Fairfield Arts & Convention Center - Economy

Economy

According to an article in the New York Times, the city "thrives largely on its abundance of start-up companies". Members of the TM community have established over 400 new businesses, including software, manufacturing, and trading firms. The Agri-Industrial Products company was founded in 1978 and has become the nation's "largest producer" of roadside construction barrels and other plastic products. The city is also home to Creative Edge, a global manufacturer of ceramic tiles.

In 1990, Iowa Governor, Terry Branstad, called the city "one of the state's economic superstars". A 1997 report said the city had a significant number of entrepreneur businesses including a tofu company, several software firms, a chimney supplies wholesaler, wholefoods grocery store, an oil brokerage, and a telecommunications company. These new companies were reported in 1999 to have "created up to 1,500 jobs in high tech businesses ranging from telecommunications companies to Internet providers to PC-oriented magazines". Later, the city was dubbed "Silicorn Valley" because of the preponderance of new businesses that were Internet and information based.

In the 1990s, Fairfield had an average of $10 million dollars in new construction each year. Some of the construction was in the Maharishi Sthapatya Veda style of architecture and included entrances that face either due east or due north causing some businesses and homeowners to close their south and west facing entrances. Eco friendly, subdivisions that border Fairfield and also use the architectural principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda include Cypress Villages, a 145-acre (0.59 km2) development north of the city, and Abundance Ecovillage, an off-the-grid community of 14 homes built in three clusters, north of Fairfield. The Fairfield City Council declined petitions for annexation from Cypress Villages. In addition, nearby Maharishi Vedic City, located two miles (3 km) north of Fairfield, began as a subdivision and incorporated as a city in 2001. The city hosts an annual Eco-Fair and has more solar energy homes and green building than any other city in Iowa.

In 2003 a report by the National Center for Small Communities selected Fairfield as a recipient of the The Grassroots Rural Entrepreneurship Award, saying that the city "has become recognized as one the nation’s most entrepreneurial small towns." The report said that Fairfield had created over 2,000 jobs in the previous 15 years and that new construction averages $10 million per year. That same year it received the Community Vitality Center's Entrepreneurial Community of the Year award. According to City officials, Fairfield received investments of over $200 million in venture capital from approximately 1990 to 2004. A 2004 National Public Radio report said that over the past 20 years "TM proponents" had created thousands of jobs and more than 200 businesses.

In 2008, the city was the "home of 40 software development and telecom companies" and according to a 2009 report from the University of Iowa's Community Vitality Center, Fairfield has had more than $250 million invested across 50 companies since 1990. These companies have included various financial services as well as marketing, software development and telecom businesses. This has created 3000 local jobs plus "12,000 jobs globally, and nearly $1 billion in new equity".

In 2009 the Fairfield Entrepreneurs Association (FEA) celebrated its 20th year. In 2011, the FEA published the Fairifield Edge magazine that contains profiles of over 40 businesses and organizations and describes the entrepreneurial culture of Fairfield and "asset quilting" to support civic and social entrepreneurship. In 2003, the city began hosting National Rural Entrepreneurial Gatherings, which are now called the FRED Conference (Focus on Rural Entrepreneurial Development). An article in the IEDC Economic Development Journal described Fairfield as a Rural Renaissance City because of its entrepreneurial population.

A 2011 article in The Atlantic reported that newcomers to the town had founded more than 400 new businesses in the fields of marketing, computer programming and manufacturing including 40 telecom and software companies. The town's largest employer was reported to be the national, broker/dealer services firm called Cambridge Investment Research, with about 400 employees.

In 2012 Oprah Winfrey visited Fairfield to interview some citizens and was given a tour of the town by the mayor. An account of her visit entitled "America's Most Unusual Town", was broadcast on March 25, 2012 via OWN.