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EDPro has moved
Monday, November 05, 2007 In five years, EDPro has established a strong group of loyal readers. Based on the spirited advice of some of you, I am expanding EDPro and taking it to the next level. 1. Starting today, EDPro is moving to a new Internet address: http://edpro-weblog.net 2. I am also launching EDPro Premium, a basket of expanded services for economic development professionals. These services include powerful filtering and archive search, RSS feeds, book and report summaries, commentary, an exploration of Web 2.0 tools for EDPros, and a special EDPro advisory service -- Advisor in a Box -- so EDPro Premium members can get some fast answers to important questions. (For example, as a member of the EDPro Premium network, you could ask for a search of the more than 13,800 articles in the master database of economic development articles appearing in the last five years. Pretty nifty.) 3. To offer this expanded coverage, I have moved to a new publishing and collaboration platform provided by EDPro's technology partner, Near-Time. 4. To generate funds to pay for all these improvements, I am adding a modest subscription price for EDPro Premium. As a Charter Member, you will be able to subscribe to EDPro Premium for less than $2 per week. (Or, if you prefer, 2 iTunes, one Starbucks mocha skim no whip whatever, or 2/3 of a gallon of gas.) Anyway you slice it, it's a good deal. I'm keeping the pricing in line with most EDPro budgets. I will keep this introductory pricing to Charter Members of EDPro Premium in place through December 2007. If enough of you support EDPro Premium, we'll be able to keep the price low, so more EDPros can participate in the EDPro Premium network. 5. At the same time, EDPros on a tight budget can still take advantage of some content with EDPro Free. -- To see what some folks have written about EDPro go here. -- To check out the new EDPro Premium content go here. -- To join the EDPro Network now, go here. My purpose in developing EDPro has always been to help our profession get smarter, faster with "what works". With the enthusiastic support of EDPro readers, we are setting off on another journey... posted by Ed Morrison | EDPro Premium Update Tuesday, October 23, 2007 EDPro Premium is coming, and I have been spending most of my time working on the new platform. If you are a subscirber to EDPro News, you'll get your invitation later this week. EDPro Premium meets the new demands placed on EDPros by: * Giving you the opportunity to get smart fast * Providing you the most powerful on--line learning environment for EDPros * Exposing youto the latest open network-based models of economic development * Guiding you through the newest Web 2.0 tools and how you can apply them * Providing you with book and report summaries * Enabling you to search and use archived stories for your presentations * Getting personal support from me (Ed Morrison) through "Advisor in a Box" * Keeping up with the latest developments in thinking, tools, and models for regional economic development * Supporting a community of economic development professionals committed to advancing our profession * Keeping yourself competitive by continuing to develop your skills posted by Ed Morrison | Economy Watch Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Here are articles on the economy from last week. Jobs: A September Shocker Copyright piracy takes a $58 billion hit on U.S. economy – report Futurists Release Top Ten Forecasts for 2008 and Beyond U.S. seen dominating science Nobels -- for now The Global Flows of International Professional Baseball System Republicans Grow Skeptical On Free Trade Outsourcing and offshoring trends growing in significance (Report available for download here.) Reporter says China is a giant on the world stage posted by Ed Morrison | Incentive Watch A new incentive war will touch off if VW decides to increaase capacity with another plant. Here's the latest from Alabama. Read more. We are entering an era of tight government budgets. More people will be asking the questions posed by this Rhode Island editor. Are incentives worth it? Read more. Folks in Kansas City are continuing to debate the value of TIF districts. Read more. The Dell deal in North Carolina represents one of the largest incentive deals ever. As it turns two years old, the debate continues on its impact. Read more. El Paso has revamped its incentives policy. Read more. Google is building another server farm, this time in Iowa. And the incentive train is pulling out. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | North Dakota's Centers of Excellence Tuesday, October 09, 2007 I keep hearing positive developments coming out of North Dakota. Here's another example. This article outlines how Minot State University will receive $2.1 million for its new center of excellence for a data production center. Read more. In 2005 the North Dakota Legislature approved a centers of excellence initiative to expand investments in higher education. Since its founding, the initiative has invested in a wide range of centers designed to stimulate economic development. These centers have included in a wide range of different technologies such as petroleum safety, hydrogen, advanced electronics and life sciences. Download a summary. posted by Ed Morrison | Biotech in the Bay Area Developing a cluster of businesses in the life sciences is not for the faint hearted. This recent article out of San Francisco underscores how long it takes. The biotech industry is been around for over 30 years in the Bay Area. It took 28 years for the biotech industry to generate $50 billion in revenues. Now growth is accelerating and analysts expect the revenues will double by the end of the decade. In short, biotech is the miracle that took a generation to happen. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | High school education in the 21st century Occasionally, I come across articles by educators that underscore the importance of changing our approach to high schools. I do school superintendent in North Olmstead, Ohio is inviting a new conversation about high school education in her community. "We need to talk to get there about 21st Century learning and how to collectively help young people achieve the skills and attributes that will allow them to survive and thrive in the new global economy." More important, she took the step of framing the needed transformation in terms of a collective responsibility. "Teaching and modeling the skills of leadership, work ethic, collaboration, communication and problem solving are within the power of every individual and institution within a community and within this room." Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Iowa's Skilled Worker Shortage Study Committee Here is another story on the looming worker shortage in Iowa. Other states are confronting the same demographic challenge, although Iowa seems to be focusing more directly. According to the Iowa Workforce Development report, the state will face 100,000 job vacancies within the next five years. A Skilled Worker Shortage Study Committee is exploring the issue in more depth. Read more. The activities of this committee will be interesting to watch. Reportedly, the Skilled Worker Shortage Study Committee will consider school improvements and other options to increase Iowa’s skilled workforce. posted by Ed Morrison | Rural entrepreneurship in Minnesota Minnesota has announced a new initiative to promote entrepreneurship in rural counties. Strategic Entrepreneurial Economic Development (SEED) is designed to strengthen the entrepreneurship networks across the state. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Accelerate Arkansas Four years ago a group of business and political leaders in Arkansas came together to form Accelerate Arkansas. The purpose of the organization is to accelerate the move of Arkansas into the knowledge-based economy. Two weeks ago, Accelerate Arkansas conducted press conferences around the state to publicize five core strategies in its effort to boost state per capita incomes. You can read more about the Accelerate Arkansas news release here. You can download a copy of the Accelerate Arkansas report from this page. posted by Ed Morrison | A model local education summit A promising educational summit is taking place this week in Wayne County, Indiana. The event is promising for a couple of reasons. First, it is taking place over two days. That's a large commitment of time, and it indicates a community is starting to get serious about transforming its educational system. Second, the summit organizers are focused on some practical outcomes, such as asking employers not to hire students who do not hold a high school diploma. (This approach is similar to a strategy successfully deployed in St. Joseph, Missouri.) The specificity of these proposals underscores that the organizers are focused on practical ideas that can transform their educational system. In other words, they're taking responsibility for outcomes. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Collaboration in NE Louisiana A multi-parish (county) collaboration is forming in Northeast Louisiana. Interestingly, as currently structured, the chief executive officer of the new organization must compromise side the region. Here is an outline of the tentative plan. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Toledo focuses on government innovation The transformation of the industrial Midwest will accelerate as more communities and regions learn the skills of collaboration. Regional approaches to economic development offer they best chance for accelerating innovation, improving productivity, and boosting incomes. But collaboration does not come easily. It helps when elected leaders see the opportunity. That appears to be happening in the Toledo area, where the County government has recently released a report on government in the 21st century. You can read more about the report here. You can download a copy of the report here. posted by Ed Morrison | Denver's workforce gaps Denver has completed a workforce assessment which reveals upcoming worker shortages. Like other reports that are starting to appear around the country, this report also concludes that "the incoming workforce is not prepared for the working world." Read more. Download a copy of the workforce gap analysis here. posted by Ed Morrison | Washington State innovation zones Washington State has kicked off its new cluster strategy by creating five innovation partnerships zones and investing roughly $1 million in each. The strategy is intended to replicate the model of Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Rising skill levels A recent report from the Workforce Development Board of the Treasure Coast in Florida contains this quote: "The skill levels of jobs are rapidly rising... Most occupations in demand on the Treasure Coast require a working knowledge of computers and basic math, plus oral and written communication skills. Even the most elementary level jobs involve entering and retrieving data from a computer system, reading and following instructions, and communicating with coworkers he and/or customers...Employers have repeatedly indicated that many workers today do not have the basic skills to keep up with the changes and demands of the jobs." Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | The future of freight rail If you want an overview of what the future of our national freight railway system is going to look like, you will be interested in this new report released by the American Association of Railroads. The report outlines the infrastructure capital needs of the industry. You can read more about the report here . You can download a copy of the report from this page. posted by Ed Morrison | Economy Watch Monday, October 01, 2007 Here are articles on the economy from last week. Will Globalization Destroy Black America? What 'Chindia' will mean to the West Greenspan sees recession chances less than 50/50 Detroit's Creative Bargain A Not-So-Innovative Office of Innovation Knowledge and technology 'pipelines' - businesses must get connected The days of cheap grain are gone, according to agriculture experts 6 Reasons We Won't Get a Recession How fit is the panda? posted by Ed Morrison | Incentive Watch Here are some articles on incentives from last week: In North Carolina, a debate goes on at the local level about incenitves. Why provide them to GE and Verizon? Read more. Here's an overview of Florida's hefty incentive investments in life sciences. Read more. A 3M layoff in Columbia, MO -- added to a consulant's disparaging comments about whether the quality fo place matters at all -- touched off a debate on incentives. Read more. Colorado's governor has proposed a new set of incentives. "The package includes a proposal to create $3.5 million in incentives for bioscience business development and a measure to devote $3.5 million of the state’s Clean Energy Fund to economic development purpose." Read more. Tennessee's top EDPro comments on the governor's Rural Opportunity Initiative. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Vermont's creative economy Last summer, Vermont held a conference on its creative economy. Advancing Vermont's Creative Economy, drew over 250 participants from across the state. Eight working groups looked at different aspects of this emerging sector, covering topics such as agricultural innovation, incubating creative new businesses, using the web as a creative tool, and developing downtown activity. The report is now available on-line and you can download it here. posted by Ed Morrison | Getting the message to the Michigan legislature Michigan's state government shut down for a couple of hours and then re-opened. But the challenges remain. As surrounding states are increasing their investments in higher education, Michigan lags, according to this article. Read more. The article raises an important question for EDPros. As the dynamics of economic development begin shifting more dramatically toward talent development, how do we educate state legislators brought up on a steady diet of business incentives? Over the long term, these incentives -- which are of doubtful value -- undercut the ability of state governments to make the long term investments we need in a knowledge-based infrastructure: education, research, broadband communications. posted by Ed Morrison | Big ideas for entrepreneurship in Buffalo EDPros in Buffalo are floating big plans for promoting entrepreneurship. One idea: Use proceeds from the sale of unused hydropower to establish an investment pool of at least $5 million allocated annually, which would be used to make grants up to $250,000. According to the article: "The grants would be awarded on a competitive basis to entrepreneurs who have graduated from college in the past 10 years, set up shop in Erie or Niagara counties and whose business would be involved in one of the six clusters economic planners have deemed to have the best potential for the region." Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Home grown workforce More and more EDPros are starting to see the vital importance of growing a workforce. As the head of Enterprise Florida recently told an audience: "Work migrates to regions of the world with a critical mass of talent." Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Just in time training at a community college Community colleges offer the opportunity for fast response to employer education needs. Here is an example. A community college in Maryland is offering a series of branded professional development courses -- "On The Frontline" -- that are customized to the needs expressed by area business people. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | More on early childhood education Here's another commentary on the role of pre-kindergarten investment in economic development. Indiana is considering expansions to early education programs. The article points to work by Minnesota Federal Reserve economists Rob Grunewald and Arthur Rolnick. They have written: “Early childhood development programs are rarely portrayed as economic-development initiatives, and we think that is a mistake. Such programs, if they appear at all, are at the bottom of the economic development lists for state and local governments. They should be at the top. Most of the numerous projects and initiatives that state and local governments fund in the name of creating new private businesses and new jobs result in few public benefits. In contrast, studies find that well-focused investments in early childhood development yield high public as well as private returns.” Read more. You can see the background work by Grunewald and Rolnick here. You can keep up with your state's developments at Pre-K Now. posted by Ed Morrison | Moving on LEED certifications and training A new initiative in Washington, D.C. is promoting "green building". A new law in the district requires that public and private buildings over 50000 square feet must meet certifications established by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System. Read more. If you are unfamiliar with green building (LEED) certification, you can learn more here. The District is going further to train residents in the skills required to construct green buildings. Learn more about the District's Green Collar Advisory Council here. posted by Ed Morrison | Workplace training in New Jersey As the pressure from workforce shortages grows, more employers are turning to workplace training. Here is a good overview article of what has been happening in New Jersey. The article highlights the expanding scope of skills that employers need today. An interesting fact: "As many as 40 percent of the nation's high school graduates said they were inadequately prepared for the demands of college and employment, according to a 2005 study by Achieve Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group hoping to raise academic standards." Read more. You can download the Achieve report here. You can visit the Achieve web site and get some useful background on the challenges of aligning high school with the demands of work and post secondary education. VIsit the web site. posted by Ed Morrison | Universities and the 4 P's University presidents can play an important role in revitalizing regional and state economies. Michael Crow is playing that role at Arizona State University. Martin Jischke pushed Purdue to the forefront in Indiana with his call that university assets were too valuable to be left on campus. In Louisiana, Dan Reneau at Louisiana Tech University is remaking the northern half of the state. Lee Todd, an accomplished university researcher and entrepreneur, is moving the University of Kentucky in new directions. And then there's Shirley Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Here's a good review of her views on how universities can move a region forward. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Innovations in food systems Here's a good article on the emerging innovations in agriculture. Focused on developments in Northern California, the article explores the emergence of local food networks that deliver local products to nearby metro regions. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Resource: Traffic data -- 2007 Urban Mobility Report The Texas Transportation Institute has released its 2007 Urban Mobility Report. The report provides information on long-term congestion trends. You can look up information about your state and metro region from the web site. Visit the web here. posted by Ed Morrison | Creating a new story line in South Carolina The South Carolina economy is shifting and, as low skilled manufacturing jobs continue to evaporate the and the state's universities redefine the role in regional economic development. The transition is most clearly apparent in places like Anderson County. There, Clemson University is painting a new picture of the state's economic future. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Birmingham to Denver Regional leadership delegations are continuing to travel. It's one of the fastest and most efficient ways to build a consensus for action. Regional leaders see what others are doing, learn quickly what is possible, and form the connections they need to move forward. Last week, more than a hundred, and community and business leaders from Birmingham, Alabama, headed to Denver. Read more. The trip comes at a good time. Birmingham may need some new ideas about its future. This commentary points to the weaknesses in leadership that are holding Birmingham back. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Connecting Orlando and Germany Here's a brief story of the growing connections between Orlando and Germany. Embedded in the article is an interesting fact: the University of Central Florida is now the seventh largest in the United States. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Iowa sees a worker shortage According to business and workforce development professionals in Iowa, the state will have about 100,000 job vacancies within the next five years. Read more. The article makes it important point. Not all of the solutions to the pending worker shortages -- of not only in Iowa, but elsewhere -- will require outlays of money. Some solutions require better alignment, collaboration and communication. For example, students generally receive relatively poor information regarding technical careers in high school. In many situations, each high school counselor will have a caseload of between 200 and 300 students. Understandably, most counselors focus on those students interested in attending four years of college. Relatively little attention is paid to students, who could pursue a postsecondary training in a field that requires less than four years of college. Here's another article, in which lawmakers get a warning to move on the issue. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Seed capital in Western Michigan Investors in Western Michigan are launching a seed capital fund to finance startup businesses. According to promoters, the $1,000,000 fund that could make up to 14 investments of $50,000 to $100,000 over the next two to three years. The promoters have already closed on the fund. Read more. You can visit the web site of Lakeshore Advantage here. posted by Ed Morrison | New York's Upstate Now plan Governor Spitzer in New York has vowed to place more emphasis on revitalizing the economy of the upstate New York counties. In May, legislation passed the state Senate, which calls for an investment of $3.7 billion in economic development initiatives over the next three years. The plan is still in its early stages, and enactment won't happen before next year. Here's an update. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Southeast Solar Summit Renewable energy represents a path to growth for many regional economies. It makes sense to get up to speed on the opportunities. Solar energy will be the focus of the first Southeast Solar Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory on October 24 and 25. Read more. Visit the solar summit web site here. posted by Ed Morrison | Economy Watch Tuesday, September 25, 2007 Here are articles on the economy from last week. Transcript: Bill Clinton interview Federal bill helps huge farmers, not California's innovative ones Study for railroad group says billions needed for freight rail infrastructure Fed chief calls for new mortgage rules India tries outsourcing its outsourcing Lower Trade Barriers Improve Productivity, Says Study From University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management Globalization Was Good Then, Not Now posted by Ed Morrison | Incentive Watch Here's some articles on incentives from the past week or so. College Station, TX is examining how it invests $3 million+ in incentive money. Read more. The debate over incentives in North Carolina continues to move along. Here's another critique. Read more. The mayor of Kansas City is trying to bring some reason to the city's TIF policies. Read more. Here's an update. A couple of insurance companies are hunting incentives in Iowa. And they are based in Iowa. Read more. Alabama is planning to revamp its incentives. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Biotech training in North Carolina North Carolina appears to be the leading state when it comes to taking on the challenges of training and education for biotechnology and the life sciences. In the past week, a new $70 million initiative launched on the campus of North Carolina State Centennial Campus. Sponsors of the initiative project that it will have a capacity to train 2,000 students a year for the state's biotech sector. You can read more about the center here. posted by Ed Morrison | Foundation collaboration in SE Michigan Ten foundations, including the Ford foundation based in New York, are launching a $100,000,000 "new economy" development fund for seven counties in Southeast Michigan. You can read more about their effort here. They might look to how foundations in Minnesota have come together to support regional economic development in that state. Learn more. posted by Ed Morrison | Consensus in Columbia Residents in Columbia, Missouri are taking part in an interesting exercise, called the Community Choices Open House. Recently, participants ranked strategies developed by 13 Citizen Topic Groups. Complex regional economic development strategies need consensus to fuel their implementation. There is no one way to develop consensus. Communities and regions need to improvise, experiment with promising approaches. Adjust and adapt. That's why studying examples like Columbia can provide good insights into what might work for you. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Outside the big box Local businesses circulate money within a regional economy. They account for what economists call "the multiplier". One critical dimension of economic development involves increasing the velocity of the dollars circulated among these local businesses. Here's an interesting commentary from an economist, based in Oregon. He points to studies completed by consulting firm in Austin, Texas, that compare the impact of consumer purchases between the big-box regional chains and locally owned retailers. Read more. If you're interested in learning more about this strategy of economic development, I recommend a web site based in the United Kingdom, called Plugging the Leaks. Visit the web site here. posted by Ed Morrison | Good Quote The Kansas City region is sorting out the difficult issues of collaboration. In a recent meeting, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, Mark Funkhouser, came up with a good quote: "We need to change the way we think about economic development. We've thought about it entirely in terms of incentives, and that's not correct. We compete with the world as a region. Moving businesses around does not help us compete with the world." Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Pennsylvania's Technology Collaborative The Technology Collaborative in Pennsylvania focuses on commercializing digital technologies developed by the state's universities into commercial products produced by companies based in Pennsylvania. The Collaborative has announced he would request for proposals (RFP) to award an $1.5 million in technology commercialization funding over the next six months. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Innovate North Dakota North Dakota has launched an interesting initiative, called Innovate North Dakota. Participants pay a $100 feet to gain access to a network of mentors and support tools. Winners of the competition get access to a variety of business services, and some cash prices. Read more. You can learn more from the web site here. The initiative is open to all residents of North Dakota, or people who want to start a venture in the state. In last year's competition, one third of the submissions came from rural counties in the state. posted by Ed Morrison | Worker creativity: A gap? The Fairfax County Economic Development Authority will host the 2007 National Conference on the Creative Economy in October. To build interest in the conference, the Authority recently commissioned a survey on creativity in the workplace. The authors of the survey indicate that US employers are facing a "creativity gap". The survey found that 88% of workers consider themselves creative, but only 63% said their jobs were creative. The report seems to set the stage for increasing redesign of work and organizations in a way to spur creativity and collaboration. (If you are interested in how new organizational forms are evolving, check out Thomas Malone's The Future of Work.) You can read more about the survey from this press release. You can read more about the conference from the web site. posted by Ed Morrison | Transformations in Maine Chuck Lawton, an economist formerly with the State Planning Office in Maine, is one of my favorite commentators on the changing dynamics of regional economic development. He has a knack for translating dry economic statistics into images that people can understand. Chuck was recently the inaugural guest speaker at the opening of the Great Falls Forum in Lewiston, Maine. In his remarks, he points to the challenge of increasing the "social overhead" (my term), while not expanding productivity and personal incomes as fast. You can read a summary of his comments here. posted by Ed Morrison | Maryland's newest incubator Maryland is perhaps the most aggressive state in implementing a incubator -- based strategy for innovation. Here is a good article on one of the more recent incubators, the Rockville Innovation Center. Read more. The Rockville Innovation Center opened this year with 23,000 ft.² on the fourth and fifth floors all of the Rockville Arts and Innovation Center. The center is located in the new Rockville Town Center, next to the library. The new Center is also part of a Business Incubation Network in Montgomery County. You can learn more about the network here. posted by Ed Morrison | Focusing on higher education The International Economic Development Council concluded its annual conference in Phoenix last week. Michael Crow, the president of Arizona State University, alerted the attendees to the importance of improving education. Without a change in focus, he warned that America's "standard of living will decrease, our way of life will be threatened, are opportunities for success for future generations will diminish." Read more. Crow is an articulate spokesman for the evolving role of education and the University in economic development. You can download some of his speeches from this page. Five years ago, I suspect we would nopt have seen the president of a research university addressing a national gathering economic development professionals. Now, however, we are seeing the increasingly important role that research universities are playing in economic development. Sadly, some state legislators still do not see the connection. They continue to slow public investments into major research universities and higher education. See, or example, this commentary from Michigan. posted by Ed Morrison | Cluster policy academy for seven states The National Governors Association has selected seven states to participate in a year-long policy Academy to learn how to improve economic involvement strategies. The participating states include Kentucky, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Oregon and West Virginia. Read more. You can download a copy of the report "Cluster -- Based Strategies for Growing State Economies" here. posted by Ed Morrison | Georgia Logistics Innovation Center Here is some interesting background on the Georgia Logistics Innovation Center. The Center helps solve logistics problems and facilitate the development of new technologies. In addition, the Center is designed to connect the various different sectors of logistics in Georgia. Read more. You can learn more about the Georgia Centers of Innovation initiative here. posted by Ed Morrison | Kansas Bioscience Centers of Innovation The Kansas Bioscience Authority is soliciting proposals to develop new Bioscience Centers of Innovation. In the initial phase, the Authority is awarding $200,000 to promising ideas for industry-academic consortia in areas such as animal sciences, drug development and oncology. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Redefining Florida's space industry Monday, September 17, 2007 Florida's space industry is facing a major transition with the retirement of the NASA shuttle fleet in the next few years. Recently, leaders came together to begin redefining the future. The threshold issue: focus on collaboration. Read more. Here's an article on NASA'S take on the emerging space industry. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) In early 2007 by private business and regional government leaders in Lansing formed Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) LEAP is designed to promote business and economic development for the tri-county region. It represents the first time that business and community leaders throughout the Lansing region have joined forces to collaborate on a unified economic agenda focused on the long-term health and vitality of the region. Hiring Matt Dugener as LEAP's CEO last March represented the first critical step in pursuing LEAP’s economic agenda. Now that he has had a few months to settle in, here's a view from Dugener' desk. Read more. posted by Ed Morrison | Perspectives from the UK  I'm in Oxford, staying at Merton College for a conference. You get a different perspective on the world from here. Economic development professionals in the UK are seeing cities in a new light: as a source of dynamism, creativity and innovation. Can our civic leadership (either existing or emergent) re-imagine the future of our cities in this way? Can we envision regions as networks with multiple urban hubs? Why our major cities are becoming ever slicker posted by Ed Morrison | |
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