Links to: Southern Minnesota RCP homepage Southern Minnesota RCP partners Summaries of the For more information on Southern Minnesota Regional Competitiveness or the Opportunity Roundtable, contact: |
Southern Minnesota Strategy Summit The Strategy Summit was the last meeting of Phase I and the call to put into action everything learned so far for Southern Minnesota Regional Competitiveness. Three key items were introduced:
For more information on Southern Minnesota Regional Competitiveness, please contact Brad Finstad at the Center for Rural Policy and Development by email at bfinstad@ruralmn.org or by phone (507) 934-7700. Now is the time to commit to refining and implementing strategies, so we can confidently look toward our future in bioscience, renewable energy, high technology, food and agriculture, health care, and manufacturing. We're looking forward to creating a more vibrant and prosperous economic future for our 38-county region. Presentations: Mark Drabenstott, RUPRI, Key note presentation Southern Minnesota Futures Summit The Futures Summit took place March 13 with a full house at Minnesota State University Mankto. The summit was a ground breaking opportunity to join with others who understand that we can use our regional assets and competitive advantage to create a winning economic development strategy for this region. Mark Drabenstott of the Rural Policy Research Institute took the audience through the current economic situation in southern Minnesota, then reviewed the full range of economic development options developed over the past six months in regional roundtables. From there the group identified priorities for moving forward in key areas: agriculture and food, health care, manufacturing, high technology, biobusiness and renewable energy. At lunch, the audience heard from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Randy Abbott, president of Schwan's University in Marshall, and Gary Noble of DiaServe in Blooming Prairie. An afternoon panel of officials, including Congressman Tim Walz, Speaker of the Minnesota House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Senate Minority Leader David Senjem, Sen. Dan Sparks, Rep. Bob Gunther, Rep. Tim Mahoney, and Eric Wieben, Ph.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Genomics Research Center, discussed building a stronger future in southern Minnesota through partnership and strategic planning. Click here for a PowerPoint presentation on the regional competitiveness work so far and results of polling taken during the summit. Regional Roundtable Events View the Southern Minnesota Regional Competitiveness presentation Download the handout and presentation from the Regional Roundtables:
Download background data for six different regions:
Energy, bioscience and the changing population were the top issues emerging from the local roundtables conducted in September and October (for summaries of the local meetings, click here). The discussion then moved to the next phase, the Regional Roundtables, held November 17, 18 & 19. The goal of these Regional Roundtables was to stimulate discussion around three key questions that will shape the strategic options to be presented at the Futures Summit in early 2009. The three meetings were held in:
During the meetings, the Rural Policy Research Institute’s Center for Regional Competitiveness presented an expanded slate of economic opportunities that align with the economic assets and data shared during the local roundtables with the goal of identifying strategies to help Southern Minnesota best compete in the global economy. Agenda Each Regional Roundtable began with presentations by Mark Drabenstott, followed by responses from the region and discussions by the participants.
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