The Institute for Open Economic Networks
smartWorkspace Civic Forums
MidtownWednesdays?
Visit recent Civic Forums at I-Open Civic Forum Archive
I-Open Civic Forums are the next generation of REI.Tuesday forums.
Learn from the archive of REI.Tuesday forums 09-03 through 05-05. Nearly two years of public forums hosted by hundreds of civic entrepreneurs leading discussions about early childhood development, the creative industries, innovation in education, renewable energies and more. Click here to see the full list.
I-Open and Civic Forums
I-Open hosts civic forums to build open networks and stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship. At civic forums, I-Open encourages new civic collaborations built on trust and accountability. I-Open promotes civic behaviors that overcome fragmentation by focusing on mutual interests, realistic business development opportunities, and pragmatic "next steps".
Civic Forums accelerate trusted connections among the region’s extensive research, information, and civic communities. I-Open removes the barriers that stifle “open innovation systems” within regional economies. These innovation systems – sometimes called “clusters” – drive regional prosperity.
Civic Forums are not isolated events; they are part of continuous process for re-shaping civic leadership and behavior.
What Are Civic Forums?
I-Open Civic Forums represent a new kind of civic engagement, developed by Ed Morrison, Betsey Merkel, Susan Altshuler and Dennis Coughlin when they worked at the Case Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI). Civic entrepreneurs from throughout the region gathered together for the weekly forums, called REI.Tuesdays, where they explored a particular dimension of the region’s economic transformation.
REI.Tuesdays began in September 2003 and created a low cost and effective process to penetrate academic hierarchies, gather customer feedback, and connect theoretical research with practitioner knowledge. Free and open to the public, these Civic Forums became known as a neutral convening ground for the exchange of public opinion and expert knowledge from Northeast Ohio’s academic, civic, government, and business communities.
The sessions launched a wide number of self-organized work groups, round tables, focus groups, and communities of commitment. Their work produced specific action plans with "next steps". For example, REI.Tuesdays gave rise to a new bio-diesel distribution company in East Cleveland, a new collaboration among small component manufacturers, and a new company to promote collaborative computing in Cleveland's neighborhoods. Using well designed civic forums, we replaced "strategic planning" with "strategic doing".
In the seventeen month pilot, over 100 programs hosted over 3,000 visitors in University Circle. The e-communications created 83,000 media impressions and roughly 90 hours of expert knowledge was videotaped and available on the web to the public.
Community Support
REI is a catalyst that helped us understand the potential for libraries to intentionally engage in regional economic development. Substantial civic space, social networks, skilled staff and information resources are already in place – REI helped us understand how to “host the party” rather than wait to be invited!
Cathy Monnin, President, Board of Trustees
Cleveland Area Metropolitan Library System
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