Summit Announcement
HISTORIC 1st ANNUAL CALIFORNIA ECONOMIC SUMMIT SET FOR MAY 11 IN SANTA CLARA
Regions Will Prioritize Recommendations for Bi-Partisan Action Needed to Improve the State’s Economy
SANTA CLARA, CA. March 12, 2012---The first California Economic Summit will be held May 11 in Santa Clara. The Summit is an unprecedented effort to bring together the diverse regions of California to create an action agenda for state government around job competitiveness and state investment.
A Leadership Group of eminent leaders from around California has been selected to act as stewards of the Summit. The Summit will take initiatives being prioritized in 14 Regional Forums being held around California through the end of March. California Forward and the California Stewardship Network are partnering to hold the Summit.
"There is no better time to launch this historic effort to strengthen California's economy," said George Shultz, distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution and former U.S. Secretary of State in the Reagan Administration."More than at any time I can remember, Californians are focused on job creation and thinking about the future. They realize that now is the time for California to act. I am pleased to be part of this effort."
California has the world's 8th largest economy with diverse, leading-edge industries. Agriculture, aerospace, entertainment, medical and biotech, and high technology are just some of the key drivers of the Golden State economy. Another important, but often underappreciated feature of the California economy is that it is not one economy but a series of regional economies.
"California's economy is regionally diverse and the Summit recognizes that," said Laura Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Chair in Global Management at the Haas School Business at the University of California and former Chair of the U.S. President's Council on Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration. "The Summit will define ways to better prepare our workforce, improve our infrastructure, encourage innovation and simplify the regulatory process."
A robust website, www.caeconomy.org, has been launched and offers extensive resources, reference materials and information about regional collaboratives to guide the Summit. In addition, its blog is driving daily fresh content about the California economy, the Regional Forums and the Summit. That dialogue will be extended through use of the social networks on Facebook (www.facebook.com/caeconomy) and Twitter (@caeconomy, #caeconomy).
The May Summit will engage Californians who have participated in Regional Forums and will extend its reach by inviting Californians to participate in Virtual Forums on the Summit’s website. About 500 persons are expected to attend the Santa Clara event, which will feature a collaboration platform that will organize information and connect participants in real time.
Since California is world-renowned for its technology leadership, it is fitting that the California Economic Summit will embrace a creative use of technology developed by a California company, CrowdBrite. The event will feature a collaboration platform which will organize information and connect participants in real-time over the Internet.
The Summit's policy framework is based on recommendations from three statewide reports on the California economy authored by the Think Long Committee for California Task Force on Jobs, Infrastructure and the Workforce; The Brooking Institute/McKinsey Global Institute, and the California Stewardship Network.
Once the Summit has concluded, the recommendations will be published on the website and distributed throughout California. Regional Champions who have been identified through the process will work as Action Teams to promote initiatives to state and local policy makers.
"We call this the 'First Annual California Economic Summit' because the work is only beginning. We strongly believe the Summit must be an annual event to ensure that we are continually working to improve the state's economy. We must pay constant and rigorous attention to the goals of improving job creation, investing in infrastructure and encouraging innovation," according to a statement from Lenny Mendonca, of McKinsey & Company who serves as Chair of the Summit Steering Committee and former California State Senator Becky Morgan, who is the founder of the California Stewardship Network.
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The California Economic Summit (www.caeconomy.org) is an unprecedented effort to develop job creation and increase competitiveness in the state. The framework for the Summit is based upon recent reports developed by the Think Long Committee for California, the Brookings Institute/McKinsey Global Institute, the California Stewardship Network and California Forward. The Summit is hosted by California Forward, a bipartisan government reform effort engaging regional leaders to improve performance and democracy (www.cafwd.org) and the California Stewardship Network, an alliance of regional partnerships promoting California's economic vitality (www.castewardship.org).
Contact:
Ed Coghlan
California Forward
818-489-4774
