ROI-NJ Editor on Innovation, Economic Development and Camden

Steve Adubato sits down with Anjalee Khemlani, Managing Editor, ROI-NJ to cover the latest happenings in the Garden State – from business, to economic development and innovation, and the future of Camden.

10/20/18 #225

Excerpt:

"State of Affairs is pleased to welcome, for the first time, Anjalee Khemlani, who is Managing Editor of an organization, of an entity, of a platform called ROI-NJ, which is? A statewide business news site. And by the way, check it out folks, we're doing a lot of interactive work with them. I can't tell you how much great information we get from the site. Question, you've been doing a lot of work talking about... writing about the innovation economy. What is it in New Jersey and why does it matter so much? Well, I think we have to ask the governor more about that one. The innovation economy... When you're writing about it, what's the hook that interests you? Well, I think it's interesting to see how we're looking at the purpose of business differently, and the organization of business differently, whether it's looking at the way that they sit together in terms of in one building, and you know, rather than these big office parks there is a push to the, sort of urban, mixed-use structure, and then there's also the idea of a lot smaller space. So while there are still big companies out there, and ones that, you know, the ones that want to grow to that level, there's a lot more focus on smaller level space leasing, shared spaces, and stuff like that. The other thing that's interesting, as I read your work... and by the way, check out the website, you'll see there... our website, check out Anjalee's work and her colleagues as well. This whole thing of tech clusters, North, Central, and South Jersey, are there tech clusters in all...? By the way, I didn't even know... Stephen Colbert did a thing on whether there's a Central Jersey or not. I haven't figured it out or not. [laughter] I know we're a big state, and we're a long state. Yeah. These tech clusters are? So they are sort of forming organically. From what we can tell, there are certain hubs, if you will, just... they're coming together, the ones that have similar interest. So for example, there's a strong FinTech presence in Northern Jersey, whether you look at Newark, where they're kind of inching to. A what? FinTech. Financial technology. Okay. Yeah. [laughter] Anjalee, you can't do that to us! That's your work! [laughter] Okay, financial...? ...technology. Got it. Go ahead. So there's... I'm gonna use FinTech on someone else. Yeah. But go ahead. [laughter] You'll sound cool. So there's... Yeah. No thanks! [laughter] It's gonna take more than that. But go ahead. So there's a FinTech hub sort of forming in Northern Jersey, then you have the, sort of, Holmdel area that people are looking at, but..."