The case for Digital Drive: we're ready to tell the world.

This issue is largely devoted Detroit Regional Chamber's efforts to brand this. region as the Digital Drive. This collaborative campaign is important because it ties together all of the "hotbeds" of technology in the 10-county Detroit Region and provides a tool to further market the region through our economic development efforts.

Catchy name, attractive logo, impressive list of PR Champions. But many of you are still probably asking why?

The reasons are image and education.

This region was tech savvy before we even knew what tech savvy meant. We are the automotive capital of the world, the brain trust of the industry.

Think about it: The automobile is the single most technologically advanced mass-produced product in the world. Over 40 percent of the value of the automobile will be in electronic content by 2005. Over 90 percent of the U.S. automotive R&D takes place in the Digital Drive. The Big Three spent over $19 billion on R&D in 2001. But too few people know this.

The Digital Drive is the intellectual center of the North American auto industry. We want to hammer these and other messages home. Messages such as the $1 billion invested in the Life Sciences Corridor and its advancements, including the fact that we already have the 10th largest life sciences workforce in the United States.

That the University of Michigan is ranked No. 1 in R&D.

That there are more robotics companies in the Digital Drive than in any single state.

That the Michigan Economic Development Corp. reports 530,492 high-tech workers in Michigan, ranking us No. 4 nationally. *

Thanks to the MEDC, Automation Alley, Digital Detroit, U-M, Wayne State University and others, the message is beginning to get out. The Digital Drive brand is tying our efforts together to really show the world that Southeast Michigan is on the cutting edge.

The Detroit Regional Chamber and Detroit Regional Economic Partnership are committed to this effort to educate the world that we are a technological leader. The Chamber is stamping the Digital Drive logo on all our marketing pieces and all our correspondence. We're passionate in making this stick. But we can't do it alone.

We need the message to be spread across the region first. That means we need you to let us know you're in the Digital Drive.

Are you with us?

If your company is in the Digital Drive, visit www.digitaldrive.org for logo and banner to put on your Website. * For more facts, see pages 16-18 or visit www.digitaldrive.org.