Community 2020 Forum

Background

Agenda

Speakers

Transcript

BACKGROUND ON THE SEMINAR

The goal of this seminar, the first in the Community 2020 series, was to help identify strategies for cities to manage the transition to the new knowledge and information-based, technology-intensive, globally-oriented economy. The focus was on how cities can manage the transition to the new economy by retooling their older manufacturing base, encouraging private sector reinvestment, promoting innovative workplace strategies, or transforming the old economy to one that works. Speakers highlighted successes, discussed obstacles, and suggested solutions to how cities can be drivers of the new economy.

We have identified five broad issues areas that form the core of a jobs and economic prosperity strategy for cities, communities and region:

1. Workforce preparation and training
2. Metropolitan economic strategies
3. Building neighborhood economies
4. New alliances and partnerships
5. Research and development

John F. Smith, Jr. became Chairman of the General Motors Board of Directors in January, 1996. He has been Chief Executive Officer and President of General Motors since April, 1992. Prior to that he was in charge of GM's international operations. He is active in revitalization efforts in the Detroit metropolitan area, as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Detroit Renaissance, the Economic Club of Detroit and other local organizations. He is also a member of the Business Roundtable's Policy Committee and Chairman of its Government Regulation Task Force, and serves on the Boards of Proctor & Gamble Company, GHAC, and Hughes Electronics.

William Julius Wilson is the Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Science at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He previously conducted research and wrote on inner city poverty at The University of Chicago, He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is also past President of the American Sociological Association. and is a Mac Arthur Prize Fellow. In June. 1996 he was selected by Time as one of America's 25 Most Influential People. He is the author of several landmark publications. including The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions (1978) and The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City. the Underclass, end Public Policy, which was selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review as one of the 16 best books of 1987. His latest book is When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor (1996).

Raymond Smith is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Atlantic. Raymond Smith has fashioned Bell Atlantic into a leading world-wide telecommunications company. He joined the Bell System in Pennsylvania and over the years developed expertise in finance, operations. engineering and external affairs. He was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Atlantic in 1989. Mr. Smith is a founding member of the Corporate Committee for Educational Technology established by President Clinton and is a member of the President's Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure. He also serves on the Boards of Directors of Core States Financial Corporation, US Airways, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Transcript