PEORIA, Ill. — Mayor Jim Ardis discussed the list of growing organizations that are changing the narrative in the Peoria area during this year’s State of the City Address.
“The current buzz that’s happening in our area, will be more like a roar when we’re all contributing and all sharing our successes,” Ardis said.
One organization introduced during the address was Enduvo. Enduvo is an on-demand AR/VR learning experience, that enables anyone to teach and learn in a short amount of time.
“Users are seeing a 75% savings in content development costs, 70% decrease in content development time, and 95% increase in learner confidence,” Ardis said.
Dr. Matthew Bramlet, a pediatric cardiologist at OSF Healthcare Children’s Hospital of Illinois and University of Illinois College of Medicine, created Enduvo.
“Enduvo, what it brings to us at the University is trying to do surgical planning improved methods, but you take the heart out and put an engine in and you still achieve the same goal,” Bramlet said.
Enduvo was made possible through the Applied Research for Community Health through Engineering and Simulation (ARCHES) endowment.
“This $112 million endowment provides up to $4 million in funding for local projects each year,” Ardis said.
Natural Fiber Welding (NFW) has been growing in the Peoria area over the past year. They have expanded their square footage on Galena Rd. to over 55,000 square feet, and plan to hire another 20 employees.
“In 2019, NFW secured over $6 million of equity funding, most of which is from outside Greater Peoria, and includes a world-leading textile mill with a global footprint and customer base,” Ardis said.
Also, NFW secured more than $2 million of grant funding, to help expand their products, including Mirum.
“Mirum is the world’s first plant-based leather alternative that is receiving tons of positive press,” Ardis said.
Another start up company Ardis spoke about was NTS. NTS is a nano-tech company that wants to help commercialize University based nano-tech discoveries.
Currently, they are focused on bringing proprietary energy harvesting technology to a market called Graphene Energy Harvesting, or GEH.
“GEH converts ambient energy into electricity with non-circuitry in conjunction with graphene membrane,” Ardis said. “GEH has a higher projected energy density than existing energy harvesting methods.”
NTS CEO Don Meyer said graphene is a single layer of graphite.
“It’s highly conductive, it is actually 200 times stronger than steel,” Meyer said. “So, what we are working with is really if you look at the world and the materials we have on the planet, this is a relatively new discovery.”
Ardis also mentioned how the Peoria Innovation Alliance helped get the ball rolling in their event called “Change the Narrative”.
On October 8 last year, the Peoria City Council approved the designation of the Innovation District in downtown.
“This nine block area is the area we are targeting for economic and innovative growth,” Ardis said. “The District will be home to a Smart City pilot including autonomous vehicle test routes, smart transit solutions, public Wifi, pedestrian sensors, open data, and other innovative related initiatives.”
Adris said that innovation is not a new phrase in Peoria, and that Caterpillar was founded on innovation.
“They put the “trac” in track-type tractor,” Ardis said.
Health care has become the largest employment segment in central Illinois, employing over 300,000 people.
“According to the Greater Peoria EDC, that’s over 16% of our workforce. We’re privileged to have world class health care providers in Peoria,” Ardis said.
This year’s winner of the Mayor’s Outstanding Community Service Award went to entrepreneur Kim Blickenstaff.
Blickenstaff has taken the reigns of many projects in Peoria and Peoria Heights, such as renovating the Scottish Rite Cathedral for a performing arts and banquet center, investing in the Peoria Women’s Club, bringing back to life the Peoria Armory, and more.
“He’s instilling that we can compete with anybody and ask, “Why not here?”, and also help us remember what it feels like to be optimistic again, just like OSF did last year,” Ardis said.
Ardis showed more pride for Peoria organizations such as Bump Boxes, the Peoria Civic Center, the Riverfront Museum, Peoria International Airport, Peoria Community Against Violence, and the Peoria Park District.
“Take control of the narrative in whatever sector you’re involved in our community. We’re moving forward. We can and will be better. Don’t hide your pride,” Ardis said.
