- Recently folks, I sat down with Wes Matthews, who's the President and Chief Executive Officer of Choose New Jersey.

It's an important not-for-profit organization.

And they were involved in a mission, if you will, to East Asia.

They went with Governor Murphy and a team of folks from academia, from the business community, from the Not-for-profit community, all about economic development, bringing business to the state of New Jersey.

And it also involved innovation and discovery, which is part of our Innovation And Discovery series as well.

So here it is, a one-on-one conversation with Wes Matthews.

You can't talk Discovery and Innovation in New Jersey unless you talk about going overseas and engaging in potential partnerships.

And we're joined by Wes Matthews, President and CEO of Choose New Jersey.

This is part of our Discovery and Innovation series.

Wes, great to have you with us.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Now again, we're talking about Discovery and Innovation New Jersey, you and the team along with Governor Murphy and a whole range of others.

And I believe choose was the key coordinator in this, went to East Asia for what?

And why is it so related to Discover and Innovation in New Jersey, please?

- Yeah, thanks again, Steve, for having me on.

So East Asia, the countries there are tremendous partners of New Jersey's, not just now, not just over the last few years, but over decades.

So when we talk about some of our key trade and investment partners globally, that conversation can't happen without the likes of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, mainland China, all in that conversation.

Again, if you look at each of those countries or island territories individually, they are key contributors to our economy and they have been for decades.

So it was a economic mission we wanted to do for several years.

The pandemic got in the way and we were very lucky, fortunate to be able to put this on with the governor and our largest delegation to date on this overseas mission.

- Before Mary jumps in, let me try this, Wes, because I've often thought that when it comes to going overseas like this, and I don't want, whether people call it a trade mission, I don't care what you call it, but you're, you're there to engage and connect with people and build relationships.

From your perspective, what is the connection, the correlation, Wes, between leadership, successful partnering, and building relationships with people you've never met before?

Please.

- Yeah, I think what's probably most important there is that you have a common vision for your economies and your countries or state in our regard.

So for New Jersey, those relationships that I say we've had over decades, we might have taken them for granted over the last 20 years.

And so it was important to us to signal more than anything, to send that signal to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, that you are important to New Jersey, you are important to our economy.

You're important to our academic institutions.

And what we are trying to create here, as the governor often calls this innovation-fueled economy that those countries have done or are in the process of doing that we wanted to model and learn from and also share some of our lessons learned.

So I think more than anything, it's a very important signal to these countries around the world.

And, you know, just being, you know, cold-blooded about it, every other state in the country is also waving their flag abroad increasingly these days.

And so it's really important for New Jersey to do that.

And I feel we probably have the best value proposition and are led by a governor and folks in state administration and here in my organization, frankly, that have that experience doing that abroad over either their careers currently or in previous careers.

We wanted to take advantage of it and we felt we have a small window of time here to reestablish ourself and our primacy in these areas.

- Interesting stuff.

Mary.

- Yeah, I have a actually very selfish question for you, Wes, and it has to go with the film and media industry in New Jersey.

I know choose New Jersey along with so many other partners, have been a huge proponent for bringing more of film, media, TV into New Jersey.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Why is that so important and why now?

- Yeah.

- To the state of New Jersey and our economy.

- Right, that is a great question and one that I love to answer.

You know this, but some of your viewers might not, and I guarantee, folks outside of our state often do not.

But New Jersey was the birthplace of the film industry in the United States, if not the world.

I mean, the motion picture was invented here just a few miles from where I am in Newark, in West Orange, Fort Lee was the film- - Edison?

- Yeah.

- Are we talking Edison?

- West Orange initially, yeah.

But Thomas Edison.

- No, no.

- You're right.

- Thomas Edison, yeah.

- That's right.

(all laughing) - No, Wes- - It's not too confusing In New Jersey, the names of our towns.

- That is right.

Thomas Edison in West Orange.

And Fort Lee, again, silent film capital of the country, if not the world.

And so I think again, over several decades, we lost our way in that industry.

And then Hollywood stood itself up and the film industry for all practical purposes moved as far away from New Jersey as possible to the other side of the continent.

And over these last few years, we realized that other states like Georgia were getting in the game in terms of film production with some of the most lucrative tax incentives in the country.

And so we thought, "Well why can't we do that and do that again?"

And so, we put some thought into it.

And again, under the governor's able leadership along with his partner on all things economic development, Tim Sullivan at the EDA and others here at Choose, we put this plan in place to re-envision or recapture core components of the film industry.

And that starts, you know, with pure economics.

So again, reinstituting one of the most aggressive incentive programs in the country to lure our production back to the state was a key component of that.

Producers already know what New Jersey has, you know.

Our counties and townships are film ready in many ways.

We have a commission that's doing great work over decades, but now they have tools in their quiver, so to speak, to allow them to win back some of this business.

And we've had great successes as you've seen over the last few years.

- And that is, is that the film commission?

- It is, yeah.

It is.

There's a longer official- - Yeah, I know.

That's why couldn't think of it.

I was putting that back on you, Wes.

- Yeah.

- And they're constantly attracting, their job is to attract film and media-related projects to the state.

Hey, Wes, before I let you go, before we let you go, real quick on this.

Innovation.

The term means different things to different people.

You're talking about Edison, not the town, but Thomas Edison over in West Orange.

But when it comes to economic development opportunities in this state, innovation isn't an option.

Constantly innovating and discovering and never accepting the status quo.

I know I sound like a cliche, that's not a strategy.

The status quo is not a strategy when it comes to discovering innovation.

- That's right.

- One minute on that before we let you go.

Thanks, Wes.

- Yeah, thanks again, Steve.

So I think, you know, in some respects, New Jersey has a very tough challenge here because we are an innovation economy.

We have been for decades, if not over a century.

For us to continually try to innovate and be at the leading edge of that takes a lot of work.

It takes a lot of work at state government.

It takes a lot of work at the municipal and county levels to constantly be ready to one, be ready to change, which is often the hardest thing to do, right?

But you and I both believe you innovate or die.

And as our innovation economy goes so well, the overall economy of New Jersey.

And I think, you know, again, that begins and ends with effective leadership at every level.

At state government, here at organizations like Choose New Jersey and the business chambers at the municipal and county levels.

Setting that vision and offering a strategic direction for the state economy and being able to put the resources in place to be able to accept those innovators.

'cause it's businesses of all sizes, including the startup economy.

It's the educational institutions and the students that we want that are gonna fuel the next chapter of our innovation story.

So it's all of that.

And then being able to create an economy that can be adaptable and resilient, I think is probably, you know, very important.

- Good stuff.

Important stuff.

Wes Matthews is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Choose New Jersey.

Check out their website to find out more about them.

Wes, we thank you.

Appreciate it.

- Thank you.

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