Cincinnati/Southwest Ohio : Featured Stories

Is it possible to be successful in business and have a meaningful personal life at the same time? It is if you live in Ohio. Our state gets rave reviews from business veterans who said goodbye to long commutes and crowded spaces and never looked back, finding the balance they were seeking in the smaller cities and livable suburbs of Ohio.

Gift-giving is a big part of the holiday season, and at this time of year stories of goodwill catch our attention. But needs don't disappear with the new year. That's why Ohio entrepreneurs, who've worked to create their own blessings, give back year-round to the communities that have helped them prosper.

In the past, the idea of a company turning to a competitor for outside expertise just wasn't done. Today both small and large companies realize they can't do everything in-house, and that holds true for the growing biomedical industry where innovation through collaboration has become the norm.

There was a time when Ohio overflowed with distilleries that made whisky, which wended its way down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Over time, every last one of those distilleries dried up. Now, small-scale distilleries are reviving the grand tradition.

Cincinnati knows a good thing when it sees it . . . and homegrown talent is a good thing. So, in 2005, regional businesses and educators formed a collaborative nonprofit to plug the region's "brain drain" by cultivating students, beginning as early as the 10th grade.

Elizabeth Edwards is a former venture investor who believes there is no lack of innovation or entrepreneurial spirit in the greater Cincinnati region. What's needed, she says, are more ways to connect great ideas with resources. That's why Edwards left Neyer Holdings to form her own company, Metro Innovation -- and why she initiated programs like InOneWeekend three years ago and the Cincinnati Innovates contest, now it its second year. hiVelocity spoke to Edwards about Cincinnati's entrepreneurial climate.