Nearly 40 years since Spokane’s Momentum ’87 initiative rallied civic and business leaders around shared economic goals, a new generation of leaders is reviving that spirit, this time with innovation at its center, says Bill Kalivas, co-founder of LaunchPad Inland Northwest LLC.

On Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Fuel Coworking space at 809 W. Main, LaunchPad will host InnovateINW: Momentum Celebration, an event that will celebrate the region’s legacy of innovation and progress, while simultaneously kicking off a new enterprise inspired by that history, dubbed the InnovateINW Initiative.

“Momentum ’87 brought together public and private sector leaders who recognized that the only way forward was through a coordinated regional effort to stimulate economic vitality,” Kalivas says. “While InnovateINW is not recreating Momentum, we are inspired by its spirit of regional alignment and shared purpose.”

The InnovateINW Initiative, Kalivas says, will be facilitated by LaunchPad INW and is a regional collaboration focused on uplifting the area’s fragmented innovation assets in a private-public partnership. The region has many assets, Kalivas notes, including universities; corporate anchors such as Liberty Lake-based Itron Inc. and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc., in Pullman, Washington; as well as a host of startups in Spokane and North Idaho.

The region, however, lacks a central, connective structure, he says. InnovateINW will set a three-to-five-year time horizon with milestones targeting sustainable job creation generated by startups and industry clusters. Additional milestones include a target startup survival rate beyond the typical five-year mark, capital investment, talent attraction and retention, and a regional brand transformation that will position the Inland Northwest as an emerging innovation economy, he says.

Spokane-based software development company IntelliTect, a trade name for IntelliTechture Corp., has agreed to be InnovateINW’s first partner, Kalivas adds.

“InnovateINW is focused on helping the Inland Northwest shift from an economy built primarily on agriculture and service to a more innovation-driven, diversified economy,” Kalivas says. “By strengthening our startup ecosystem, supporting small business growth, and aligning education and industry around emerging technologies, we hope to build a stronger, more resilient economic future for the entire region.”

LaunchPad INW was originally established in 2001 and sold in 2012 to Greater Spokane Incorporated. The organization was bought back from GSI and resurrected in 2022. It's now run by Kalivas in addition to five contract employees who work part-time or hourly.

Kalivas, who retired from his job at Google in April, is a volunteer. The organization is funded through its founding partners, which include Avista Corp., Washington Technology Industry Association, Spokane Teachers Credit Union, Washington Trust Bank, Windermere Services, and Ignite Northwest. 

The organization also generates income from its Springboard Startup program, which provides coaching and feedback through a mentorship model to early-stage tech or life science companies. Springboard has helped over 50 startups, including Spokane-based companies Blaze Barrier Inc., Credential Network Inc., Precision Quantomics Inc., and Omniscia Health Inc., Kalivas says.

The organization operates a hybrid-regional model, rather than operating from a single home base, Kalivas says, working from various coworking spaces throughout the region, including Liberty Lake-based Mode, Burbity Workspaces LLC, Fuel, and other coworking spaces across the Inland Northwest. 

Kalivas plans to expand to North Idaho in the near future with events and programming, he says.

The event on Dec. 4 will bring entrepreneurs, business leaders, researchers, and community partners to highlight the region's innovation milestone, Kalivas says. Also present at the event will be the original collaborators of Momentum ’87 who will share their views and help the community understand the economic challenges faced at the time, he says.

In the 1980s, Kalivas says, Spokane and the surrounding areas were facing significant economic difficulties that set the stage for the Momentum group to be assembled. Kalivas says he believes that the Spokane region is once again at a similar inflection point that calls for that same collaborative effort to bring leaders together.

“With the rapid rise of (artificial intelligence), automation, and evolving workforce needs — combined with the risk of layoffs and our region’s ongoing challenge of competing for higher-wage jobs — we see a need for a modern, collaborative strategy,” he says.

The initiative will focus on stimulating and enhancing five major industries, including clean tech, AI and robotics, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, and bio and health sciences, Kalivas says. These sectors, he adds, were chosen for their existing regional strengths and potential for high-wage job creation.