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VEGAS INC COVER STORY consolidation, we think the state may be able to increase its missions, which would be a benefit all across the state at Fallon, Hawthorn, Nellis and Creech. Isn't there a process in place now to find a place to do the testing? There is. The Federal Aviation Adminis- tration will issue a solicitation asking that we respond by September or October, and they are required to designate six ar- eas by the end of the year. There are civil- ian applications as well as military. It's for the entire spectrum of unmanned aerial vehicles. One of the interesting things that hap- pened as we announced the panel develop our response is we started hav- ing companies in Nevada that already manufacture all different types of un- manned aerial vehicles call and say, "Hey, we're in that industry. We'd like to help. Is there anything we can do?" And that goes from something about the size of a 1-foot-square box up to the Predators and Reapers. to How about business IT ecosystems? We had a terrific announcement up north a few weeks ago when Apple chose Nevada for its next data center, which I think will be helpful across the state. When Apple chooses a state, it makes a difference because other companies look to follow, or at least consider, that a com- pany like Apple has made that choice. In Southern Nevada, the two areas that have gotten a lot of attention – and deserv- edly so – are around what Tony Hsieh is doing downtown and the growth that Zap- pos has had and the growth around it. The second is with Switch Communica- tions. Switch is a world-class data center We have some of the best resources for renewable energy in the world. What we have to do in order to capitalize on that are two big things: figure out how to provide the transmission for that power outside the state of Nevada and, two, de- termine how to work with neighboring states to best utilize that resource. Energy typically has been regulated on a state-by-state basis. That doesn't really account for the fact that we have such a renewable energy resource in Nevada. Right now, our energy demands aren't growing. NV Energy has achieved its portion of the renewable portfolio stan- dard. Gradually, that will rise over time. But that does not use all the energy that's available. We are working with the Nevada Office of Energy right now to put together a busi- ness case to determine how to best use the resources we have. That may mean Nevada exporting power to other states, or it may mean sharing power from other states during our peak periods. Obviously in Southern Nevada during the summer, we use a lot of energy and our rates go balance that, we think, will provide those best opportunities. country and around the world, we think there's some real opportunity there. talked about much is a program for medi- cal health workers. It's not something the state has focused on much in the past. This is a service that already is eligible to be re- imbursed by the federal government. We think it is a real opportunity for people to quickly get back into the work force. If we can match workers in that area with those in need, it is a way to create jobs as well as better health. Our health care specialist is working with different stakeholders in that area and some of the community health providers, as well as the work force and university systems to train there. Another is certificate programs. I don't think most people in Nevada are very aware of these. If you can become a cer- have a very good chance of getting a six- figure job. You can get that certificate for $6,000 of education costs. The Millen- nium Scholarship can help pay for it, and there's a real need. housing shortage in the northeast. We just did a full-day seminar in Reno to Something different that hasn't been make those opportunities known. We're looking at potentially doing that in Las Vegas, as well. There are no places for workers and contractors to stay when they go into that area. It's gotten to the point that when they build a new hotel, the rooms are rented for six or 12 months in advance in order to house employees and their families who are moving to do permanent jobs. They're living in hotel rooms until they can find housing. The other thing that we would really like to do is look at the mining supply chain to see what makes sense to move to Nevada. That could be a number of differ- ent things, but obviously the mine's pur- chase of a substantial amount of equip- up accordingly. Figuring out how to best What about logistics and operations? I think people here understand the lo- gistics side of logistics and operations. But the operations side may not be as clear. If you can bring in raw materials or sub- contracted parts and do assemblage and ship from Nevada, that's what we're talk- ing about on the operations side. There's a manufacturing component. Whether that's complete manufacturing or just as- semblage, we think Nevada, particularly Las Vegas, is well situated. In the meantime, we have the SolarRe- serve Crescent Dunes project in Tonopah, which is a molten salt and solar facility under construction that is the first of its kind in the country. We have a wind proj- ect going up in eastern Nevada. We con- tinue to work with ENN on its plans in the Laughlin area, which will be a huge boost for Laughlin and Southern Nevada if we can make that happen. And, we have geo- thermal assets up north, which is one of the best sources of renewable energy. that works with companies of all types in Health and medical services? Southern Nevada. They have 4,000 people That's probably the area that has the badged into the facility, 2,000 of whom highest potential for job creation. live in Southern Nevada. It provides an op- portunity to interact with a "who's who" of the tech industry. Switch has recently built what they call an innovation center. We'll have an office at that center, the university system will, DETR will and I think the new regional development authority will. There also will be offices for the companies that use the Switch facility, so there will be that kind of interaction in one building. That kind of support we're getting from Switch and from Hsieh downtown are real build- ing blocks for the IT sector. What's new with clean energy? | 30 JULY 2012 | 17 Medical tourism is a real opportunity for Southern Nevada. Obviously, we have the tourism side of medical tourism han- dled. It's a very attractive place for people to come. As those in that industry have pointed out, do you really want to go to Cleveland or Rochester, Minn., or would One of the opportunities there is the foreign trade zone, which is something we haven't capitalized on much. All of Clark zone. It's now set up so that individual companies can apply to have that foreign- trade-zone status. That allows them to re- duce, or at least postpone, the payment of duties. It provides a really competitive ad- vantage. We have a market that's huge in Southern California and doing the work here and shipping to customers in South- ern California is pretty attractive. you rather come here? I think most of the Mining and manufacturing? time people would rather come here. The other side is the medical side. The recog- nition of what we offer in the medical community, and making sure that as we promote that, the level of quality is main- tained. That's something the industry is working on right now. If that consistency and quality can be publicized around the There are probably 1,000 open jobs in northeast Nevada, maybe even more. tified Cisco network professional, you ment, supplies and services helps the state. There's also the downsteam side of that, where the minerals that they mine become a usable product. We really think the supply side has more opportunity than the refining side. But the mines have been very helpful in working with us, and we're looking to put together a formal process to make that happen. Finally, what's the status of tourism, gaming and entertainment efforts? In the past, tourism and gaming hasn't been a part of economic development. But we don't think it makes sense to have an economic development effort that is in any way counter to the biggest part of our economy and what has driven us for years. Certainly we want diversification, but we can diversify through the gaming indus- try, not in spite of the gaming industry. There are several ways to do that. The County is eligible to be a foreign trade most high profile at this point certainly is online gaming. We're seeing that di- versification already. We've had a couple of companies announce that they're go- ing to move their corporate headquar- ters here as a result of the efforts of the Gaming Commission. That can bring an enormous number of good tech jobs to Nevada. There are a substantial number of con- manufacturing component struction projects that if the mines could find contractors that would come, those would be under way right now. They're struggling finding contractors. A big part of that is because there's a The gaming industry attracts a wide variety of very good jobs. It's a very high- tech industry. There are more technol- ogy workers in gaming than most peo- ple would ever dream, and there's a big to gaming with companies like International Game Technology, Bally's Technologies, Aristo- crat and Shuffle Master. You can grow a manufacturing and IT cluster around the gaming industry.