January 11th, 2008 @ Quartz Mountain Resort and Conference Center
Presentations
> Attracting and Retaining Talent
> Linking Oklahoma To The World
> Snapshot Of Our Region
Summary
The third annual Southwest Oklahoma Impact Coalition (SOIC) Conference hosted at Quartz Mountain Resort and Conference Center on Friday, January 11 focused on SOIC’s top two priorities as identified by the board of directors and as featured in the 2007-2010 business plan – workforce development and transportation. The conference theme was “Creativity, Innovation, Collaboration – Imperatiaves for Change!”
Conference attendees had the opportunity to hear from state leaders and from community and economic development specialists from out-of-state. Both Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins and Oklahoma Department of Commerce Executive Director Natalie Shirley spoke on the importance of regional collaboration and cooperation. It was noted that SOIC is one of the few regional economic development organizations in the state that is proactively addressing the issues that impair growth especially in the rural regions of the state.
The morning keynote was provided by Dr. Kenneth E. Poole, CEO of the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) and Executive Director, Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Dr. Poole stated that the communities that are preparing for the future are focused on developing a workforce that has both soft skills and life skills; high educational attainment and, most importantly, are willing to learn and try new things. The impending labor shortage is a crisis that communities are experiencing across the United States due to the large numbers of baby-boomers who are beginning to retire. In spite of manufacturing jobs that have moved off-shore, it is inevitable that there will soon be more jobs than there are workers.
Dr. Tom Boyd, David Ross Boyd Professor Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma, spoke on the importance of approaching education with the “life-long learning” philosophy and providing opportunities for our youth to develop creative minds. The purpose of education is not to simply educate but to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their entire lives.
Tom Stellman, President and CEO of TIP Strategies, located in Austin, Texas, provided the afternoon session with a presentation on what communities should be doing to prepare themselves for the stiff competition of both attracting and retaining jobs in the global economy. He noted the economic development trends over the years and stated that in the 1970’s community leaders were focused on building physical infrastructure to attract companies, in the 1980’s the focus had shifted to trying to attract more jobs, and in the 1990’s the mantra was “higher paying” jobs. During the last few years, “knowledge” or technology-related jobs has been the top priority of economic development groups. Mr. Stellman predicts by 2010, successful communities will be those that have clearly understood the importance of developing the talent of the existing workforce and improving the quality of place as their goals. Quality of place is different than quality of life, as quality of place is truly the practice of viewing the assets of your community through the eys of the talent you wish to attract and retain in your city.
The conference ended with a presentation by Gary Ridley, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, on the imperative of improving of Oklahoma’s transportation system, especially the extraordinary number of bridges that are currently in need of dire replacement. Oklahoma is number one in the nation for deficient bridges. It is anticipated that the number of bridges that will be 80 years old or more will create a backlog of bridges needing replacement of nearly 1,000 by the year 2014. With the current funding structure, it will not be possible to address the safety concerns created by the inadequacy of Oklahoma’s highways and bridges. Neal McCaleb, president of Transportation Revenues Used Stricly for Transportation (T.R.U.S.T.) spoke on the organization’s mission to work legislatively to address the state’s transportation infrastructure. More than $450 million road-related taxes and fees are diverted from transportation each year. There is a grassroots campaign to ask legislators to return approximately $200 milliion going to general government spending to transportation priority areas.
Dr. John Hays, Southwestern Oklahoma State University President and Chairman of the SOIC Board of Directors, inivited attendees to become involved in SOIC’s initiative and to provide input on regional issues, challenges and opportunities.