Intro:
Carved from wind and water, the Columbia River Gorge is visually a sight to behold. The Gorge has also become the ideal place where fun and innovation come together. Home to some of the most tech-savvy and adventurous people (we call them “Athletic Nerds”) that Oregon has to offer, the Gorge is a place where people can work hard and play harder all year round. When all of these factors come together, who knows what kind of technological (“tech”) innovations will come out of the Gorge next?
History:
The Gorge has become a mecca for “tech” and outdoor sports enthusiasts. The marriage between the two has been in the making for thousands of years. About 12,800 years ago, a massive flood carved the Gorge out of the Cascades.[1] In 1937, with the creation of the Bonneville hydroelectric dam, tech first appears in the Gorge. During the 1980s, windsurfing becomes a large part of the culture within the Gorge. However, it is not until the 1990s that we see tech and action sports come together.
In 1991, the founders of Real Carbon, a carbon fiber manufacturing company, moved to the Gorge, combining their love of windsurfing and tech by making windsurfing products. Insitu and Cloud Cap, manufacturers of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), moved the Gorge in 1994 and 1999, respectively. Collaborations between Real Carbon and Cloud Cap, combined with tech innovations from Insitu, started the modern tech revolution in the Gorge. According to an article on oregonbusiness.com, more than 50 different companies in all areas of tech, including Google in 2006, have grown roots in the Gorge. Many are using access to outdoor sports in the area to pull in potential employees.[2]
Government & Support Organizations:
In 1986, Congress passed the creation of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area to protect the area’s natural environment and support the local economy. Today, there are many more government and local support organizations throughout the Gorge. Entities, such as the Columbia River Economic Development Corporation [3], help businesses relocate to areas in the Gorge that are financially beneficial.
A huge motivator for new companies to move to the Columbia Gorge is the sense of community throughout the area. Local business owners, ranging from architecture and art to restaurants and retail, have come together to create a community group called “Gorge Owned.” Their website lists local shops that tourists can visit, which helps support the local economy and gives visitors tips about what the Gorge is doing to save energy and go green.The website also offers “GO spaces” for local startups, small businesses, and entrepreneurs to use as a workspace to help their businesses grow.[4] In reaction to the tech boom, the Gorge Tech Alliance was set up in 2007 to aid present and future tech companies with networking and joint marketing.[5]
Culture:
Culturally, the Gorge has always been centered around the outdoors. The Gorge boasts great hiking, mountain biking, fishing, and kayaking as well as world-class windsurfing and kiteboarding. These activities attract outdoor-minded folk to the area. The rise of windsurfing in the 1980s has especially had a large influence on Gorge culture. Windsurfing was an exciting new sport in the 1980s, and the Gorge offered the perfect place for it. As a result, riders (windsurfers) flocked to the area and created a community of windsurfers with a spirit of collaboration, drive for progress, and love of the outdoors. Windsurfing has since seen a drop in popularity, but the culture lives on.
Although windsurfing has seen a decline in its relevance since the 1980s, tech culture in the Gorge has experienced consistent growth. As more and more tech brands relocate or start up in the Gorge, they increase tech’s impact on the culture as a whole. For the Gorge, this simply means the increase of some of the cultural values that have been present since the windsurfing days. Values such as innovation, which were important for windsurfing, are essential for starting tech companies. Sustainability, a value that Gorge residents have held since Bonneville and other dams were built, has increased from wind farms and Google’s data center.
The core culture of the Gorge can be traced back to the windsurfing culture. Windsurfing as a whole is not competitive; it is a sport where competitors are friends and genuinely want their peers to do the best they can. This embodies the Gorge. Tech companies innovate by coming together to produce the best products they possibly can. Like windsurfing, they are not concerned with making the most money or being the greatest ever. Instead, they are in the Gorge to enjoy the outdoors and to push the boundaries of their respective industries.
Brands:
The Columbia River Gorge is an area with a vast array of exciting brands. Although there is quite a variety, the present and future of the region are based on the tech industry and the brands that make it up. The first important brand that deserves recognition is Real Carbon. Founded in 1988 in Southern California by Wes Lapp and Mike Graham, it originally specialized in making booms and boards for windsurfing. They were extremely successful, holding approximately 50% of the market share for this category.[6] In 1991, they decided to relocate to Hood River in the Gorge because of its world famous reputation for windsurfing.
Cloud Cap, on the other hand, has been producing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the past 14 years in the Gorge.[7] Their presence is truly significant because, by a stroke of good luck, Cloud Cap ended up moving into the same building as Real Carbon. They were looking for help making durable, lightweight carbon fiber parts, which are ideal for manufacturing drones. This was very successful and led to Real Carbon completely withdrawing from the Windsurfing market. This synergy between Real Carbon and Cloud Cap also paved the way for other drone and windsurfing manufacturers to work together.
Perhaps the biggest player in UAV manufacturing in the Gorge is Institu, which arrived in 1994. Boeing, the leading drone manufacturer in the United States, owns Institu. This is truly a testament to the tech boom that is occurring in the Gorge, especially in drone production and testing. Institu is a leader in the industry and owns the ability to claim it was the first company ever to fly a drone over the Atlantic Ocean. [8]
Last but not least is Google, one of the leading tech powerhouses of the world. In 2006, Google decided to build one of its major data centers in The Dalles, a small city located on the Columbia River. Google invested $1.2 billion in this facility, which is a testament not only to investing in a relationship with the Gorge and The Dalles, but also to the state of Oregon and its economy as a whole. Because Google’s facility is built right on the river, it is able to harness the power of nature by using hydroelectric power generated by the dam at The Dalles to help power its facilities. At the time, it was Google’s first owned and operated data center. Google’s entry to the region could pave the way and allow for the growth of many smaller tech firms in the area to flourish. [9]
Advantages:
Although the Gorge is one of the windiest places in the Pacific Northwest [10], the wind as a resource was not what brought tech companies there. In fact, it had nothing to do with harnessing any of the Gorge’s natural resources. Tech companies started moving their businesses to the region due to the culture and opportunities created by outdoor sports.[11] They wanted to relocate in a place that embraced both work and play.
Athletic individuals have always thrived in the Gorge, but the introduction of new tech companies has also made it a paradise for a new type of individual: the Athletic Nerd. Athletic Nerds embrace the tech culture. These bright minds are hard working, intelligent, and innovative. As engineers, programmers, and computer specialists, they have brought a new industry to the Gorge region. And in their free time, these nerds are wild. They made their home in the Gorge to balance their tech life with adventure. They embrace the nerd stigma and redefine it.
Obviously, the Gorge’s wide array of outdoor recreational opportunities is a huge advantage to the Athletic Nerds who want to let loose after a long day on the job. The Columbia River Gorge’s combination of wind and water provides just that. It is the windsurfing capital of the world.[12] Sailing, parasailing, hang-gliding, kayaking, rafting, and jet boating are among the other options the river has to offer.[13] The surrounding mountains offer another set of exciting options, including hiking, biking, and snowboarding. There is no shortage of outdoor recreation within the Columbia Gorge.
The growing tech cluster itself has become a huge advantage to the Athletic Nerd. What started as a couple tech companies moving to the Gorge for pure enjoyment quickly turned into a vast network. Larger companies, such as Insitu and Google, put the Gorge on the map as a tech hub. This recognition gave smaller tech brands in the area opportunities to grow their businesses. These tech companies within the Gorge have embraced one another’s strengths and used each other as resources through partnerships and idea exchanging. These brands have also helped reduce unemployment in the Gorge by providing more job opportunities and improved wages for locals.
Having a thriving tech cluster in the dynamic Gorge region provides endless advantages in both work and play. Athletic Nerds are able to work hard doing what they love in a flourishing network while balancing active and energetic lifestyles. Combining the vibrant tech hub with the immensity of outdoor recreation has made the Gorge the ideal place to be for the Athletic Nerd. These individuals will help use the tech market to enhance the active and adventurous culture of the Gorge instead of overpowering it.
Summary:
The Columbia Gorge, with its incredible natural features and distinct tech market, is one of a kind for locating businesses. The growing tech cluster within the Gorge has provided a new and emerging industry with a culture that embraces both work and play. The Athletic Nerd represents the type of innovative, adventurous individuals behind these tech brands that have created the “Work Hard, Play Hard” spirit in the Gorge. The Gorge is the perfect region to embrace this culture with the wide selection of outdoor and extreme sports that it is known for. The growing tech cluster will continue to enrich the Gorge’s reputation.
[1] http://www.oregonbusiness.com/articles/30/589
[2] http://www.columbiarivergorge.info/history.html
[5] http://www.oregonbusiness.com/articles/30/589
[6] http://www.oregonbusiness.com/component/content/article/128-news/10178-from-windsurfer-to-drone-manufacturer
[7] http://www.cloudcaptech.com/aboutus.shtm
[8] http://www.insitu.com/about/team-insitu
[9] http://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/the-dalles/
[10] http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~justin/documents/Climo_Pre_Preprint.pdf
[11] http://www.oregonbusiness.com/articles/30/589
[12] http://hoodriver.org/windsurfing
[13] http://traveloregon.com/cities-regions/mt-hood-the-gorge/
