Featured Stories

Geoff Greenfield is an example of the type of entrepreneur who is becoming the modern face of the economy in Appalachian Ohio. As founder and president of Third Sun Solar and Wind Power in Athens, Greenfield is part of a thriving alternative energy industry that is making its home in Athens County.

Since its formation in 1983, Ohio University's Innovation Center has nurtured more than 80 companies, creating more than 1,000 jobs. The university itself has helped develop nine spinoff companies from university-invented technology. And faculty and staff are responsible for the startup of another 27 companies. Today, the OU Innovation Center -- the state's first university-small business incubator -- is home to 13 startups with big plans for the future. hiVelocity recently caught up with Center Director Jennifer Simon to find out what gives southeastern Ohio its entrepreneurial chemistry.

In January, Gov. Ted Strickland announced that Ohio had received $400 million in federal stimulus money to develop a "3C Corridor" passenger rail system linking Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati. Immediately, questions flew: Will the trains go fast enough? How many stops? Who will ride it? Will the benefits be worth the money?  hiVelocity caught up with James E. Seney, who served as executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission under former Gov. Bob Taft. Seney, who oversaw the Taft Administration's original Ohio Hub rail plan to link Ohio to midwestern and east coast lines, says all questions are valid -- but that Ohio has an opportunity that's too good to pass up. 

Are you laid off from work in the middle of the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression? Start a business.That's some of the advice given by entrepreneur Mike Hooven, who in 1994 at the age of 38, took $22,000 in stock options from his comfortable position at Ethicon to start his first company.

"I came to Akron because I was quite impressed with the vision of what the BioInnovation Institute could become," says Dr. Frank Douglas. "There is a tremendous desire here to do something that improves the health of the economy in this region � and that's why this will succeed."

While the image of farmer Brown milking a cow from a stool may linger in the imagination, old Bessie today is more likely to make her way through a sophisticated milking parlor wearing an electronic collar -- not a bell. And while the image of farmer Brown may be one of a humble man in overalls, his world today is one of college degrees, self-steering combines, and use of Twitter and Facebook as a way to connect with other farmers and a hungry population.

Ohio neighborhoods are finding a second � or third � life as hip, new attractions for business, families and young professionals. Drawing on a combination of historic preservation and interest an urban lifestyle -- and tapping into corporate investment and state aid -- more than a dozen such neighborhoods have risen from the ashes

Twelve-year-old teacher and author Adora Svitak reports from Columbus, filming herself in a mirror with commentary on this month's eTech Ohio conference, where she was a keynote speaker. We think the future of America is in safe hands.