News
Ed Morrison spoke at the ECIDC Annual Meeting
This year's ECIDC Annual Meeting and BESI Awards Presentation was held on May 15th at 6:00 pm at the Thelma Keller Convention Center in Effingham, IL.
Ed Morrison keynoted the event. Mr. Morrison came to East Central Illinois from Cleveland where he founded I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks. Ed also works for the Center for Regional Development at Purdue University, as well as serving as the Economic Policy Advisor for the WIRED initiative in North Central Indiana. Ed is the publisher of EDPro, a popular weblog for economic development professionals. He serves on the Board of the University Economic Development Association, teaches advanced strategy at the Economic Development Institute, and serves on the Regional Experts Committee of the Council on Competitiveness.
Mr. Morrison shared his wealth of knowledge with the group in regards to regionalism and its benefits. He explained how we need to move from our Grandfather's Economy to our Grandchildren's Economy. Our Grandchildren's Economy's strategy involves linking and leveraging assets into five "asset networks": brainpower, innovation, quality places, branding and civic collaboration. In adopting this new strategy, we will tear down the boundaries that seperate each town, county or organization from the rest and begin working together for the common good of the region. Please contact Trisha Mason for more information.
Please click on the links below to view Ed's presentations.
ECIDC Annual Meeting Presentation
Also at the Annual Meeting two deserving individuals and one business were honored with BESI Awards and new Officers and Board members were elected. Bill Steichmann now serves as the ECIDC President. Alan Gilmore serves as the Vice President and Ken Smith has taken the role of Secretary. Dick West remains Treasurer. ECIDC also welcomed to the Board Mike Cohan of Sullivan, Mark Donaldson of Mattoon, JoBeth Geier of Newton and Paul Ruff of Paris.