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Figure skating championships and ACC basketball. A Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering. The Elon University School of Law.  The International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Center City Park. HondaJet and the FedEx air-cargo hub.

All big things for Greensboro. All reasons for pride and celebration — along with many other accomplishments, events and projects. So, what’s Greensboro’s Next Big Thing? That’s the question we put to some of the city’s most creative thinkers. We asked them, in just a few words, to tell us what they see just over the horizon. It could be an idea, a trend, a hope or a dream. Our objective was to capture glimpses of tomorrow’s promise. What they said:

The need for more — and better — jobs often drives city leaders to try to convince existing businesses to move into their communities. That means heated competition for the same call centers, factories and facilities.
Greensboro can be different. Let’s continue to tell those businesses about all we have to offer. But let’s also expend energy incubating the businesses that start here. It takes time, but the payoff is worth it.
My father, the late Bill Brooks, for example, began a Greensboro-based business in 1977. He stayed here because of the Triad’s strong work force and fabulous quality of life. It’s a great place to live, work and grow. The company (with its 18 employees) continues to thrive on North Elm Street with no plans to leave.
Greensboro’s next big thing should be to develop the vision to make our city even more attractive to entrepreneurs. After all, the businesses that grow here are much more likely to stay here.
— Jeb Brooks, executive vice president of The Brooks Group, a sales training company

Besides being a mecca for prospective students, college towns are usually rated among the most livable cities and best places for retirement. That’s because college towns have cultural, social and sports amenities that people of all ages like. There is no reason why Greensboro cannot become another Madison, Wis., or Ann Arbor, Mich. We have seven colleges and universities with about 40,000 students. That’s about 15 percent of the city’s population, and a higher proportion when you add thousands of faculty and staff.
What else do we need? We must increase enrollments and staffing, which makes the college presence even more palpable and boosts economic growth. Downtown has to have more “go to” destinations for young people that help recruit students and retain them here after they graduate. Emerging collegiate and business partnerships must provide employment for students, research and consulting opportunities for faculty, and a reason for employees to relocate here.
— Kent Chabotar, Guilford College president

The Next Big Thing is either create jobs or shrink. I believe the biggest risk we face is not creating enough quality jobs and that our neighbors move away. To put this in perspective, Guilford County’s population grew 14.1 percent  from April 2000 to June 2009 while total employment fell 4.3 percent. How long can this happen before people begin to move?
What can be done? There is no one silver bullet as job creation is a volume business. When you look at the opportunities, you often don’t know which business will create the most impactful jobs nor when. Therefore, we need to support job-creation tactics of all shapes and sizes. If we don’t, the value of your house won’t drop because a plane flies over it or because a landfill is nearby — but because nobody will be there to buy it, at any price. Just look at Detroit or Flint, Mich.
— Sam Funchess, president & CEO, Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship

In 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act, initiating the interstate highway system that we all benefit from today. This innovative network of roads, offering high-speed transportation to all citizens and businesses on an unlimited-access basis, transformed our national and local economies.
A local,
digital equivalent of the 1956 act would be the creation of a robust, regional public Internet broadband network. Ultra-high-speed Internet access would create exponential value for our local economy, and do so very cost-effectively.
A national broadband network would help us locally but might take decades to complete. With our regional economy and our citizens under tremendous pressure, we cannot afford to wait.
To give local economic developers and entrepreneurs a vast advantage when working to bring 21st century jobs and prosperity to our area, our local government and economic development partners should research building a 20 megabit-1 gigabit (symmetrical) public broadband network.
— Bob Page, chairman and CEO, Replacements Ltd.

For the very first time, Greensboro’s seven colleges and universities are working together with the business community to advance economic development. This alliance, called Opportunity Greensboro, has a program of work and integrated messaging that will have an enormous impact on business recruitment and job creation.
Imagine the vibrancy that a downtown university district with 1,000 or more graduate students could bring to our city.  Or the power of a unified academic and business approach to entrepreneurship.
Think of the possibilities for shared academic programs, and the appeal of a middle/early college high school focused on science, technology, engineering and math.
Greensboro’s seven higher education institutions are one of our greatest assets, and their collaboration with the business community delivers a significant competitive advantage to attract the talent and trade that we need in our community.
 — April Harris, executive director, Action Greensboro

Greensboro/Guilford County will lead the nation in one new very important mission. All elected officials who have served 12 or more years in any and all elected positions will no longer seek re-election. Many have served well, but all have served long enough. We need and  must have bright new people in positions of responsibility who will do what is best for our country and not what their narrow political beliefs, political party or their monetary supporters dictate.
We cannot and have not solved our many problems with your leadership. Let’s keep score and try for 100 percent. It is time for new ideas, strong leadership and action. It is time for you to stand up, folks, and to sit down, please.
— Milton Kern, downtown developer and 2007 candidate for mayor

Leveraging technology, social media and connections around the globe, Millennials will collaborate, design and start innovative businesses. New technologies make it possible to operate thriving businesses from anywhere — and Greensboro is poised to capitalize on the promise of a growing virtual work force. Millennials will build a robust virtual and physical community of artists, entrepreneurs and social change agents who are continuously interacting with the world’s best innovators. They’ll diversify and enrich our community’s culture as they demonstrate their artistic talents, create jobs, run for office and engage in solving community issues. They will graduate from our local colleges and universities with more degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields. They will give back to this community. They will help create a climate that compels more of our city’s Millennials to stay in Greensboro, putting their artistic, entrepreneurial and leadership skills to use right here.
— Mona Gillis Edwards, vice president and chief of staff, Center for Creative Leadership

The next 10 years are going to be difficult and challenging because of a lack of funds at all levels of government. It is going to be imperative that we focus and have a vision for our community.
The No. 1 priority should be to give all of our youth a quality education that is marketable.
The next priority is to create an environment that will provide jobs. We have lost over 50,000 jobs in the last decade. We must work smart to catch up. North Carolina is the only state in the South that does not have an automobile manufacturing plant. That should become a No. 1 priority. BMW brought over 30,000 high-paying jobs to South Carolina. Collectively, we have the ability to attract that plant.
We must think regionally! We cannot compete on a world basis as individual communities, but collectively we can be a force in the world. We should be as excited about an economic victory in a community other than Greensboro as we would be if it were in Greensboro. The quality of life that we can offer, along with all the educational advantages we have, makes us competitive.
— Jim Melvin, president, Joseph M. Bryan Foundation

Working smarter is an emerging trend that will only grow in importance.  For cities, this means finding ways to use limited resources more effectively and efficiently. Because of their compactness and connectivity, downtowns are poised to capitalize on this growing trend.
While austerity currently rules the day, communities still need to grow revenues through economic development. By maximizing the use of existing downtown infrastructure, communities can avoid the expense of building new roads, water and sewer lines, schools, parks and police and fire stations that subsidize sprawl. This makes downtown more cost-efficient when considering investments that will grow the economy and tax base. 
Communities will also seek to guide investment to areas that will benefit the most people and businesses. As the density of downtown is greatly superior to suburban settings and offers the added value of lower operating costs for delivering services, the trend of communities working smarter by investing in downtown will accelerate.
— Ed Wolverton, president and CEO, Downtown Greensboro Inc.

One Saturday, my sister and her children visit me from Charlotte. I meet them at the Depot after their high-speed rail trip, and we walk through the Cultural District toward the Children’s Museum to participate in its latest Edible Schoolyard program. On the way, I show her Greensboro’s recent condominium/grocery store development being constructed near our new federal courthouse and the latest UNCG expansion. As we pass the performance center on Church Street, she tells me that a friend from Atlanta is coming to see the upcoming James Taylor concert, stay at our downtown hotel and visit the Civil Rights Museum. We then choose the café where we’ll eat after our kids play in Center City Park later that day.
I’m happy most of our visits now occur in Greensboro. This one won’t happen yet, but with vision, leadership and public/private investment in our Cultural District, it could.
— John M. Cross Jr., an attorney, is United Way board chairman and former chairman, the Greensboro Children’s Museum

Big is in the eye of the beholder. Basketball tournaments and figure skating championships are big in that they’re visible and fun. They help market our city, they make us and others feel good about Greensboro, and they generate a little economic oomph as well. But they’re not major drivers of the economy. Events like that are an outgrowth rather than a cause of economic dynamism.
A truly big thing for Greensboro would be something that creates good long-lasting jobs. As we languish in a weak recovery from a deep recession, with state and local government budgets imploding, strong job growth seems like a fantasy. So the biggest thing for Greensboro in 2011 would be a vibrant recovery, full of innovation and entrepreneurship and, of course, good jobs.
I don’t know if a strong recovery is what’s next. But it’d sure be nice.
— Andrew Brod, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, UNCG

Investment in Guilford County’s foundation — our children from birth to 5 years —will spur work force development. Programs that start children on the path to successful adulthood, such as early education, parent support, quality day care and home visiting, result in increased school test scores, graduation rates, college attendance, job readiness and earnings. These programs reduce substance abuse, crime and teen pregnancy — all critical to growing a skilled work force. The Pew Charitable Trust reports:
l Early childhood investments produce a rate of return of about 16 percent a year more than traditional economic development projects.
l Quality home visiting/parent mentoring programs help decrease by half the incidence of low-weight births, saving between $28,000 and $40,000 per low-weight birth averted.
l Effective pre-K programs reduce costly grade retention and special education services.
Early childhood development determines whether or not a child will enter school ready to succeed. Proven programs for children birth to 5 must receive priority. 
— Susan Schwartz, executive director, the Cemala Foundation

A big opportunity for Greensboro is to be the best city in America for entrepreneurs to start new businesses. We already have some of the necessary and key ingredients for this to happen. Seven colleges and universities loaded with intellectual capital and a desire to partner together are located in Greensboro.
The partnership between N.C. A&T  and UNCG to form the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering is generating world-class nanoeducation and research. Knowledge gained from this research is beginning to be transferred to commercial applications. This offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to start new businesses, which also create new jobs.
Continuing to identify critical resources and cultivating a nurturing environment for entrepreneurs to thrive and grow is our challenge. We need to attract and provide more start-up and venture capital sources. And we need to develop a marketing plan to tell America that Greensboro is the best city for entrepreneurs to start new businesses.
This will take all of us staying focused, committed and supportive to ensure we can realize the explosive economic potential.
— Deborah Hooper, president, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce

I have no idea what the Next Big Thing will be, but whatever it is, I predict that its boosters will claim that it will “revitalize” something — the economy or the center city perhaps — and its detractors will claim that it is a dark plot led by a former Greensboro mayor, nefarious members of government staff, and the devil. It will probably ask the city and county for incentive money. If and when it arrives, it will turn out to have been oversold and underbudgeted by its promoters, but neither will it destroy Life As We Know It.
That is why I hope that instead of a Next Big Thing, we get a hundred Next Small Things — another neighborhood watch formed, an historic landmark preserved, better police protection in rough neighborhoods, new small businesses launched — that you will probably never read about.
— David Wharton, associate professor, classical studies, UNCG

Like my favorite basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, I define passion as “extreme emotion.” So I’m passionate when I tell you health care is the Next Big Thing. Look around. With baby boomers hitting retirement age, the pieces are coming into place.
Moses Cone Health System is spending $310 million in just the next four years to improve our community’s health care.
UNCG is taking a major role in applying the promise of genomic medicine through the Guilford Genomic Medicine Initiative.
Elon University is starting a physician assistant program to meet the growing need for primary care providers in our area.
High Point University is developing a School of Health Sciences featuring a College of Pharmacy.
And, despite a tough budget year, Guilford County Schools has committed to create an early college program built around health care careers.
The Next Big Thing is here. And I’m fired up about what health care means for our area.
— Tim Rice, president and CEO, Moses Cone Health System

My wish is that the Next Big Thing for Greensboro and the Triad will be jobs, jobs, jobs. More jobs will solve so many problems.
Jobs will reignite the housing and retail markets. Jobs will attract graduates of our many educational institutions to remain in the area and build our population of young professionals. Jobs will enable many of our homeless to find employment and recover their lives. Jobs will build our tax base and enable us to support our schools and infrastructure.
I have confidence that our region’s city and county governments can come together with private organizations such as the Greensboro Partnership and, with a singular focus, bring major manufacturing to the area. We cannot cost-cut our way out of the current financial situation and the loss of 40,000 jobs over the last four years. The only way out is to bring in major job generators.
— Donna Newton, director, Guilford Nonprofit Consortium

I believe the city will have “community open heart surgery.” The external stressful conditions responsible for this surgery are tough economic conditions, combined with an emotional political environment.
When there’s a healthy community heart, everything flows together as a single unit. Even though I am not a social cardiologist, I suspect, upon entering our city’s heart, we’d discover some blockages to and from certain critical parts of our community. The key to successful treatment is the recognition that too many of us struggle to make a living wage — and the willingness to give the working poor a hand up, not a handout.
My vision of Greensboro’s recovery reminds me of “The Story of Stone Soup.” As we pull the city’s “new heart” out of its velvet bag, there will be enough for all, and everyone will know that our heart is not for sale!
— The Rev. Odell Cleveland, co-founder, Welfare Reform Liaison Project