Northeast Indiana Leaders Bring Back Ideas From Regional Exchange Trip to Cincinnati

June 14th, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 14, 2013

Northeast Indiana Leaders Bring Back Ideas From Regional Exchange Trip to Cincinnati

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - More than 50 area leaders in business, education and community service joined the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership on a Regional Exchange trip to Cincinnati June 5 - 7, 2013. This is the largest trip of its kind in recent history. Participants spent two and a half days in Cincinnati learning from leaders there who have worked collaboratively to improve the economy of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region.

Breakout sessions focused on 21st Century Talent, Entrepreneurship and Quality of Life, which are all directly aligned with the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership's Vision 2020 initiative to transform Northeast Indiana. Key takeaways from the trip have been identified as:

Need to build trust-based relationships for collaboration to work.
Cincinnati leaders demonstrated the need for all sectors - public, private and philanthropic - to work together in order to achieve true economic growth and transformational change.

Take collaboration to the next level by implementing the Collective Impact model.
Success of the Collective Impact framework is based on regional implementation of the following components: a common agenda, shared measurements, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communications and backbone support.

Develop a "Master Narrative" for the region.
Exchange participants learned of the benefits of speaking with a common voice and consistent messages about their community. The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership's Your Story Made Here campaign (yourstorymadehere.com) was cited as a strong foundation for promoting a consistent, regional message.

"We appreciate the time regional leaders committed to this trip. This type of effort reinforces our collaboration, builds trust amongst regional leaders and helps us define our vision for Northeast Indiana," said John Sampson, president and CEO of the Partnership. "We've already come so far in implementing ideas like the Mayors' & Commissioners' Caucus that came from the Denver trip in 2011. Now we are ready to get to work developing the new ideas we brought back from Cincinnati."

The trip was organized by the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership through its Vision 2020 initiative. For more information and to view photos from the trip, visit the Vision 2020 website.

The Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership was formed in 2006 to help build a globally competitive economy in Northeast Indiana. It is a public-private partnership focused on generating business leads and building regional capacity through product development and effective regional collaboration. In 2010, the Partnership launched Vision 2020 to bring the region together around five key areas (the five pillars) for economic growth: 21st Century Talent, Competitive Business Climate, Entrepreneurship, Infrastructure and Quality of Life. Through its combined efforts in business development and capacity building, the Partnership supports its 10 member counties: Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wabash, Wells and Whitley. For more information, visit www.NEIndiana.com.

###

MEDIA CONTACT:
Courtney Tritch
Marketing Director
Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership
260.469.3460
courtney@NEIndiana.com