Walmart is a study in contrast. For shareholders and Wall St. the company’s a rock star. For consumers, Walmart’s high-volume low-margin model has helped family budgets go further, at a time when wages are stagnant for a big majority of Americans.

But Walmart stores have also changed America’s economic fabric by forcing smaller retailers out of business. The iconic downtown retailer in small town America has effectively disappeared. Shopping at Walmart may extend a family budget but working at Walmart does it no favors.

Walmart’s wage scale is especially annoying to AFL-CIO union boss Richard Trumka, who trumpeted last week, “If Walmart is truly committed to rebuilding the American middle class, it can start with its own workers, most of whom make less than $25,000/year and struggle to make ends meet.”

Trumka was commenting on the occasion of Walmart’s annual manufacturing summit, held this year in Denver. If you missed it, you’re not alone. The event was largely ignored by the press (not a single mention in the Denver Business Journal, one article in the Denver Post), and strangely under-promoted by Denver and Colorado officials including the state’s economic and manufacturing entities. Walmart’s the world’s largest company, measured in revenue. Number one. Imagine Apple (18), Toyota (13) or Amazon (66) hosting an annual conference in Denver.

Denver’s Mayor Michael Hancock was visibly surprised to see several mayoral colleagues in the front rows during his opening remarks to delegates on day of the summit – and said as much. Governors from around the country were also in the crowd – including New Mexico’s Susana Martinez, who also addressed delegates and spoke of her state’s emphasis on manufacturing. Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper wasn’t on the agenda.

Why the uninterested, awkward reception from the Summit’s home state leadership?

One possibility is that state and local officials didn’t see value in jumping in to support a Walmart supply chain event, though plenty of other state-level, high-power contingents saw fit to fly to Denver to participate. Sacramento’s Mayor, Kevin Johnson, acted more the host, and didn’t miss the chance to point out the Denver Mayor’s quick exit after his remarks.

Another is that they simply weren’t invited to participate in a meaningful way. Clearly Governor Martinez, as with Mr. Johnson, has been involved with Walmart before. Yet it was bizarre to listen to Walmart executives and Martinez laud New Mexico’s manufacturing efforts – from Colorado. It’s true that the Hickenlooper agenda has focused on ‘advanced’ manufacturing even though his state is a national leader in less high-tech goods-producing sectors (think food and beverage). But still. Walmart could have done more to highlight the host state’s manufacturing prowess.

Was Colorado business not invited? Of the hundreds of companies exhibiting in the convention center, only a handful was from Colorado. (Qualtek was one; read Chris Fagnant’s perspective here.) The Summit’s objective – connecting U.S.-based manufacturers with each other and supply chain partners to build more U.S.-made stuff that ends up in Walmart stores – would have benefitted from the presence of more local companies

Clearly the mission to connect industry players to juice U.S. manufacturing is legitimate. Walmart’s national effort is commendable. But as at least a couple of the speakers in the opening session confessed, finding suppliers, or contract manufacturers, within a ‘two-hour’ drive of a maker operation can make the biggest difference.

It will be left to local initiatives, happening across the country, to facilitate the connections that will get U.S. manufacturing off the mat and moving ahead. I wrote of two Colorado events last week that should lead to very positive outcomes. Mayor Hancock mentioned one the city is involved with – the Colorado Apparel Manufacturing Summit, October 9 in Denver.

With a slate of events planned in the weeks ahead, industry and it’s policy and development partners will have ample opportunity to do what Walmart could not: bring together the local ecosystem in a celebration of the possibilities.

And leave the clenched-teeth behind.

Economic development in the West is big business. In Colorado, at the state level, the investment in programs and people has almost doubled since 2012. Today about 60 full time employees staff the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

It’s become a state-by-state competition, and success is measured in jobs, in spending and investment, in start-ups and relocations. The stakes are high, including political payoffs if you win and liabilities if you lose. Kevin Grantham, Colorado state senator from Canyon City, said as much in a Denver Business Journal op-ed last week attacking the jobs record of the Hickenlooper administration. “We compete primarily with states in our region. Colorado’s total employment growth during the four-year period since the recession ended in 2009 has not matched that of Utah, Nebraska, Wyoming or most of our neighboring states,” he wrote.

Grantham has an ax to grind, but his political adversaries would likely agree that comparing Colorado’s growth to that of our neighbors is an important metric.

But is it? Can Colorado, Utah, Arizona, or New Mexico and Wyoming for that matter, compete alone in the increasingly global market? The population of the entire mountain West is about 17 million people, with an economy around $800 billion, or just 5.2% of the nation’s total. Michael Gallis, in his important analysis and advocacy of regional rail transportation, notes the totals are substantially less than a single Chinese city, Shanghai, which clearly has global ambitions to become a center of economic growth and innovation.

“..it’s a good bet that in the future industry and government will realize that hyper-localizing the economic discussion short-circuits a broader regional opportunity to drive growth.”

When should self-interest give way to support a cohesive regional development message?

Gallis and others are making the argument, and it’s a good bet that in the future industry and government will realize that hyper-localizing the economic discussion short-circuits a broader regional opportunity to drive growth. Here’s why:

· Six of the top 11 cities in Forbes ‘2014 Best Places for Business and Careers’ feature were in Colorado and Utah, and seven of the top 20. A common denominator is the influx of smart, educated young professionals migrating to the region for quality of life and bringing with them career aspirations in a lifestyle economy. The region’s a draw. Not just Colorado. Or Utah.

The story of Mercury Wheels relocating to Odgen from Oxford, Mississippi, is typical. Boulder and Ogden were clear frontrunners in the relocation decision. Ogden won – but so did the region. As Forbes confirms, Boulder, Greeley, Provo, Salt Lake City and Denver are winning their share.

· This key migration of talent is resulting in regional first-mover status in lifestyle industries connected to the West’s tourism and recreation draw. Cycling, skiing, backcountry exploration, and other regional pursuits are driving growth in equipment, apparel, and accessory maker businesses.

· The ‘Made in America’ movement has deep roots in the region and is poised to drive more growth. Industries like natural and organic foods, craft beer, energy and mining, clean-tech, aerospace and aviation operate from regional hubs and enjoy international-leading market positions. A new, progressive, retooled manufacturing sector is materializing in the west – one with international reach and a massive upside.

· Western state’s most pressing economic development challenges are regional in scope. Colorado’s water crisis is Arizona’s and Utah’s, New Mexico and Nevada’s. Workforce issues plague manufacturers regardless of state lines. Likewise, opportunity will derive from bold, region-wide solutions. Modern air and rail infrastructure will help each state that invests. But a collective effort to connect region offers exponential benefits.

Hercules Industries operates regionally, including Denver and Salt Lake City, and utilizes rail transport both east and west, avoiding the cost of traversing the Divide. Vestas, in a CompanyWeek profile, notes the rail advantages of Colorado’s central location. Osprey Packs has moved its distribution center from Durango to Salt Lake City. Regional connectivity has never been more important.

· We also know that state-level efforts are fleeting. What will become of Colorado’s development efforts if the governor’s office changes this November? With each new administration comes a different vision for how the state should be marketed.

The intrigue surrounding Tesla’s new battery mega-factory has been framed as a competition between Nevada, Texas and Arizona. I’ve not yet read the editorial celebrating Tesla’s decision to narrow its decision to the western U.S. It’s no surprise. Media will deconstruct the decision as economic development pros will – as a win or loss, with a local spin.

In the future, for the future, it may be good business to root for a broader, regional perspective to emerge in the West.

As we’ve chronicled the past ten months, manufacturers have begun to take important steps to organize to advance their interests. Not only must industry see these through, more is needed to address challenges like workforce development, local procurement, and public policy support that vex the manufacturing economy.

Think about health care, technology, law, banking and finance, real estate, and hospitality. They’ve developed cohesive, active communities that support industry trade events, media, lobbying, and education. They use dollars and alumni to influence higher education. The outcome is a conveyer belt of qualified graduates from colleges and universities. Their brightest stars occupy the highest elected offices and dot the political landscape. Collectively, these sector ecosystems shape America’s business dialogue. Their community institutions pave the way.

Certainly there’s refined organization in some of manufacturing’s silos. In Colorado, bioscience and medical, natural foods, craft beer, snow sports, software, clean-tech and other groups have developed member organizations that pay significant dividends. And regional trade groups like CAMA, the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Alliance, are developing member-driven agendas that attempt to cross sectors to address common challenges.

Yet even CAMA’s leadership would likely acknowledge the unique challenge facing so diverse and broad a community as manufacturing. Until recently, a medical device maker may not have seen a meaningful connection with a fledgling apparel maker or industrial manufacturer. Furthermore, organizations that once defined manufacturing’s most powerful silos have fallen into disfavor – think automotive’s polarizing labor unions.

But today the industry attributes and challenges that bind the disparate manufacturing silos are more clear. Finding a qualified CNC operator to shape and cut metal on an industrial shop floor is more an equivalent challenge to locating tech-qualified workers for a bioscience clean room. Sourcing a local firm instead of one in China to extrude plastic, for example, may be a shared goal for companies from any number of manufacturing sectors.

Moreover, the appeal of a cool manufacturing job – and the region has many including making beer and food – is a great jumping off point to promote maker careers in other industries. This generation want more options. Entrepreneurship is once again in fashion. The broad manufacturing economy offers increasingly compelling options.

Business leaders here should take important next steps to promote their interests, to build on what’s been done. I’ll describe the options being discussed – or not being discussed but should be – next month.

There’s little doubt that Colorado’s transportation albatross, I-70, is having an economic impact. The only question is, how much? The stretch from Denver to Dillon now bedevils motorists in summer and winter. A drive through the Eisenhower Tunnel east to Denver on a Sunday morning in mid-June can be as frustrating as a journey home during peak ski season.

Businesses we’ve interviewed are taking note, as are the cities and states competing with Colorado for a new crop of industry players who value lifestyle, one free of a three-hour commute to and from the mountains. Several million more residents are certain to call the state home in the coming decades. More lanes of traffic is the one solution parties agree on. Is this the bold thinking that will not only alleviate the issue long term but ease concern for those considering Colorado? It’s hard to see. I-70 will continue to be a troublesome transportation narrative for the state.

Two of Colorado’s other major economic development challenges – water (always water) and higher education – are no easier and impact business more.

The state’s college and university system is a jewel, but as we’ve chronicled extensively the past year, a skills gap now weighs heavily on the higher-ed brand: industry believes a high-percentage of graduates aren’t qualified. For manufacturers, a credibility gap with higher-ed has developed. Industry and education are working to realign but major change at area colleges and universities seems inevitable. At what impact to industry?

We’ll be reminded again this December of the divisiveness of the region’s biggest long-term development challenge – water. Governor Hickenlooper’s administration is set to release the state’s first-ever water plan, a roadmap for future development. One is sorely needed. It’s impossible to imagine that current users will be able to meet forecast needs without a new forward-thinking model. Colorado’s fractured, every-community-for-itself, water ecosystem is broken.

Water professionals would disagree but almost certainly stakeholders in the process will claim the plan goes too far, or in the case of business and industry, doesn’t go far enough. The sticking point will likely be the one issue that divides the state more than any other – how to manage the state’s significant undeveloped Colorado River allocation, the only large untapped supply option left on the table.

Colorado’s never come close to using its allotted share as outlined in the Colorado River Compact. Will the Governor’s plan finally build consensus, or outline a clear path to agreement on this singular issue? Any statewide agreement on developing more water from the River will require nuanced diplomacy (another special legislative session?) or huge concessions from Colorado’s western slope, and officials in Aspen, Grand Junction, and others have famously drawn a line in the sand. Gov. Hickenlooper has scheduled release of the water plan after the election in November. Maybe it’s an indication he anticipates a battle.

Colorado’s business community deserves a full-throated discussion of the major economic development issues that shape the region’s future. Fracking, gun-control, and business regulation may glean more headlines, but beyond the election, business requires a plan to address its big issues.

As if unconvinced and seeking guidance from readers, each week now the national business press sort through the question of whether the U.S. is in the midst of a ‘manufacturing renaissance’. An article in last week’s Wall St. Journal, ‘Why US Manufacturing is Poised for a Comeback (Maybe)’, was a good example. Today, a column in the Detroit News was less equivocal. “For those who know what manufacturing is like today, there’s no doubt that we’re enjoying a bona fide renaissance,” the author opined.

We’re clearly intrigued by the possibility that manufacturing is ascending. But does the evident desire to build more stuff here, and the growing awareness of what was lost in the massive offshoring of U.S. manufacturing prowess, equate to a full on comeback?

As we’re always glad to help out other manufacturers (yes, newspaper and magazine publishers are manufacturers) the answer is, not yet.

A more apt description of what we’re experiencing is a manufacturing ‘awakening’. Business, economic development and government are waking up to the appeal of a resurgent manufacturing economy.

The benefits are tangible. Maker companies build wealth by returning dollars from product sales back the community. Jobs are relatively high paying. And it’s a sector that drives innovation and the practical application of technology pouring out of higher-ed and industry incubators.

But until industry can fill thousands of positions that go unfilled due to a lack of qualified workers, or find workers at all, qualified or not, a ‘renaissance’ will remain a goal not reality. Manufacturers jammed a room at Mike Bristol’s innovative brewery in Colorado Springs last week to hear Tom Neppl, CEO at Springs Fabrication, explain why he’s leading a charge to form a new industry partnership in the region. “If I go down to the college and say I need a machinist, they’re not going to listen. If 15 of us go down there, it’s a different story,” Neppl said of industry’s need to align with higher education.

Jan Erickson, founder of Janska, a Colorado Springs-based apparel manufacturer, can’t find labor. “We need more sewers. Something has to be done,” she said at the event, referring specifically to immigration reform that would enable her to import more labor.

And we’re not close, really, to a point where youth value a manufacturing career. We’ve taught our best and brightest the opposite. Nor are we challenging enough undergraduates to aspire to build businesses that build stuff.

However slowly we’ve come around to the notion, there’s nevertheless widening consensus that our economy needs more maker companies. That the benefits are often inherently local. That successful industry clusters like natural food in Boulder, bioscience in Denver and cycling in Odgen are models that can be emulated with great success.

More lifestyle industry seems the low hanging fruit. We advertise to put skis on the hill, boots and wheels on the trail and tourists in the wineries of Mesa County. Promoting the region as a home for the light industry who would make our lifestyle tools and toys seems an easy and effective extension of our brand efforts. As I’ve written, Ogden’s the latest example of leveraging a lifestyle brand with industry efforts.

The industry clusters that result arc across the economy. They involve a breadth of service businesses – architects and designers to contemplate new maker spaces, builders to build them, tech companies to enable them, financiers to capitalize and professional service firms to support them. An entire economy engaged.

Challenges like workforce can be overcome. What was needed first was awareness of the possibilities.