The TechMobility Podcast
Welcome to The TechMobility Podcast, your ultimate source for authentic insights, news, and perspectives at the nexus of mobility and technology. We're all about REAL FACTS, REAL OPINIONS, and REAL TALK! From personal privacy to space hotels, if it moves or moves you, we're discussing it! Our weekly episodes venture beyond the conventional, offering a unique, unfiltered take on the topics that matter. We're not afraid to color outside the lines, and we believe you'll appreciate our bold approach!
The TechMobility Podcast
Innovation Everywhere: From EV Vans to AI Grids
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Technological innovation often emerges from unexpected partnerships and overlooked opportunities—a theme that runs throughout today’s exploration of evolving infrastructure.
The Automotive Industry:
Hyundai and GM’s surprising partnership to create an electric commercial van illustrates how even fierce rivals are rethinking competition. This isn’t just about sharing development costs—it’s about survival in a market where fixed costs can reach billions. From the historic NUMMI plant (once a GM-Toyota venture, now Tesla’s home base) to shared transmissions, the industry’s history shows how collaboration can drive innovation.
The Electrical Grid:
America’s transmission infrastructure, much of which is over 40 years old, is strained by increasing demand and decentralization. AI-powered dynamic line rating systems can increase capacity by up to 30% without expensive upgrades, while smart analytics identify faults in seconds. These tools give utilities more time to plan for future modernization.
Wastewater Innovation:
Even wastewater plants—long viewed as unavoidable necessities—have hidden potential. By capturing methane from sewage treatment and converting it into renewable natural gas, communities can reduce greenhouse gases, generate revenue, and create jobs, transforming waste into valuable resources.
Rural Opportunity:
Rural America, home to 46 million people, represents another overlooked frontier. From agricultural powerhouses to small manufacturing hubs, these regions are vital to the nation’s economic future—and demand strategies tailored to their unique strengths.
Closing
What opportunities are hidden in your community’s infrastructure?
Tune in to see how technology is transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary.
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Speaker 2:I'm Ken Chester On the docket the digital backbone of tomorrow's grid, the future of wastewater and renewable natural gas, and unlocking rural America's potential. To add your voice to the conversation, be it to ask a question, share an opinion or even to suggest a topic for future discussion, call or text the TechMobility hotline, that number, 872-222-9793. Or you can email the show directly. Talk at techmobilityshow. Also, be sure to subscribe, like and follow us on social media and our YouTube channel. For those of you on Substack, you can reach me at Ken C Iowa. That's K-E-N, the letter C, i-o-w-a From the Tech Mobility News Desk.
Speaker 2:Technology and investment make for strange bedfellows. What I'm talking about here is a recent announcement in Marketing Daily that trumpeted the fact that Hyundai and General Motors will co-produce an EV commercial van, and that's at least in the United States. The plan actually goes much deeper. They have plans to actually develop vehicles for sale together in Central and South America, but as far as the United States is concerned, it's an EV commercial van, and you might think, why would these two very different automotive manufacturers get together to do such a thing? As always, it's a matter of money. Gm has underutilized facilities in Canada right now in their Bright Drop assembly plant. Hyundai is looking to move up in the world and offer a product that would cost them millions, if not billions of dollars to develop, market and do everything. By developing it together they get the best of both worlds. Gm gets to utilize an asset that's currently being underutilized and costing them millions of dollars. Hyundai gets an opportunity to get in on it for way cheaper than they could have done it from scratch. They hit the ground running.
Speaker 2:There's a term for it in the automotive industry, and they call it badge engineering. What badge engineering is is a particular make or model that is the same make and model. It may have different characteristics, it may have different sheet metal, it might have a slightly different interior, but under the skin it's the same vehicle. Usually automakers do that amongst their brands Dodge and Plymouth, sometimes Chrysler. Gm did it in certain models, particularly in the low end of the scale. Ford did it between Ford and Mercury products, and sometimes Lincoln's. What that does for an automotive manufacturer is it spreads the fixed overhead cost, which easily runs into the billions of dollars and that's billion with a B, not to mention the embedded cost of assembly plants money they've already sunk and engineering costs. It gives them an opportunity. The more units they can spread those fixed costs over one, the more likely they are to get their investment back. And two makes them more cost competitive because the cost per unit is lower as opposed to building just a few and they got to hold gross in order to get paid.
Speaker 2:If you think that this is an unusual arrangement in the auto industry, it really isn't. This has been going on honestly since the start of the automobile industry. Let me give you a recent example. Last 40 years GM closed a plant in the late 1970s in California that was making Firebirds and Camaros. That plant would open again in 1985 as a joint venture between, of all people, general Motors and Toyota. It's called the New United Motor Manufacturing Company, or you might have heard the term NUMMI for short. They built Toyota Corollas there and they also built for a minute it was Chevy, actually they were Prisms Chevy Prisms that they built same vehicle, different front end, different tail end, but the same vehicle Came out of the plant. Both had a winner in that they could leverage the volume. Pontiac Vibe was also built in that plant eventually, and then it closed. The irony of the whole thing that plant still lives on. It's still producing vehicles today, although not for GM and not for Toyota. That same ground is ground zero for, of all people, tesla.
Speaker 2:That's Tesla's Fremont plant, which was originally a GM plant, which was also a joint venture plant with Toyota, and I can give you a million examples. Let me give you a recent one. If you were driving a GM or Ford product that was built in the last 15 years and it's equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission. That automatic transmission was developed jointly between General Motors and Ford, saved them billions of dollars. What's more, the multi-speed 8, 9, and 10-speed transmissions have their legacy in that six-speed as where they started from. Again, it's all about the money.
Speaker 2:So they're going to do this and it's going to be Hyundai and GM. They're going to develop, actually, a smaller sibling to Chevy's current Bright Drop vans, but I guarantee you it will be built in that plant and it will probably be built using a lot of what GM has already developed. They expect it to hit the United States consumer in 2028. We're at the very end of the 2025 model year, about to start the beginning of the 2026 model year, so you're barely two years and if they build it, an actual calendar year 28,. It could be classified as a 29. It kind of depends on timing, but even then it will compete with the Ford e-Transit, mercedes-benz e-Sprinter, ram ProMaster EV and even the Rivian EDV, which was originally developed for Amazon. Same van, same issue. Amazon is buying 100,000 of these, but Rivian is going to spread the cost by opening it up to sell to whosoever will Same difference.
Speaker 2:Economies of scale Assembly plants require economies of scale and, believe it or not, even if Rivian was going to build all 100,000 vans for Amazon in one year, that's not even half of the output of a typical automobile assembly plant. To get to scale, you need a plant that has the capacity to build a quarter of a million vehicles, and you're going to get to scale in quality at about 180,000 vehicles. So anything less than that, you're either losing money or your quality is not where it needs to be. Hence a lot of these projects, and there's a ton of them. I'm. It needs to be. Hence a lot of these projects, and there's a ton of them. I'm just scratching the surface. There's a lot of components that are cross-shared between automakers. You'd be surprised what might be in your car from whomever, but that is the nature of the beast.
Speaker 2:And again, it boils down to operating as an automobile manufacturer. Whether you're building trucks, minivans, hybrids, evs, doesn't matter. It is a cost-intensive, labor-intensive business and automakers are always looking for ways to mitigate their input costs because they have to build a vehicle that, at the end of the day, you're going to buy and that you can afford to buy. And it's a challenge right now and we've talked about this before with the average price of a vehicle now topping for a new vehicle topping 50 grand, we're seeing growing evidence that people can't afford to buy them anymore. So all the more reason for automakers to co-develop stuff.
Speaker 2:Let's take this Hyundai thing a little further. They're going to develop four vehicles I had mentioned I just touched briefly for Central and South America, which would include a compact SUV, a car and a pickup, as well as a midsize pickup, all with the flexibility to use either internal combustion or hybrid propulsion systems. It's the way of the world now Gasoline alone. Just don't cut it. And remember these are vehicles you'll probably never see because they're going to be sold in Central and South America. That's the nature of the beast.
Speaker 2:All of these automakers are global and, being global as such, they have to think globally when they're looking at how to allocate dollars, and all of that ends up being good news because GM will learn how to build smaller vehicles more profitably. Hyundai will learn how to scale up EVs or something other than cars and light vans, so they both win. They both get an education, which is the other part of this whole deal. It's not even so much of the technology you bring in, even though GM will take the lead on the electronics, but Hyundai will take the lead in the smaller vehicles, in their packaging. But both win because it'll still be a fraction of what either one of them would have had to spend separately should they had chosen to tackle those markets alone. It's not a zero-sum game anymore and that's why I've always said automobile manufacturing is billions. The global energy grid faces a number of grave challenges in order to meet growing electrical demands. We discuss that next. You are listening to the Tech Mobility Show.
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Speaker 2:To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings at the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow.
Speaker 1:Every great business starts with a spark, but taking it to the next level takes strategy, connections and capital. That's where Playbook Investors Network comes in. We're your strategic partner for accelerating growth, navigating challenges and capturing market opportunities before your competition does. Your business is more than an idea. Let's make it an impact. Playbook Investors Network, your future starts here. Learn more at pincommunityorg.
Speaker 4:Stubborn is an incurable insomniac. It never takes no for an answer To stubborn. Impossible is just an opinion. The end is where stubborn begins and keeps on going until it's got nothing left, and then stubborn finds another gear. You know what we make.
Speaker 2:Stubborn makes us who we are Mercedes-Benz, the best or nothing if you have ever experienced a mercedes-benz g-wagon, you would think that stubborn is an understatement. That is a vehicle that I've had the opportunity to review over the years and I found it to be the most capable thing on four wheels. Let me say this a different way If you get stuck in a Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, then you did something incredibly stupid, or nobody and I mean nobody can get you out of it. I remember coming from the Chicago Auto Show a number of years ago. In one it was 15 inches of snow, 15 inches on the ground. I was taking my then copy editor back home to Cedar Rapids and we came up a road out of Mount Vernon, iowa, that had not been plowed at all, nobody had driven through and it was 15 inches plus. That G-Wagon went down that road as if it was a summer day, didn't phase it at all, didn't get stuck, didn't spin, didn't have a problem at all, drove that way all the way home, but with three different locking differentials and umpteen different choices to run this thing. Again, I tell you, stubborn is an understatement for that particular vehicle. You may have seen the ones that are all blinged out and think it's all about show, but I'm here to tell you, the G-Wagon as built, which was originally built as a military vehicle, is all that and a bag of chips. Take my word for it.
Speaker 2:The global energy grid faces aging infrastructure, rising renewable integration and decentralization challenges, and again it's AI to the rescue as a vital tool to optimize, add capacity, predict failures and enhance resilience, ensuring a reliable power supply amid a growing demand and environmental risks. Whoa, this is topic A. Let's talk about the grid for a minute. Right now, a lot of the transmission facilities in the United States transmitting electrical power regardless of utility is 40 years old or older. When built, a lot of this equipment had a lifespan of 40 years. Circuit breakers in the system are over 25 years old. We have an aging infrastructure, and not just in the United States, it's worldwide. Yet the demand for electricity over the next 10 years is going to be ridiculous, particularly in the United States, between AI, between data centers, between even household appliances and new things like heat pumps and needing to recharge your electric vehicles. All of that and here's something you may not think about, in addition to the grid, which was a grid built that was centralized in order to distribute power from a centralized location, be it a power plant, a substation, whatever. We're now looking at mini grids, micro grids, we're looking at decentralized power, we're looking at trying to integrate on-demand renewable energy, whether it's solar or whether it's wind, and then battery storage power coming into the system. All of that requires a rethinking of how electricity is produced and distributed, not just in the United States but all over the world. The number one advantage of artificial intelligence is to take large blocks, humongous blocks of data that could be for 50, 60, 70, 80 years or more, and analyze it for patterns, for situations, for opportunities, based on what has happened, based on what has been documented, and suggest, on a go-forward basis, ways to optimize, ways to prevent, ways to be proactive, looking at all of this data in a way that the average employee of a power utility, even the most seasoned engineer, could not fathom and absorb and make recommendations. And the most important thing in this case is AI can do it in seconds, where even an operator, an experienced system operator, might take minutes or God forbid if you're forecasting hours.
Speaker 2:As the need for electric power continues to grow, utilities are caught in the middle. Modernizing alone is not going to help them, because first you got long lead times and, like every other major industry. Power is no different. It is capital intensive. You're talking about spending billions of dollars just the United States and if you're looking at smaller utilities, you're coming up against the reality of we have so much money for capital improvements. Typically we're going to use that money for maintenance, for vegetation control, for maybe even save a small part of it to add new service, but for wholesale upgrades of major transmission lines or something like that, not so much.
Speaker 2:Part of the challenge that we have right now is that, whether you accept this or not, the federal government plays a large role in the resilience and reliability of the nation's power grid and, unlike a lot of other countries where the power grid is nationalized, our power grid is a smorgasbord of ownership. You have co-ops, you have local city-owned utilities, you have multi-state publicly held utilities, you have privately owned utilities, all providing power into a grid nationwide, all with different requirements for how capital is allocated, spent, how maintenance is approached and the pie of we only have so much money. More acute in rural areas, actually. So let me give you a way that AI can help today, something called dynamic line rating. Those systems use AI to increase transmission capacity by 15 to 30% without physical upgrades. Let that sink in. Without spending any more big money. To get more performance out of an existing transmission line, ai can get 30% more electricity through that line safely.
Speaker 2:Real-time data analytics, again powered by AI, to improve fault detection, response times and outage management. Fault detection something wrong in the circuit which may cause an outage, a fire or, worse, being on top of it. The challenge in the electrical industry, with the grid, is that things happen in nanoseconds, but yet it takes minutes on average for operators to respond to threats, outages, situations across the grid. By employing AI now, today, they can mitigate a lot of what they need to do, while still planning to modernize in the future, because it's going to take both in order to secure our grid. What if the very infrastructure built to treat a city's sewage could hold the key to lower energy bills we explore?
Speaker 2:that in next, this is the Tech Mobility Show.
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Speaker 2:Across the United States, wastewater treatment plants are undergoing a quiet but revolutionary transformation that may hold the key to cleaner air, lower energy bills and a path to clean energy revolution. This is Topic B. Wastewater Sewerage, Typically something you want to get rid of, get away from you, send it off to a faraway plant to be processed, make it go away. Would you believe that wastewater may actually be a source of energy? Indirectly? That wastewater treatment plant may be a source of something you would even consider Renewable natural gas. Follow me for a minute. This is topic B. By capturing methane during the wastewater treatment process and converting it in a renewable natural gas, wastewater treatment plants are defining what waste can do, and it's not about cleaner fuel. It's represents a critical step towards a circular water economy, a model where water, energy and waste are reused and reintegrated to support long term environmental and economic stability sustainability.
Speaker 2:Think about this for a minute. Your local sewage treatment plant a source of renewable natural gas that is chemically similar to regular natural gas did not cost anything because, in the breakdown of sewage, methane is automatically produced. Now you're thinking farms. We talked about that. We talked about manure. You talked about landfills, which also give off methane, but you never thought about wastewater treatment and its ability. And this is not really like the first time that wastewater has been commercialized. You might recall some years ago and I believe it was Milwaukee they were able to commercialize the sludge. They purified it and they sold it the sludge from their treatment plants as fertilizer. Here's a different way that every single wastewater treatment plant could make money for the municipality and provide cleaner air, fewer inputs, because if it's coming from there, you don't need to pull natural gas and you take that all the way back to the wellhead no longer necessary and make money. I like the make money part. Talk about your tax dollars at work. So let's just skip to this framework here, in the framework what they call the circular water economy, instead of viewing wastewater as waste to be discarded, this approach sees it as a valuable resource. It moves away from the traditional take make dispose model and instead it looks to extract value from every stage of the water cycle. The goal is to close the loop on water, energy and nutrient flows by reintegrating the outputs back into the system.
Speaker 2:Consider this by recovering methane produced during the breakdown of organic matter and sewage. When it's purified, this methane becomes renewable natural gas a viable substitute for natural gas gas. A viable substitute for natural gas which, by the way, requires no changes whatsoever to anything that would use it. The only thing they have to do is what they call purify it, because when they produce it, when it's breakdown, what you really get at first is biogas, which is only 65% methane. They're going to remove the water, the other impurities, from it, in order to get it pure. Once it's pure, it's RNG and, unlike solar or wind, it's what the industry calls dispatchable. It means it's available 24-7, regardless of weather or time of day. And the reason why this matters for those of y'all that are paying attention, and the reason why this matters for those of you that are paying attention methane is a more potent greenhouse gas with more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. 80 times more potential than carbon dioxide as a warming factor in our environment.
Speaker 2:Let me break this down for those of you that may still be skeptical. Here are the economic and operational benefits for utilities by producing RNG. Number one I keep talking about the money, royalties and revenue sharing. But partnering with an experienced RNG developer, municipalities can earn royalties without taking on capital costs or technical risk. Renewable fuel credits RIG used for transportation generates valuable credits under federal and state programs like the Renewable Fuel Standard and California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which, by the way, are not caught up in the current clawback to EV projects and renewable energy projects. The RFS was passed back in 07.
Speaker 2:Just a point of information Local job creation Building and operating RNG facilities creates skilled jobs in engineering, operation and maintenance, helping transition into a clean energy economy and bolster local resources. This is not Green New Deal, people. This is called taking something you're throwing away, getting value out of it and helping the environment. Helping the environment happens to be a happy subplot to the whole thing. Recapturing this and selling it helps municipalities, because now that eats tax burden. By the way, people, because if your city's making money now from something that was wasteful and here's the best part does not require a major capital expense on the part of the water treatment plant, the wastewater treatment plant does not have to spend money in fancy new stuff. Let that sink in a minute, because this case and, by the way, this article comes from Waterworld Magazine this is a trade magazine all about water Money. It's all about the money. Finally, energy cost savings Facilities that use RNG on site can lower their utility bills and reduce dependence on volatile energy markets. This improves operational stability and resilience.
Speaker 2:Again, with municipal budgets being maxed out and municipalities looking for revenue everywhere they can find it, and the public's resistance to increases in property taxes, this is certainly another way that you can use what you got, capitalize on what you have and turn it into something that benefits everybody. It's a win-win all the way around. It generates revenue from waste. It reduces inputs elsewhere in the system. You can either use it within shoot you don't even have to sell it you can use it within city operations to power natural gas powered vehicles like dump trucks and trash vehicles and stuff. You don't even have to sell it. Just using it there reduces the cost of you buying it from somebody else, and you got to be with the saving money part because it doesn't cost any more.
Speaker 2:But yet this is not a widely held view. We do not have this adopted across all of our country, although there are 25 states that handle landfill methane into renewable natural gas. It's time to take a look at your sewage treatment plants. It's another source that can generate money without major capital expenditures right now, today. Think about that for a minute. Not everything has to be about giving up something. This is a benefit just waiting to happen. Something is being thrown away At one time. So was raw gasoline thrown away to keep the kerosene. So what comes around goes around. In this case, it's making money out of what is formerly waste wastewater, sewage the nasty stuff. One in seven Americans live in what is defined as rural America. Despite this, rural America is seriously under-researched. We are the Tech Mobility Show.
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Speaker 2:Get started today and revolutionize the way you communicate. To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings of the Tech Mobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. That's techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow.
Speaker 1:In business opportunity doesn't wait, and neither should you. At Playbook Investors Network, we connect visionary entrepreneurs with the strategies, resources and capital they need to win. Whether you're launching, scaling or reimagining your business, our network turns ambition into measurable success. Your vision deserves more than a plan. It deserves a playbook that works.
Speaker 2:Playbook Investors Network where bold ideas meet bold results. Visit pincommunityorg today. Did you know that TechMobility has a YouTube channel? Hi, I'm Ken Chester, host of the TechMobility Show. Each week, I upload a few short videos of some of the hot topics that I cover during my weekly radio program. I've designed these videos to be informative and entertaining. It's another way to keep up on current mobility and technology news and information. Be sure to watch, like and subscribe to my channel. That's the Tech Mobility Show on YouTube. Check it out.
Speaker 2:What does the term rural America mean to you? The heartland, small town, america, flyover country are some of the phrases that may come to mind. As of 2023, some 46 million folks live in rural America. A vast array of geographies, economies and cultures. How can the well-being and economic mobility of the area be improved? Welcome to Topic C.
Speaker 2:This comes from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility. It's a white paper. The white paper is titled Small Towns Massive Opportunity Unlocking Rural America's Potential. Hmm, unlocking rural America's potential Unlocking? I've lived in rural America for the better part of 40 some odd years. We've always had potential. Some big city folks that don't understand the potential we have talk about unlocking, but I will go on the difference I'm going to make during this episode is while this talks in general about America as a whole, I'm going to put a little bit of an Iowa spin on it, because I can see some of the archetypes of rural America that they define, and I don't agree with all of them. Having lived in the state for 40 years plus, I've seen I've been in a few towns a lot of great people, so let me read what they said and then let me share what I think. This report deepens our understanding, their understanding of rural America and uncover insights from demographic and microeconomic terms I'm sorry trends about barriers and opportunities for future growth. Using a data-driven approach, we defined six archetypes of rural communities in America, providing a framework for understanding the economic, social and cultural dynamics that shape rural America today. Then we delved into resident outcomes and well-beings, as well as trends in economic mobility across the rural archetypes. Our analysis highlights proven approaches to accelerate economic development in rural America, along with actionable examples to improve economic mobility.
Speaker 2:Big words, right? Do you think they've been to any of these towns talking like that Somehow? I don't think so, but here's where they started. I'm going to give you their assessment. To comprehend the evolving nature of rural America. We first explored the type of communities that make up these regions, the similarities as well as the differences. That analysis involved a statistical assessment of America's more than 3,100 counties and they identified six archetype of rural communities, which may help it to better define what we mean when we talk about rural America.
Speaker 2:I'm going to stop right there because I read this and I am not in the best mood reading this. Here's why, in the central part of the United States of America where I live I live in the upper Midwest, very proud resident of the Upper Midwest While I can see three or four of these within communities within our state, they did not even address the geographic differences found in the Middle West, in the Upper Midwest. It was so generic that they missed the nuance. So let me break it down for you. In a lot of these cities and little towns and I'm going to talk about Iowa because it's what I know you can talk about agricultural powerhouses and typically not what you think, not what you think.
Speaker 2:Those towns typically may have an elevator, a seed dealer or two, but they're the grain elevators, part of the co-op for maybe all the farms in a 20, 30 mile area range and you're looking at millions of dollars of crop, be it soybeans, be it corn, which is what most of Iowa plants, but it's not everything. We corn, which is what most of Iowa plants, but it's not everything we plant, but it is most. You would drive through this little town, you wouldn't think much about it. But oh my goodness, the men and women that plant that ground and bring it to market and bring it to the elevator are the literal backbone of this country. Because if you knew how many different ways corn is used, you'd be amazed. And they keep finding things for it. Now I know you've heard of high fructose corn syrup, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, people. It is so much more than that. Let's just say there ain't too much part of the corn anyways. But let me go a little bit further. I want to get into their things.
Speaker 2:Agricultural powerhouses they say that 7% share the total population. Two towns come immediately to mind when they think about that Postville, eagle Lake. These are Iowa cities I'm thinking about where Perry used to be before the processing plant shut down and these counties are home to small, moderate growth communities with agricultural focus, 20% or more of GDP and a stable economy. Agricultural powerhouses, along with their research-rich reasons, are sparsely populated. That would be most of Iowa in our 99 counties with 3.1 million people. There ain't a whole lot of us out there and there's a lot of land. Their share of rural counties is proportionally higher than their slice of the overall population. Agricultural powerhouses also have the highest labor force participation rate of all archetypes, at almost 60%. And then they will admit that within this type there are areas of variation. For example, a significant portion of agricultural powerhouses are built around larger scale farms with a lower diversity of products, such as corn, hogs and dairy. You just describe most of Iowa, let's just say corn and soybeans, and you've defined a lot of small towns that have a working elevator. It's not there for show or for Americana. It works for a reason. These quote unquote commodity counties create an outside share of GDP 47,000 in GDP per capita versus 22,000 for agricultural powerhouses and a higher labor participation. Ok, I'll go you there.
Speaker 2:Number two manufacturing workshops. The first city that comes to mind in my mind would be Pella. Pella has Pella Corporation, which makes windows and doors, and, regardless of where you're hearing my voice, you probably recognize it because you've seen the commercials you might not know of a company called Vermeer Manufacturing. Basically, if it's a trench that got dug or some kind of equipment like that, it's probably a Vermeer equipment, also made in Pella. Both of these on the outskirts of town, major employers, and there are a lot of little manufacturing towns like that across Iowa that may have one or more major companies. There's another company that builds fuel storage units just outside of Palo called LDJ Manufacturing. You probably have never heard of it, but if you're a NASCAR fan, chances are you've seen their equipment.
Speaker 2:I could go on and on and name towns and cities and things like that. Now most people recognize Des Moines as being a haven for insurance companies, but once you get outside of Des Moines it's a whole different thing. Number three is migration magnets. This is where me and them agree to disagree. We accumulate a lot of folk that are attracted to our processing plants and it creates whole different subcultures. That's not where they're going. They're talking about tourism. That's not where we are. In Iowa, a lot of our immigration comes from people coming to work in the plants, which is the way it's been for over 100 years.
Speaker 1:Every great business starts with a spark, but taking it to the next level takes strategy, connections and capital. That's where Playbook Investors Network comes in. We're your strategic partner for accelerating growth, navigating challenges and capturing market opportunities before your competition does. Your business is more than an idea. Let's make it an impact. Playbook Investors Network, your future starts here. Learn more at pincommunityorg.
Speaker 2:To learn more about the Tech Mobility Show, start by visiting our website. I'm Ken Chester, host of the Tech Mobility Show. The website is a treasure trove of information about me and the show, as well as where to find it on the radio across the country. Keep up with the happenings at the TechMobility Show by visiting techmobilityshow. You can also drop us a line at talk at techmobilityshow.
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Speaker 1:You've got the drive, you've got the vision. Now you need the right partner to make it happen. At Playbook Investors Network, we power ambitious leaders with the tools, insight and investment connections to move faster. We're your co-pilots in success, because in business, standing still is not an option. Playbook Investors Network Fueling ambition, delivering results. Visit pincommunityorg.
