Lafayette And The LITE Center Gaining National Recognition

I've been remiss in not keeping you all up to date on the latest excitement coming out of Lafayette, LA. In the last few weeks they've been receiving a lot of national recognition for the many innovative things happening in the heart of Cajun country.

In September Forbes ranked Lafayette as the 8th best city in the country for job growth in the 4th quarter of '09. And then in October Fortune Small Business pegged Lafayette as the second best mid-sized markets in the nation for small business startups. These combine to show that Lafayette's overall economy is strong and growing.

Then, just last week, Lafayette announced an exciting new addition to their local economy: the opening of a permanent studio by Pixel Magic at the LITE Center.

Pixel Magic is a visual effects studio that's done such nationally renown work as the final battle scene in the movie 300. They're going to be creating a dozen jobs there the first year and scale up to forty in the next three.

This is a huge win for the community and likely portends of more good things to come as word gets out about Pixel Magic's decision and other digital media companies get a chance to consider the many advantages that come with opening up shop in Lafayette and at the LITE Center.

The LITE Center has also gained national recognition in a USA Today article about their work with students up at Carencro High School in a program called the FiberKids. (The link to that article is broken for some reason, so here's one to a different article about the FiberKids.)

What's amazing to think is how far the community has come and how much success has already been realized, and yet this is really only just the beginning, scratching the surface of their potential.

I'm a big believer that the sky's the limit for innovation in Lafayette, and I look forward to sharing more of the good news that's sure to be coming out from there in the months ahead.

[Addendum: How could I forget this? LUS has received a $11 million matching grant from the federal government to help support the deployment of smart grid technology in Lafayette. The hits just keep on coming!]