three times higher than the nation. According to a recent article by Chief Executive Magazine, the Orlando area is the “nation’s foremost hub for optics technology and advanced manufacturing.”

BRIDG helps provide entrepreneurs the opportunities they need to bring new innovations to the table, because they understand that bold ideas will help create jobs and diversify Florida’s future.

“We want to get new products introduced into the market place, and we want to have that environment where large and small businesses can come take advantage of that infrastructure, explore bold ideas and get new ideas into the market places.”

Manufacturing and innovation are a part of our everyday lives and have changed how the world works- even if we don’t always realize it. One example, according to Kennedy, is our everyday approach to wellness.

“The internet of things is a busy word- and we use that to describe a lot of things. The way I like to think about it is, the advanced smart sensors that are starting to impact every area of our life. If you just look around and think about the way we take care of ourselves, the amount information that is coming through the wellness community- to be able to measure everything from the way that our brain is functioning to the way that our body is performing, all those things that used to only be available to us in a clinical setting, now through these advanced smart sensors they are a part of our life and part of everything that we do.”

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