I-Open Leadership Retreat Shares New Practices and Tools for Community and Regional Economic Transformation

More information.

Link: I-Open.org

A Two-Day Workshop at Punderson Manor Resort and Conference Center, Punderson State Park, Newbury, Ohio, Sept 10 – 12, 2008

Welcome to the new world of economic development based on networks.

Learn the leadership skills you need to strengthen collaboration in your community and region. Here is an innovative, tested approach to building collaboration for economic and workforce development. Gain the insights, road maps and tools you need to develop new ideas and translate them into action. Strategic doing is a new approach to building the civic networks that your community and region need to prosper in the future.

How you will benefit:

* Understand the strategic importance of guided conversation
* Learn key concepts to translate ideas into action quickly
* Discover the importance of civic networks and how to map them
* Find out how to design a civic "strategic doing" process to move ideas into action
* Learn how to integrate practical metrics into "strategic doing"
* Master a flexible, low cost implementation process that focuses on alignment, accountability, action plans, and continuous learning
* Understand why "strategic outcomes" and "strategic issue agendas" are replacing "vision" as a guiding principal for strategy
* Gain the knowledge and analytical skills to diagnose your community’s civic leadership
* Identify specific ways you can contribute to your community’s strategic success

What you'll cover:
* The emergence of networks as an organizing principle for economic development
* The five strategic "systems" that define prosperity for a community or region
* Introduction to social network analysis
* A practical, four step strategic doing process
* Introduction to strategy maps for economic development
* Civic process mapping
* Civic forums as a practical tool to generate and build civic networks and accelerate "open innovation"

Who should attend:
* Economic development professionals focused on new strategies of growth
* Workforce development professionals interested in new collaborations
* Chamber of commerce executives seeking to engage their community in new ways
* Young professionals looking to guide their community
* Leaders of community foundations seeking to adjust their role in economic and workforce development
* College and university faculty and administrators engaged in defining new roles for higher education
* Library professionals interested in understanding the new role of libraries

This workshop is ideal for innovative civic leaders who want to expand their perspectives on economic and workforce development. Anyone who must lead a community or region in developing strategies for economic development and workforce development needs new analytic tools to understand how they can have the most impact.

Workshop Details:
When: Sept 10 - 12, 2008
Sept 10: Arrive at 6:00 pm for a kickoff dinner and asset mapping workshop
Sept 11: All day workshop and dinner
Sept 12: One-half day workshop and lunch. Adjourn at 1:00 pm

Where: Punderson Manor Resort and Conference Center. Punderson is located in beautiful Geauga County, Ohio, 40 miles east of Cleveland on Route 87 in Newbury, Ohio.

"I-Open's workshop demonstrated for me the complexity of the work that we must do as leaders to change our culture,first by looking at the very behavior choices we make that hold us back." - Laura Steinbrink, Director of Regional Partnerships, Fund for Our Economic Future

Location