Gorman talks tech, entrepreneurship
Published 5:00 am Sunday, March 1, 2026
Warren County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman aims to incentivize growth within the tech and entrepreneurship sectors as part of the region’s plan to keep up with the anticipated population surge over the next 25 years, he said at Western Kentucky University’s Innovation Center.
“We want to incentivize you to be successful,” Gorman said Thursday to a crowd of more than 50, including local officials and many entrepreneurs. “We want to get the government roadblocks out of the way for entrepreneurs to make a difference. Those are the things that we have to do to ensure our success in that tech sector and the entrepreneurial sector — and so, that takes commitment.”
The campus and the nonprofit Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship hosted the event, an evening on the regional importance of tech-enabled and innovation-led economic development. Gorman spoke alongside Buddy Steen, the campus CEO and programs director for CREATE; InnoEngine Founding Partner Sam Ford, also an innovation fellow at CREATE, moderated the discussion.
Gorman said that 4,000 families rely on work at the TransPark — and the initiative had required county investment in needed infrastructure, including water, sewer and electric. The tech sector, Gorman said, likewise requires investing in infrastructure — including funding investment, legislation and tax credits.
Gorman said the Kentucky Innovation Act requires updating, as infrastructure stemming from the legislation needs to happen. The act has provisions aiming “to promote tech research, innovation and high-technology enterprises.”
Investment funds are also needed, Gorman said, as southcentral Kentucky is in its infancy state compared to other areas of the commonwealth, including northern Kentucky. The county has money to pull off that investment, but no one’s corralled the initiative all together, and they’re seeing if they can pull it off, Gorman said.
Gorman also revealed some of the draft conclusions from last year’s areawide digital town hall, “What Could BG Be?”, part of the BG 2050 project. The survey gathered 3,940 unique ideas and more than 1 million votes on them that local leaders are reviewing to help guide the county’s plan for keeping up with population, which Gorman said is anticipated to grow from 150,000 to 233,000 by 2050.
Two of the primary outcomes within the BG 2050 draft plan include “a diversified, innovation-driven economy” and “expanded small-business survival and growth,” according to initial recommendations from the group of local leaders overseeing economic development sector of the project.
According to the draft plan’s key components, community members especially showed support for modernizing policies that support entrepreneurship across income levels and industries, focusing “some incentives and zoning for small-scale entrepreneurship,” and supporting gig, fractional and 1099 employment models.
Draft key components also include attracting mid-size tech firms as well as high-wage professionals, and leveraging CREATE’s tech talent database and Regional Technology Council to recruit domestic experts. Steen, CREATE’s programs director, added that local agencies have partnered to create a database of talented people, to be used to recruit companies and talented people to the area.
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