Please join PPI and the Harkin Institute on October 12th for a lunch discussion about how digital innovation is transforming Iowa’s economy and the long-term potential for Iowa to reap economic and societal gains by fostering the future growth of digital industries.

To an increasing degree, PPI research has shown tech-driven employment and wage growth is spreading across the country and seeping into the Heartland. In Iowa alone, tech and tech-related jobs grew by more than 80 percent from 2007 to 2016, accounting for almost one-quarter of private sector job growth during that period. The key to this surprising new growth has been the digitization of traditionally physical industries, or the use of the Internet to help control physical devices and our physical environment. Telemedicine, for example, has become an essential new technology for delivering health and medical services to rural and underserved areas, where specialists and facilities may be few and far between.

Iowa is also experiencing the economic benefits of a rising global App Economy — millions of jobs, new companies, and wealth generated by the production and distribution of mobile applications (“apps”) developed for smart-devices. This army of app developers writing, designing, selling, and supporting mobile applications for billions of users has become an economic force that did not exist before the introduction of the iPhone just a decade ago. As of December 2016, PPI estimates the Iowa App Economy employs around 12,000 workers. What’s more, the demand for new mobile apps is only going to skyrocket in the future. Farmers will increasingly use apps to aid their agricultural production, nurses and doctors will use apps to manage patient care, and manufacturers will use apps to control their factories.

Joining Dr. Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist at PPI will be: Iowa State Senator Janet Petersen; Drew Harden, CEO of Blue Compass; Alison Fleming, Director of Government Relations at 1800 contacts; and Doug Wilson, Director of Sales and Operations at Integrated Telehealth.