In the News
From the Director:
The Value of Branding Arlington as a Science Community
by Terry Holzheimer, Director of Arlington Economic Development
I was interviewed by the Washington Post a few weeks ago regarding our efforts to brand the Ballston area as a science center. The resulting article was one of our most successful efforts of getting a focused and coherent message into the media. This message has its origins in a brand that Arlington has created as a premier science center. This brand was built, piece by piece, over the past few years through the efforts of local government, university research centers, federal agencies and companies and non profit organizations involved in science and technology. Articles like that in the Washington Post provide external validation that our strategy has been successful.
AED has had several successes in retaining and expanding the Ballston science community. First of all, we have “saved” DARPA from BRAC and from potential relocation. A lease has now been signed with the developer of DARPA’s new headquarters in Ballston. In addition, we now have a new research center for Virginia Tech under construction, also in Ballston just blocks away from the National Science Foundation and the new DARPA location. The co-location of these organizations is a hallmark of Ballston, and an advantage noted by NSF’s Marc Rothenberg: “The high concentration of like-minded outlets creates a "neighborhood," Rothenberg said. "I think there is a sort of mutually reinforcing aspect to having other technical and scientific organizations around."
Along with the location of government agencies and private sector firms, Arlington has encouraged the formation of science-oriented nonprofit organizations to create dialog within this community. AED was instrumental in forming the Ballston Science and Technology Alliance (BSTA), which runs the monthly Café Scientifique and other programs designed to promote public discussions of science in general. And, AED has sought to quantify its argument that Ballston – Arlington – is a premier science hub, through research. We published a white paper entitled Brainpower: A Snapshot of the Physical and Social Science and Research Industries and Occupations in Arlington, Virginia and the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area which makes the case that Arlington has the highest concentration of residents in scientific research occupations within the region. AED’s highly regarded and successful advertising campaign, Brainpower: Arlington’s Alternative Energy builds on the research paper and further supports the brand.
All of the pieces fit together. Our development base and our tenant list of companies, non profit organizations, and federal agencies all give us credibility as a scientific community. Our research validates our occupational and educational profiles as the highest educated community in the region with a disproportionately high concentration of science and technology workers. Our formation of the BSTA provides added value to our base of tenants. And we tell the world about it all through advertising and earned media (to get back to where this started).
Arlington is now noted as a premier science center; much more than we were only a few years ago. We have created a firm base for further growth in emerging technologies and scientific research.
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