With the aid of a grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development, Moberly, Columbia and Jefferson City are joining forces in a cooperative effort to market a stretch of U.S. 63 Highway between the communities as the Mid-Missouri Technology Corridor.

"In the fall of 1999, the Missouri Department of Economic Develop- ment devised the Regional Coop- erative Marketing Program," says Bernie Andrews, marketing director for the Columbia Area Regional Economic Development, Inc.-REDI. "This program offered grants for marketing efforts among regions working together on economic development. Since our communities are all on the U.S. 63 Highway corridor, REDI, the Moberly Economic Development Commission, and the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce decided to work together to establish the Mid-Missouri Technology Corridor."

With Jefferson City being the state capitol, Columbia having three of the state's top educational institutions and Moberly being home to a fine community college, the cities are promoting mid-Missouri's highly educated workforce. Since the area already has a large medical presence, research facilities and a nuclear reactor, technology oriented companies are the primary focus of recruitment efforts.

"We received a grant for $22,400 from the Department of Economic Development for our marketing campaign," Andrews said. "The largest phase of the campaign is a direct mailing to approximately 1,200 national realtors, site selection firms and accounting firms performing site selection work."

The mailing includes a brochure providing a brief overview of the three communities and a book entitled 301 Great Ideas for Using Technology. Andrews said the group is capitalizing on the recent addition of passenger jet service at Columbia Regional Airport.

"We flew Ozark Air Lines directly from Columbia to Chicago where we met with some site selection consultants," he said. "We've also placed an advertisement in Ozark's in-flight magazine as part of the campaign."

Although it's too early to tell if the marketing efforts will pay off, there's no denying the presence of a highly educated workforce in mid-Missouri. According to the August 1997 issue of Fortune, Columbia ranks ninth in the nation in percentage of citizens who hold four-year college degrees. A significant percentage of all Columbians hold college, or post-graduate degrees. And like Columbia, Jefferson City has no shortage of college graduates.

"We certainly have a huge number of professionals who work for and with the State of Missouri, says David H. Meyer, vice president, economic development and workforce issues of the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce. "We're trying to focus our efforts on the technology field because those are the kinds of jobs we want as a community and we think we can attract and retain those kinds of businesses. With our close proximity to the Columbia and Rolla campuses of the University of Missouri as well as Lincoln University in our community, Jefferson City is well positioned to take advantage of this growing field."

Meyer said the expanding tech- nology needs of state government are already sparking an increase in the information technology workforce in Jefferson City.

"We have a group of major employers and educational institutions working together to attract and retain more students and others to the information technology field," he said. "We think our efforts are going to pay huge dividends in the long run."