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By Amy Geiszler-Jones

When businesses large or small, public or private want information about the Wichita economy, they know who to call.

Over the past three decades, WSU’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research has become a valuable resource for business and community leaders.

A local Boeing official called it "a good, reliable source." The CEO of a local commercial real estate business described the center as "an important asset to the business community in Wichita and south-central Kansas" and its data as "thorough and comprehensive."

At WSU’s Media Resources Center, Janet Nickel, director of WSU’s Center for Economic Development and Business Research, and KAKE-TV anchor Larry Hatteberg put the finishing touches on a videotape about the Wichita economy for the CEDBR’s recent economic outlook conference.

Not only does the center analyze data to provide corporations, independent businesses or government agencies with a snapshot of themselves or the current economy, it also generates forecasts about the local economy.

In between crunching numbers, its researchers are often called upon by local media for comments on economic happenings or even other business studies.

Janet Nickel, who became center director in July after 12 years as a staff researcher, laughs when asked about a typical day for her and her current staff of two full-time researchers. (A third research slot is still open.) They had just finished months of planning and producing the center’s 20th annual economic outlook conference, which has become a valuable tool for smaller businesses in particular who don’t have in-house forecasting staff.

"For example, right now we are working on six different contracts with six different clients," she says. "They include both public and private and both local and non-local companies. There’s a wide variety – cost/benefit analysis, economic impact studies, survey work. It runs the gamut."

Along the way, the center will continue to produce the two publications that gave the center its start.

More than three decades ago, a half-time professor and graduate assistant started distributing the quarterly Kansas Economic Report and the monthly Kansas Economic Indicators, Nickel says.

Since then the center has expanded considerably, adding contracted studies and other services.

Last year it started the Wichita Area Outlook Team. "It’s an excellent forum for an exchange of ideas," says Ed Miller, a vice president with Willis Corp. of Kansas. He is one of the 30-plus leaders in business, industry, education and government who meet quarterly to discuss trends and hot topics.

The group has heard from such varied speakers as Marvin Krout, Wichita’s director of planning, about Wichita’s fast growth to Winston Brooks, superintendent of schools, on the upcoming local bond issue.

Jackie Snyder, dean of academic outreach at WSU, poses a question about education and training for the future work force to local business leaders during the Center for Economic Development and Business Research’s recent conference.

Contracted services have become an important part of the center’s business. Forty percent of its budget is generated by contracts, with the remaining 60 percent coming from a 50/50 mix of state and mill-levy funds.

While most of its contracted studies are proprietary, some are high profile. A few years ago, one study influenced Moody’s rating agency to give the city a higher bond rating. The center had shown the area’s economy was more diverse than the agency thought.

Since 1993, The Boeing Co. has had the center determine its impact on the state’s economy.

When Boeing started considering a third party to do such a study, "the center’s name came up as a good, reliable source," says Bill Jarrell, the aircraft manufacturer’s regional director for government relations.

Some businesses, like The Martens Cos., rely on the center’s other services. CEO Steve Martens says his commercial real estate business has subscribed to the center’s publications for some time.

"We find the information to be useful and beneficial in the work that we do," he says. "If we’re contracted by a national retailer interested in opening stores in multiple locations in Kansas, the economic indicators and retail sales information are good fingertip data.

"At least once a week, if not daily, we use a piece of information supplied by the center."

In 1996, the center released a study showing that if current population and migration trends continued, the Wichita-area labor supply would peak by 2015.

"I think that particular study locally woke up a lot of people," says Martens.

Such news isn’t good in a city with a booming economy that already has more jobs than its population can seem to fill. But the findings have come early enough for economic development officials and business leaders to make action plans.

Besides offering forecasts about the local economy, Nickel is willing to give predictions about the center’s future. She says the center will grow by:

• providing data on more statewide issues rather than just Wichita and south-central Kansas

• enhancing its geographic information system to become compatible with the software used by the city and county. The system will allow CEDBR researchers to marry data and geography information for analyses.

• expanding its Web presence to include e-commerce.

The CEDBR also will do extensive analyses of census data once information is released in 2001 about next year’s census.