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Pre-Event Release
Office of University Marketing and Communication
10900 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7017
Phone 216 368-4440
Fax 216 368-3546
www.case.edu
November 4, 2004
Contact: Jeff Bendix (216) 368-6070 jeffrey.bendix@case.edu
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY’S CENTER FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC ISSUES SPONSORING CONFERENCE ON REGIONAL NETWORKING FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Event Will Focus on Creative Industries, Sustainable Business Practices, Inner City Prosperity
CLEVELAND - - Metropolitan regions that compete successfully for jobs and educated, creative people in the 21st century will be those that build active networks among the people and organizations with the power to stimulate economic growth.
Last year the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management launched an initiative to build networks in Northeast Ohio through its “Making Change” series. REI will provide the latest in its semi-annual updates on progress in network development at a conference titled “Making Change: Creating New Networks for Our New Economy” Monday, November 15 from 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, 1515 W. Third St., Cleveland. The event is open to the public but a $25 registration fee is required.
The conference, which is jointly sponsored with the SBC Foundation, will look at three topics crucial to regional economic development: “The Value of Creative Industries,” “Sustainable Business Practices” and “Inner City Prosperity.” It is the third conference since REI began the initiative a year ago.
“We are making great progress in developing civic entrepreneurship networks throughout the region,” said Ed Morrison, executive director of REI. “It’s been very exciting to see the various organizations and individuals in the area begin to make connections among one another, and harness their knowledge and expertise for use in fostering economic development.”
Morrison added that the conference will include a seminar on open-source economic development, a concept pioneered at REI which focuses on inclusion and networking as building blocks for regional economic development.
Speakers at the conference will be:
June Holley, president and founder of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet), a community economic development organization in southeastern Ohio. She has co-authored more than 30 papers and two books on various aspects of economic and community networking, and was recently awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship at the University of Kentucky. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Ohio Magazine and Entrepreneur, among other publications, and is a 1991 inductee into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame.
Laszlo Kozmon, a managing consultant with Novomont Partners LLC, a firm that designs, guides, and supports critical business initiatives that create and improve performance. He is also a director of an investment partnership and a venture-funded telecommunications company. He holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Case and an MBA from the University of Dayton.
Valdis Krebs, a Cleveland-based management consultant and developer of InFlow?, a software-based organization network analysis methodology that maps and measures knowledge exchange, information flow, communities of practice and networks between organizations. His work has been extensively covered in the national media including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Business Week and CNN, among others.
Ed Morrison
Jack Ricchiuto, author of Appreciative Leadership: Building Sustainable Organizations
The focus on building networks is part of a broader roadmap REI has developed to help metropolitan areas move from traditional manufacturing economies to an “innovation economy.” The map calls for a series of initiatives including strengthening intra-regional dialogue and extending it to include all aspects of the community; building a region’s brainpower by developing and attracting highly educated individuals’ connecting networks of innovators and entrepreneurs; building quality places with connected neighborhoods, vibrant mixed-use districts and a healthy environment; and creating a compelling brand identity for the region.
The “regional roadmap” REI has developed for northeast Ohio encompasses 22 counties in the state, stretching from Ashtabula County in the northeast to Crawford County in the southwest, as well as one country in western Pennsylvania.
For further information or registration contact Betsey Merkel at (216) 368-5540.
About Case Western Reserve University
Case is among the nation’s leading research institutions. Founded in 1826 and shaped by the unique merger of the Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University, Case is distinguished by its strengths in education, research, service, and experiential learning. Located in Cleveland, Case offers nationally recognized programs in the Arts and Sciences, Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Management, Medicine, Nursing, and Social Sciences.
Post-Event Release
CENTER FOR REGIONAL ECONOMIC ISSUES’ THIRD MEETING FOCUSES ON KEYS TO NORTHEAST OHIO’S ECONOMIC GROWTH
Region Needs to Improve Collaboration, Participants Told
CLEVELAND - - Encouraging the creative arts and industries, supporting the development of sustainable businesses and business practices, and fostering prosperity in inner cities will be keys to northeast Ohio’s future economic growth. But to accomplish these goals the region needs to do a better job of building collaborative networks among institutions, individuals and organizations.
That was the message Ed Morrison, executive director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) and a panel of speakers delivered recently at REI’s third “Making Change” conference. The SBC Foundation co-sponsored the event.
“We need to move from a world of hierarchical organizations to a collaborative world if we are to prosper,” Morrison said. “Until now our major organizations and institutions have operated mostly in isolation from one another. We have to be building connections.”
The area’s college and universities can play a critical role in fostering those connections. “Universities have the expertise, the leadership, the public spaces and the Internet infrastructure in place to create links within our region,” Morrison said. To help that process along, REI has begun a collaborative network among institutions of higher learning that includes the University of Akron, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Lorain County Community College and the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education. REI is part of Case’s Weatherhead School of Management.
Other speakers at the conference included June Holley, president and founder of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet); Laszlo Kozman, a managing consultant with the consulting firm Novomont Partners; Valdis Krebs, a Cleveland-based management consultant and developer of InFlow?, a software-based organization network analysis methodology that maps and measures knowledge exchange, information flow, communities of practice and networks between organizations; and Jack Ricchiuto, author of Appreciative Leadership: Building Sustainable Organization.
Krebs illustrated the importance of networks with the example of the iPod. It was the result of a network of engineers, designers, manufacturers and distributors with Apple at its center. Only eight months elapsed between when the idea was first conceived and the finished product was on the market.
The conference also included breakout groups, in which participants addressed the questions of the creative arts and industries, encouraging sustainable business development, and creating prosperity in the region’s inner cities. Suggestions from the breakout groups are posted on REI’s website at (URL here).
REI will convene its next “Making Change” meeting in May 2005, during which it will review progress in implementing the suggestions coming from the November meeting.
Return to Making Change November 15
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