The Global Village is alive, well and living in south metro Denver

BY DOUG TISDALE

In 1964, Marshall McLuhan wrote that since the inception of the telegraph and the radio, the globe has contracted spatially into a single large village, a phenomenon he called the Global Village.

McLuhan understood media as technological extensions of the body, predicting that the instant sharing of news and information—simultaneously, all across the globe, in real time—would forever change the face of human interaction.

And 90 years ago Nikola Tesla said, “When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is—all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony, we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”

Parenthetically, Tesla had a direct Colorado connection, performing some of his most electrifying experiments in Colorado Springs in 1899, succeeding in burning out the dynamo at the El Paso Electric Company and causing the entire city to lose power.

These two giants, one of them an expert in media analysis and the other a technological genius, have inspired countless innovators, many of whom choose the Denver region as their headquarters. These creative and enterprising individuals and the companies they run have turned the Denver region into one of the most significant technology clusters in the world.

Consider these impressive facts regarding the industry clusters that impact technology [courtesy of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation]:

• Aerospace – The region ranks second out of the 50 largest metropolitan areas for private-aerospace employment concentration, with 19,520 workers. Nearly 6 percent of the nation’s aerospace workforce is located in the region.

• Aviation – Denver International Airport is a major economic engine for the industry, employing 16,800 people. Major expansion at DIA and RTD’s opening of the new University of Colorado A Line high-speed commuter rail to downtown Denver creates further momentum.

• Bioscience – The region’s medical devices and diagnostics sub-cluster is strong nationally, ranking 11th in employment concentration. Research universities and numerous innovation assets support the industry.

• Broadcasting and Telecommunications – The region offers substantial assets for this industry due to its mountain time-zone location and one-bounce satellite capability, ranking sixth nationally for employment concentration.

• Energy – The region ranks fourth in the United States in fossil fuels and fifth for cleantech employment concentration. Both subclusters posted significant, double-digit growth from 2010-2015; cleantech was the region’s fastest growing industry in 2015.

• Information Technology-Software – The region continues to rank among the top 10 nationally in total employment concentration with 2.5 percent of the region’s total employment base. The region has 48,610 workers in this sector.

With many of the companies that make up these technology industry clusters being based in south metro Denver, it is more than fair to say that we are the center of the Global Village.

And with the continuing growth and imagination of companies like Lockheed Martin and United Launch Alliance, maybe someday we will be the center of the Galactic Village.

Doug Tisdale is executive vice president of the South Metro Denver Chamber.