August 17, 2006

On August 17 we welcomed Don Schilling, President and General Manager of the Decatur County REMC and President of the Greensburg – Decatur County Economic Development Corporation to join us for our sixth Evening @ the House. Don shared his insight on a recent BIG DEAL for Indiana and how networks provided a foundation for bringing Honda to Decatur County. Don shared with us the “inside view” of how the community built the right team of stakeholders together to create the right atmosphere and proposal, as well as a few tough decisions that the community faced. As we learned first hand, leadership means taking calculated risks and making the commitment to succeed, as this community is prepared to do now and in the future as the relationship with Honda progresses.

The small group discussions concentrated on three areas:
Education – How schools will help prepare our future workforce for jobs such as those presented by Honda.
Employment – How a new employer, particularly one with the potential to increase jobs by 20% in a community, impacts the existing employment environment.
Hospitality and Networking – How a community can build the necessary connections within and outside of itself to welcome new residents, a new workforce, and the changes that come with an investment of this size.


These groups generated the following ideas and commentary:

Employment
• Give up something small to achieve something big
• Changing your agenda
• “Just-in-time” suppliers
• Hospitality industry
• Basic services-police, fire, etc.
• Demographic of workforce
• Reallocation of workers based on skills
• More jobs for higher education


Education
• Rethink education (globalize)
• Value education
• Next level of education
• Use the old system or innovate
• Access to education


Hospitality/Welcome
• Out of town workers part of community

The July 20th Evening @ the House focused on developing creative ideas for the Indianapolis Culture Trail, an exciting infrastructure project that connects people to important Indiana places. Bryan Payne, president of the Central Indiana Community Foundation and The Indianapolis Foundation, led the discussion.

Groups worked in small table dialogues to address the questions: How can we maximize quality of life by connecting places? and What would you like to see on the cultural trail?

These groups generated the following ideas:

- Art that engages thought; not just pretty to look at
- First aid stops
- Pet-friendly – watering spots, bags
- Vendors along the trail
- Balance tradition and innovations
- Fun things for young kids – kid-friendly
- Street performers
- Benches set back from trail for people-watching
- Interactive kiosks with maps “you are here”
- Podcasts at locations to deliver info/background
- Public art done by youth
- Murals throughout, not just pockets
- Animals/sculptures for kids to crawl on
- Address brain drain by engaging IUPUI students in ownership of Trail before graduation (e.g. cultural tourism students)
- Create a plan for each neighborhood to engage in trail that makes it uniquely their own
- Education around: bike safety, IPD walks & talks, fitness, something for daycare
- Bring people who live along trail together (e.g. backyard sales, cookouts)
- Shade
- Information on history of places long trail
- Good signage
- Bike racks, bike rental facility
- Visible hospitality and safety presence
- Many public restrooms
- Many refreshment stops
- Antique street-scape panoramas (old view finders) to peek into city’s history
- Juried street performance festivals
- Water fountains
- Drinking fountains
- Have things that appeal to all ages and lifestyles, residents and non-residents
- Visuals must “look” diverse, so people feel welcomed from all backgrounds
- Touch on all senses
- Games
- Playgrounds
- Art installations
- Private places
- Checkers/chess tables
- Watching art being created
- Story-telling
- State performance area
- Sacred parts
- Ice sculpture festival during the winter
- Micro-stores
- Open-air shops
- Side-walk art competition
- Water parks
- Exercise stations
- Artistic take on fitness stations
- Human connectivity
- Spaces that welcome conversation/interaction
- Mini-street performance venues
- Provide incentives or decrease red tape to streamline process for small business or individuals who want to sell goods/services
- Transportation to subs/neighborhoods
- Diverse districts will be highlighted by the connection
- Create ownership by keeping people involved
- Multi-generational interaction
- Open container policy on cultural trail
- Lower income senior housing
- Storytellers re. IN history
- Economic diversity
- Restaurant tour
- Tree steward training
- Skateboard park
- Open air theatres
- Community gardens
- Ability for schools to use the cultural trail for field trips
- Leave the trail unfinished so that generations can add to it
- Easily accessible
- Everyone knows how it works (education those who are on the stops)
- Something for every kind of person: all economic and physical levels
- Think of nodes for low income elderly
- Don’t push people out
- Needs to be clear you can go in for free
- Outreach to businesses so they know the trail
- Volunteers – residents guiding tours/welcome
- Exchanges between neighborhoods: learn about each other
- Free guide

The June 15th Evening @ the House was full of engaging dialogue.

After mingling over drinks and hors d’oeuvres, Krista Skidmore and Rebecca Hutton reviewed the ground rules and intent of the evening.

Krista then introduced Dr. Scott Massey, President and CEO of the Indiana Humanities Council and co-author of Renewing American Culture and the Pursuit of Happiness. Dr. Massey gave a brief overview of his guiding vision for the Indiana Humanities Council. Then he discussed his new book that focuses on the need to pursue happiness. For more information on either, please visit www.indianahumanities.org.

After a brief Question and Answer period with Dr. Massey, Rebecca provided a brief introduction to the evening’s second speaker Molly Wilkinson Chavers, Executive Director of Indy Hub, Inc. Her organization focuses on connecting Indianapolis’ young professionals. Visit www.indyhub.org for more information about Indy Hub.

The group then worked in small table dialogues to address the appreciative question: How do we form networks that maximize human capital?

The small groups came up with the following ideas:
• Create a hub for Indiana’s 65,000 non-profits to identify each other geographically or by purpose
• Use www.100ideas.org as a model for generating innovative ideas for the future
• Hit the pavement and spread the word
• Use mediums that fit the audience
• To maximize, connect an individual’s needs, passions, skills, and abilities with community opportunities
• Network for teachers focused on something specific like coping with being a teacher
• Language focused groups:
o Promote mentoring opportunities
o Learning new language isn’t just for kids
• Cross-company and/or cross-industry mentoring
• To get connected, volunteer
• Increase loan payoff opportunities in corporations for college grads (sign on bonus, relocation benefits, health/insurance benefits)
• Physical space/connections: sidewalks, trails, things to keep youth healthy and engaged
• Take personal responsibility for closing triangles (connect to people you know)
• Don’t limit groups to sameness, use differences to bring people together
• See the need, then act
• Do not rely on community leaders’ approval
• Develop networks by virtue
• Complete relationship capital inventory
• Regular forums for creatives
• Give and take, do not just take
• Feed relationships
• Stay in touch
• Share food

If you have questions about any of these ideas, post a comment or attend the next conversation.

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The next Evenings@ at the House will be Thursday, July 20 from 5-7p.m. We will address quality-connected places. Our guest speaker Brian Payne, President of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, will discuss the cultural trail as an important infrastructure project that connects people to important Indiana places.

Hope to see you there!

Evenings @ the House
Talking Points
May 18, 2006

What is Evenings @ the House?
Evenings @ the House is a monthly conversation open to everyone who wants to attend. It is held from 5-7PM the third Thursday of the month.

The presentation begins at 5:15PM with a brief introduction about the series of conversations and then a topic-specific speaker. The goal is to have at least 45 minutes of group conversation time after the speaker and 15 minutes for group sharing at the end of the evening.

Why do we need these kinds of conversations?
Research shows that good, innovative ideas need a place to be brainstormed and discussed. Evenings @ the House provides a “safe” space to have those discussions. The programming each month focuses on one of four areas: brainpower; quality, connected places; branding; innovation networks.

What is the overall purpose of Evenings @ the House?
The purpose is to convene and inform a critical mass of leaders that will a catalyst for change in three key action areas: 1) building strong economies; 2) developing human capital; and 3) encouraging connectivity between the public, private and government sectors.

What happens with the information discussed or suggested at Evenings @ the House?
We provide the space, speaker and refreshments….YOU do the rest!

You share ideas, find people who share your vision and then YOU make it happen. In other words, you have permission to take the information shared and suggested and put it into action for the future good of central Indiana. All the ideas needed for the future exist within our community. It is up to you to take the ideas and run with them. Let others know how they can support you.

What is an appreciative approach?
Appreciative inquiry is the practice of asking positive questions that help others find their own strengths and positive aspects of their situations. These questions could include:
“What do you like/love/value about…?”
“What’s working around here?”
“What is a time that stands out when you/the organization was at its best?”

Appreciative leaders understand the power of language, conversations and stories; use questions to help others find their own way; keeps the focus on the positive; uses negatives to find the desired positive; uses and helps others use a variety of lenses; and helps people find roles that tap their greatest strengths.

What is strategic doing?
Strategic doing is making things happen in the Open Source Economic Development model. Open Source Economic Development views an economy as networks embedded in other networks. Prosperity is created by building innovative, adaptive businesses that are supported by strong networks of trusted relationships. These networks encourage rapid learning, fast alignment, effective execution among groups of connected individuals and organizations.




What do I do if I have an idea/story to share or want to help with programming?
You can share a variety of ways:
1. Speak up at the next Evenings @ the House
2. Post it to the blog: http://ideaproduction.blogspot.com
3. E-mail coordinators at: annie@tld.org

What are the key areas Evenings @ the House focuses on?
The Key Innovation Investments brainstormed by the group on March 16, 2006 include:

BRAINPOWER
• Innovation in early childhood education
• Innovation in business/industry involvement in education
• Innovation in college attendance and access to funding (grants/tuition)
• Innovation in campus connections and the state
• Innovation in attracting and retaining educated in Indiana

QUALITY, CONNECTED PLACES
• Innovation in intercity competitiveness (statewide networks for collaboration)
• Innovation in building networks for common good (ex. neighborhoods; diversity)
• Innovation in social services
• Innovation in virtual access
• Innovation in urban public transportation
• Innovation in accessing human capital
• Innovation in accessing philanthropic capital

BRANDING
• Innovation in defining, celebrating and promoting our culture
• Innovation in investing in social capital

INNOVATION NETWORKS
• Innovation in Global Entrepreneurship
• Innovation in Creative Industries (ex. Digital media, art, theatre)


What are the Ground Rules?
• Move fast: Focus on the task at hand: Don’t get hijacked: Limit digressions: No speeches: No whining

• Stop thinking only about today’s issues: Focus on outcomes in 10 years, your legacy, your children, your grandchildren: Get your eyes off the rearview mirror

• Encourage “stretch” thinking: Generate new ideas: Don’t burn ideas: Don’t recycle old opinions

• Push for specifics: Get beyond rhetoric; No bumper sticker thinking

• No blame game: No simplistic solutions: Think in terms of connections, incentives and systems

• Balance the participation: Hold each other to account: Speak up if you feel the group is heading off course: Disagree

• Fill out the report-out form so others can read them: We need to capture today’s “knowledge assets”

We had a very productive, engaging evening on Thursday, May 18.

Annie Hernandez opened the evening sharing some talking points (see next post) about Evenings @ the House. Everyone is encourage to use these to talk to others about the conversations and invite them to the next one.

Ed Morrison did a quick introduction to the regional forums that have been happening across the state hosted by the Indiana Humanities Council. These forums have been using a similar format to Evenings @ the House. Attendees received a LENS toolkit which includes explanations of community conversation tools. If you are interested in learning more about the leadership forums happening in regions across the state, visit www.indianahumanities.org.

Scott Bess, VP and CIO of Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, Inc., and COO of Goodwill Education Initiatives, Inc. shared a brief overview of charter schools in Indianapolis and then described the strategic direction of his schools, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Career Academies, two public charter high schools operated by Goodwill Education Initiatives. If you are interested in learning more about the schools or volunteering to be a mentor, host an intern, etc., contact Scott Bess at 317.524.4501 or visit them on-line at http://www.indianapolismet.org/default.asp.

The group then broke into small table conversations to consider the question:
What innovation(s) would allow education to best utilize business(es)?

After 20 minutes of discussion, the following ideas were shared:
• High school intern-net: like indianainternet.org but for high school students
• Open certification for business professionals: make teacher certification more accessible to business professionals
• Loaned executives for 1-2 year teaching sabbatical
• Task-a-teer- specific task/project and time
• Professional/social networking for teachers with learning component (across schools/discipline)---not CEUs!
• Have business folks serve on “review” teams for public/charter schools (ex. United Way- Governance/Management Review)
• Change education to reflect community assets- not just the wants of business- do matches
• Healthy community

If you have questions about any of these ideas, post a comment or attend the next conversation.

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The next Evenings @ the House will be Thursday, June 15 from 5-7 p.m. and will discuss the role of organizations like Indy Hub (www.indyhub.org) and the Indiana Humanities Council (www.indianahumanities.org) in building quality, connected places.

Hope to see you then…

Here’s the scoop on the May Evenings @ House….
Thursday, May 18
5-7 p.m.
Indiana Humanities Council House
1500 North Delaware St.

Innovation in Brainpower- An Indianapolis Charter School Story and the Importance of Business in the Classroom

Presenter:
Scott Bess, chief operating officer
Goodwill Education Initiatives, Inc.
317.524.4501
http://www.indianapolismet.org/default.asp

History:
On Aug. 23, 2004, Goodwill Education Initiatives, Inc., a nonprofit entity established by Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, Inc., opened Indianapolis Met to provide an educational option that did not exist in Indianapolis before.

Indianapolis Met believes that all students should have the opportunity to pursue education beyond high school. All Indianapolis Met students are required to apply to college, and students and their families are provided with support throughout the application process.

We aim to empower students to take charge of their learning, to gain the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve success beyond high school and to become lifelong learners.

Background:
Join us after work for a crucial conversation about statewide branding and what it means for YOU and Central Indiana. Light refreshments will fuel a healthy conversation about things that matter to you!

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! Forward this e-mail to everyone you know so we can ensure a diverse, interesting crowd!

The program will begin at 5:15PM with an introduction about our process to date and the "Second Curve" knowledge economy and why conversations like these are so critical.

Scott Bess will present and his comments will set the stage for small group conversations.

Around 6:45PM, we will share the fruits of these appreciative conversations and plot strategic action steps.

Check out our progress to date at http://ideaproduction.blogspot.com

Our purpose with this series of crucial conversations is to convene and inform a critical mass of leaders that will a catalyst for change in three key action areas: 1) building strong economies; 2) developing human capital; and 3) encouraging connectivity between the public, private and government sectors.

NOTES
Evenings @ the House- Thursday, April 20
Branding Innovation- NEW Statewide Tourism Brand

Presentation by Carrie Lambert, Marketing Director, Indiana Office of Tourism Development

Carrie presented the process and research behind the new tourism brand released Wednesday, April 19, 2006.

New brand:
Indiana- restart your engines
www.visitindiana.com

The new brand implies the familiar racing of the state while also highlighting the ways to relax, rejuvenate and have fun in Indiana.

The Indiana Tourism Development office has eight staff members. It is one of the only state agencies that works beyond state borders to try to attract tourists. The Indiana Tourism office ranks 43rd in budget in the US and is the lowest in the Midwest. Indiana is a get-away destination and competes with Ohio and Michigan. The offices key partners are local convention and visitors bureaus and individual attractions across the state.

In 1998, the brand “Enjoy Indiana” was released after a long standing brand of “Wander Indiana.” Since early 2000, Indiana’s tourism slogan has been beat by MI, IL and KY. IN has only beat OH in the brand testing. Indiana needed a more progressive message.

The Tourism office conducted focus groups to test the old brand with the new…and the new brand tested even higher than the old brand ever had in key target markets.

To follow-up the brand, sample ad executions were developed. For the first time, a National Geographic photographer was hired to shoot the ad photos.

This does NOT replace the state motto.

ATTENDEE COMMENTS:
• Everyone should work to embrace the brand, understand the process.
• We should use the images that help develop unique assets of that state with the brand.
• The office should take inventory of the state’s WIDE variety of unique assets and use with the brand (identify niche markets)
• Q: What do with more $$$? A: Media buys; product development
• Q: How measure success? A: Ad effectiveness campaign- $30,000; increase line item in budget
• Q: The brand could be considered Indy-centric, is it? A: People think of all of Indiana with racing
• Don’t apologize for Indy- it is what people from other states/countries know!
• Idea: Highlight unique assets using public television (ex. syndicate WFYI- Across Indiana)
• Q: Speak to the graphic design, A: Softness of new logo- curvy/relaxed
• Q: How will the website change? A: The website is currently designed by region and will be redesigned to have a cleaner look and feel.
• Suggestive shopping would be cool on-line!

OTHER
May 13-Sept. 4- partnership with Kroger and at places across state- discount cards with new brand will be distributed.

Spring campaign will begin April 24 and will run for three weeks. The campaign for August is still to be determined.

MORE INFORMATION:
Carrie Lambert
clambert@VisitIndiana.com
317.234.2081

How exciting...the next conversation is set....
Thursday, April 20, 5-7:00 PM, Indiana Humanities Council House (1500 N. Delaware)
Statewide Branding & Innovation

Join us after work for a crucial conversation about statewide branding and what it means for YOU and Central Indiana. Light refreshments will fuel a healthy conversation about things that matter to you!

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! Forward this e-mail to everyone you know so we can ensure a diverse, interesting crowd!

The program will begin at 5:15PM with an introduction about our process to date and the "Second Curve" knowledge economy and why conversations like these are so critical.

Carrie Lambert, Marketing Director of the IN Office of Tourism Development, will then share the new state tourism brand (being announced April 19) and the process that was taken to develop it.

Carrie's comments will set the stage for small group conversations based around branding investments needed for successful implementation in Central Indiana.

Around 6:45PM, we will share the fruits of these appreciative conversations and plot strategic action steps.

Check out our progress to date at http://ideadproduction.blogspot.com

We will also continue to gather data for a network map...it will be cool, we promise!

Our purpose with this series of crucial conversations is to convene and inform a critical mass of leaders that will a catalyst for change in three key action areas: 1) building strong economies; 2) developing human capital; and 3) encouraging connectivity between the public, private and government sectors.

Here's the news release from our first Evenings @ the House conversation.....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 22, 2006

Contact: Peg McLeish
Communications Manager, Indiana Humanities Council
Phone: (317) 638-1500 ext. 117
Email: pmcleish@iupui.edu

Civic conversation series focuses on key innovation investments for Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Humanities Council hosted the first of a series of open civic conversations focused on issues that will lead to innovative change in Indiana. Approximately forty-five community members gathered at the Council’s headquarters in Indianapolis on the evening of Thursday, March 16, to explore investments needed to make the state globally competitive and an attractive place to live.

“Our ability to work together and have powerful conversations leading to change will determine how well we compete in the second curve economy,” Ed Morrison, Director of Leadership for the Indiana Humanities Council, told the crowd at last week’s event.

Morrison encouraged the crowd to think about what we can do together that we aren’t doing now to create change in the community. “We can move into ‘strategic doing’ by imagining how we want the future to look and then identifying and aligning our resources into action plans.”

The goal of the first conversation was to have participants explore key innovation investments that will lead to change in Central Indiana. Topics for upcoming Evenings @ the House will be drawn from the identified key innovation investments:

Brainpower, including innovation in early childhood education, business and industry involvement in education, college attendance and access to student financial support, campus connections around the state, and attracting and retaining an educated workforce in Indiana.

Quality, connected places, including innovation in accessing human capital and philanthropic capital, intercity competitiveness and statewide networks for collaboration, innovation in social services, virtual access to goods and services, and urban public transportation.

Branding, including innovation in defining, celebrating and promoting our culture, and investing in social capital.

Innovation networks to support global entrepreneurship and creative industries such as digital media, art, and theatre productions.

The purpose of the Evenings @ the House initiative is to convene and inform a critical mass of leaders that will act as a catalyst for change in three key action areas: building strong economies; developing human capital; and encouraging connectivity between the public, private and government sectors. The conversations are facilitated through the cutting edge public conversation technique of Open Space Technology, a technique used in regions across the country where successful innovation initiatives are underway, such as Cleveland’s I-Open, the Charleston Digital Corridor, and the Berea Innovation Zone.

Morrison is also a co-founder of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks, based in Northeast Ohio. The Evenings @ the House initiative is modeled on Tuesdays@REI, a program he developed while at the Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University in 2003. That program began with five people and grew to over 2,000 regular participants at the weekly civic forums.

“Open space technology teaches us to model good behaviors for one another and to move away from destructive dialogue,” Morrison explained.

“This is the start of an exciting process to engage anyone who wants to come and participate in key community dialogue that can truly affect our future,” commented Annie Hernandez, one of the event’s volunteer coordinators.

Past recipients of the Governor’s Award for Tomorrow’s Leaders, an award presented to twelve of the state’s outstanding young leaders each year at the Council’s annual Indiana Leadership Summit, serve as volunteer coordinators for Evenings @ the House.

Upcoming Evenings @ the House are scheduled for April 20, May 18 and June 16 and will take place at the Indiana Humanities Council located at 1500 North Delaware Street in Indianapolis. The events are free and open to the public.

The Indiana Humanities Council is an independent, nonprofit organization supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations and by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In its thirty years of existence, the Council has created a legacy of work dedicated to promoting education, nurturing leaders and expanding cultural resources.

For more information on the Evenings @ the House initiative and the Indiana Humanities Council, please visit www.indianahumanities.org or call (317) 638-1500.

Evenings @ The House
March 16, 2006
Indiana Humanities Council House

Ed Morrison welcomed the group to the house and gave insight into why public conversations like these are crucial to the new, second-curve economy. We have civic responsibiltiy to connect people and get stuff done!
Check out information on Ed's work in the Cleveland area- www.iopen.squarespace.com
Check out the Humanites Council summary of their conference from last year for more information on the Second Curve economy-
http://indianahumanities.org/cms/?q=node/12


As a result of our conversations, the following Key Innovation Investments were determined. These investment areas will be used to determine the topics discussed at upcoming Evenings @ the House events.

BRAINPOWER
• Innovation in early childhood education
• Innovation in business/industry involvement in education
• Innovation in college attendance and access to funding (grants/tuition)
• Innovation in campus connections and the state
• Innovation in attracting and retaining educated in Indiana

QUALITY, CONNECTED PLACES
• Innovation in intercity competitiveness (statewide networks for collaboration)
• Innovation in building networks for common good (ex. neighborhoods; diversity)
• Innovation in social services
• Innovation in virtual access
• Innovation in urban public transportation
• Innovation in accessing human capital
• Innovation in accessing philanthropic capital

BRANDING
• Innovation in defining, celebrating and promoting our culture
• Innovation in investing in social capital

INNOVATION NETWORKS
• Innovation in Global Entrepreneurship
• Innovation in Creative Industries (ex. Digital media, art, theatre)

PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE IDEAS OF INNOVATIVE PRESENTERS FOR ANY OF THE AREAS OR ARE INTERESTED IN HELPING COORDINATE ANY ACTIVITIES.

The next couple conversations @ the House will be April 20 and May 18. Invite your friends and colleagues.

If you want to get more details, check back here at the blog (http://ideaproduction.blogspot.com) or e-mail me at annie@tld.org.