Create West Virginia

Create WV Diversity Track Sessions Announced

How can communities just like yours attract young entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, technologists and others who are adding quality and growth to our state? Research shows one way is by embracing tolerance and diversity for new people and ideas.

The Diversity track at the Create WV conference October 20-22 at Snowshoe Mountain Resort will ignite dialog around youth, inclusiveness in decision-making and talent recruitment facing West Virginia as it seeks to build creative communities for the new economy. Diverse voices from around the state will discuss topics from Hip Hop to immigration, and will address the history, opportunity and resources that build diversity and inclusiveness in West Virginia. This year's Diversity track is lead by Crystal Good Nazario.

Diversity Keynote Speaker:  Mary-Frances Winters, President and CEO, The Winters Group

Dr. Mary-Frances Winters is President and Founder of The Winters Group, a 24-year-old organization development and diversity-consulting firm, specializing in research, strategic planning, training, and public speaking with an emphasis in ethnic and multicultural issues.

http://www.wintersgroup.com/html/mary-frances-winters.html

Session 1, 10 AM Tuesday - Everyday Democracy - How People of Diverse Backgrounds Can Solve Common Problems

Facilitator: Gloria Francesca Mengual

Everyday Democracy is a national organization that helps local communities find ways for people from different backgrounds to think, talk, and work together to solve problems. This organization works with neighborhoods, cities, regions, and states, helping them pay particular attention to how racism and ethnic differences affect everyday problems. Learn how the residents of Jackson Hole, WY, through Everyday Democracy "study circles" have taken the reins to address both the opportunities and the challenges represented by Jackson Hole's changing immigration demographics.

Session 2, 11:15 AM Tuesday - Protecting the Rights of All People - Charleston's Civil Rights Case Study

Moderator: Amy Weintraub  Panelists: Seth Distefano, WV ACLU; Marc Weintraub, Charleston City Council; Charlie Rouse, WV Pride

Establishing tolerance and inclusiveness takes more than just good feelings. It takes a focus on building institutional human rights protections and processes. Learn how the City of Charleston dealt with what could have been a divisive mission to secure equal protection rights of gays and lesbians and turned it into a positive for the city's effort to attract and retain the creative class. Regardless of where your community is on this issue, you will learn a great deal from this dialog.

Session 3, 2 PM Tuesday - Building Inclusive Communities

Facilitator: Jim Hunt, Amazing Cities

Learn the steps local government officials, concerned citizens, business leaders and youth can take to create Inclusive Communities that embrace the message: "We" can make everyone feel welcome. Explore the ways to develop an inclusive community as Jim describes his personal story of taking on the Ku Klux Klan and how it led to a transformation in how he approaches public service. It is a journey from a small town in West Virginia to a national coalition of over 160 cities working to fight racism and hatred and to build centers of opportunity and excellence.

Session 4, 3:15 PM Tuesday - Engaging Youth to Create Communities

Facilitator: Pastor Matthew J. Watts, CEO of Hope Community Development Corporation

Youth are a vital natural resource to the West Virginia economy. Empowering youth toward leadership is key to economic development and the sustainability of a community. How does the faith-based non-profit Hope Youth Development Corporation utilize the mentoring program Talks My Father/Mother Never Had With Me to engage at-risk and high-risk youth? How do HOPE programs influence the economic growth of local economies by addressing high school drop outs and juvenile incarceration rates through mentoring?

Session 5, 9:45 Am Wednesday - Developing Niche Cultural Opportunities - Can West Virginia Hip Hop Create a New Economy?

Moderator: Constantia Charbonnette, Ph.D.   Panel: Bob Webb; Artist Rasheed Jones, aka "Cyn"; Artist 6'6" 240; Artist/Manager Eric Jordan; Artist K Kutta; Artist Ace Beanz

Can West Virginia grow and nurture non-traditional cultural groups and the economic opportunities they represent? Using Hip Hop and its valuable socioeconomic power as a case study, this session explores how it relates to the empowerment and economic development of Appalachia. Join West Virginia Hip Hop artists as they discuss the opportunity to promote constructive alternatives to the employment and social frustrations experienced by many young Appalachians.

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Session 6, 11 AM Wednesday - One West Virginia, Many Origins

Moderator: Rev. Ron English   Panel: Monica Brooks, Mexican-Appalachian; Rev. Emanuel Heyliger, KIZRA; Faisal Khan, WV Islamic Society

West Virginia is home to a rich diversity of cultures and communities, representing people from all over the world. Share in this unique dialog that showcases the rich diversity of heritage and voices from throughout the state. Learn how economic patterns have influenced the state's diversity and how communities can take proactive action towards building our state's diversity asset.

Create WV Business Track Sessions Announced

How can West Virginia break the cycle of last-place rankings in job creation and new business start-ups? How can we attract the creative, educated talent required to build a thriving business community? What opportunities exist in energy, research, technology and creative sectors that will provide new high-paying jobs to rejuvenate our economy?

The Business and Economic Development track features leading thinkers and doers who are making it happen. Come and share your feedback and ideas.

Attracting and Developing Entrepreneurs

West Virginia has the lowest entrepreneurship rate in the nation. How can we adapt our culture to embrace risk? How can we promote entrepreneurship as a career opportunity? How do we connect potential entrepreneurs with the skills and investment resources required to succeed?

Presented by Ron Basini, Director, Entrepreneurial Studies Dept, Rahall Technology Center, Concord University

What is a New Economy Business?

“New economy” businesses, or “creative” businesses, are often very different in how they make money vs. traditional industries. Learn what is considered “new” and how even traditional industries can begin growing again using new economy business models.

Rob Godbey, Director, GodbeyWorks, Chambers, Paterno & Associates

What is a Creative Worker and a Creative Job?

The “creative class” is in high demand around the world, and we need to understand what is different about the kinds of jobs they seek. What kinds of jobs are considered “creative” and what makes them that way? How can new creative jobs be created, and how can even traditional job roles be developed into creative ones?

Anthony Salcito, General Manager, Education Business Unit, Microsoft Corporation

Attracting and Developing Talent in WV

Every city and region in America is after highly educated, creative talent. How can West Virginia and our smaller communities position and promote themselves to attract and retain this precious human capital that drives the new economy? Learn practical ways communities and businesses can make a difference.

Speakers:  Paul Dougherty, Generation West Virginia; Ralph Gaines, CEO, beBetter Networks

Building a New Economy Infrastructure – Policies and Priorities

While individual communities and businesses seek to attract talent and build new economy growth, what can the state government and other large institutions do to make it easier? What policies and programs need created and supported to make this dream a reality for West Virginia?

Panelists:  To be announced

Energy Industry Opportunities and Options – Balancing Our Past and Future

Everyone has heard about the “greening” of the energy industry and the concerns over global warming. Is there a creative solution between those who advocate a strong future for coal via coal-to-liquid and carbon sequestration vs. those who believe we should aggressively pursue renewable energy sources? Where does West Virginia’s future lie and what are the business and economic ramifications? Hear from all sides and decide for yourself!

Panelists:  To be announced  - Representatives from coal, natural gas and wind industries

Need a Good Real Estate Investment? Follow an Artist

We were happy to find yet another validating article that reinforces one of the strategies we've championed via Create WV. BusinessWeek outlines why artists are a driving force in redevelopment:

The reason is that artists are happy to move where real estate investors aren't prepared to go—crime-ridden inner cities with trashed-out apartments, inside rat-infested buildings that seem destined for the wrecking ball.

Artists aren't looking for the next hot neighborhood, just large, affordable spaces where they can grind, hammer, saw, and generally make a racket in the name of creativity. But they often set the stage for redevelopment, and home buyers who follow their lead can sometimes get in while real estate prices are affordable.

Can this model work in rural, small town West Virginia? It can, and it has. Artists were core drivers in the success of Berkeley Springs and Lewisburg. Small cities such as Cumberland, MD, have used "arts and cultural district" designations to spark artist relocation programs, which in turn have sparked growth in their formerly dying downtown area.

Artists are artists due to many non-financial motivations, but one can't help but think if they positioned themselves as real estate tastemakers they could earn quite a bit as economic development consultants. At the very least, this growing awareness should generate more appreciation, inclusion and support for artists in your community and throughout West Virginia.

Psst, Young Professionals...What's on Your Mind?

Only three days left to help Generation West Virginia obtain 1,000+ responses to their economic demographic survey. The cutoff is Wednesday, October 1, 2008, so if you haven’t already submitted your feedback, please log onto:

http://www.cesdonline.org/surveys/GenWV

Your input is extremely valuable! Not only will the results of this survey be used to inform GWV's programmatic agenda, but state leaders are anxiously awaiting these findings knowing that the data provided may help unlock the mystery behind how to entice our 'best and brightest' to call West Virginia home.

Other questions? Please visit http://www.generationwestvirginia.com or email [email protected]. 

Is A Vision Shared Becoming a Vision Realized?

Many folks aren't aware that Create WV is an initiative lead by the Creative Communities volunteer team of Vision Shared, a non-profit organization launched in 2001. Depending on who you ask, the Vision Shared effort has either been a hugely valuable forum for connecting the private and public sectors to solve difficult problems in West Virginia, or a disappointing attempt that has not yet fulfilled its potential.

Often, those who express frustration have either a) not been actively involved in a volunteer team, b) been a part of a volunteer team which struggled to gain traction and make an impact, or c) have not received enough communication on results delivered by various teams.

The point of Vision Shared, in my opinion, is to provide a venue in which motivated leaders and team members can rally around an issue and make a difference. Sometimes weaknesses in leadership or lack of consistent team member commitment can lead to less than inspiring results, but in many cases Vision Shared teams have delivered truly relevant and impactful contributions towards our state's development.

One of the key criteria for developing a creative community - or in this case, a creative state - is a spirit of inclusiveness. Vision Shared's initial charter shared a passage from Democracy At Risk and asked that it be reflected on in future years:

In the past, leaders were special people who did special things. The rest were followers who simply went along with what the leader said, and did. The approach seemed to work: if the industrial age was characterized by anything, it was by hierarchical organizations with leaders who were top executives, and everyone else was down below.

But today we share a planet that is shrinking. The rules of engagement that applied for most of what has been called ‘the American century’ no longer work. In the next century, new ways of thinking about leadership will be required, spurred by technology and globalization.

Organizations will have to be flattened. Leaders and followers are linked and must be involved in the leadership process. Teamwork and collaboration will work better than command and control.

The new model of leadership is collaborative, requiring widespread participation and collective decision-making. It accepts the inevitability of conflict, but encourages consensus. It searches for win-win solutions.

This is not to say the new model diminishes the contribution of individuals. Rather it argues that any individual, located any place in the system, can play a leadership role.

The new model of leadership insists on the participation that is at the heart of the democratic enterprise. The new model confirms that to collaborate is to prepare for civic engagement.

Has Vision Shared, in partnership with state government, other non-profit groups, and many others, been effective in sparking meaningful long-term change in West Virginia? You can judge for yourself by reviewing the latest report from Market Street, the consulting firm who helped shape Vision Shared back in 2001, delivered in August 2008 at the WV Chamber of Commerce's Annual Business Summit.

You can also read the latest Vision Shared newsletter to learn what other teams are busy working on.

Vision Shared, Create WV, and other volunteer opportunities are only as effective as we - the volunteers - make them. So we encourage you to review existing teams (or suggest one) and consider getting involved! If it's frustrating at first, find a way to improve it. If you need help, ask for it. If you need resources, chances are someone is willing to make a good attempt at finding what you need.

Disrupting Class-Chapter 9-Giving Schools the Right Structure to Innovate

"School reformers have repeatedly tried to bash the system and confront it head-on.  A major lesson from our studies of innovation is that disruptive innovation does not take root through a direct attack on the existing system.  Instead, it must go around and underneath the system.  This is how disruption drives affordability, accessibility, capability, and responsiveness."

"When the task simply is to improve individual components, the organizational structure facilitates these improvements.  But when a system needs to be fundamentally reconfigured (and that is what we have been talking about in Chapters 1-7), an organization's compartmentalized structure impedes the work it must do.. they often need to use the tool of separation."

Functional teams work on the "simplest category of improvement, a functional or departmental problem that occurs at the component level within a product or at an individual step within a process."

Lightweight teams handle a project that has "a predictable interdependence between groups...to ensure that their work fits together" across multiple units.

"When the architecture of a product or process needs to change, however, unpredictable interdependencies often arise...to address these challenges, organizations must create heavyweight teams."

"Schools are built on functional and lightweight teams.....Only heavyweight teams can functionally redesign schools." 

The tool of separation is "a space where heavyweight teams can have the power and the authority to rethink the architecture...Though the specifics of how and where they (heaveyweight teams)are implemented might differ, the principles that underlie them do not...Architectural change requires a heavyweight team.  We are not engaged in an effort to find a single best architecture that fits all students.  We need 'If.... , then...' statements: We must define school architectures that work best for teachers and students in specific situations...the definitions of those situations is just beginning..."

This is where the connection between CreateWV and Disrupting Class becomes very visible.  There are "definitions of these situations" in communities across our state right now that need "heavyweight teams".  Situations include: teacher compensation, teacher shortages, where/when school occurs, seamless curriculm, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Academies, community schools, early education and 21st Century Learning to name a few. 

In the future, I will be posting some examples of different "school architectures" for your review.

'Creative Communities Under Construction' Across West Virginia

In preparation for the Create WV Conference, Oct. 20-22, we're inviting bloggers across the state to highlight "Creative Communities Under Construction," by demonstrating local examples of the "new economy" in West Virginia. Several bloggers helped jump-start the effort, and others will be added to this list as it expands:

• Health Care Attorney Bob Coffield | "WV Creative Communities Project: New Martinsville and Bethany"
• Justen Deal | "We Are Created Creative"
• Marketing Genius Blog | "W.Va. Eastern Panhandle - A Creative Community Under Construction"
• Oncee@Blogger | "Creative Communities Under Construction, Richwood, WV"

• Platinum PR | "Creativity in the Eastern Panhandle"

• The Purple Moon | "Creative Communities Under Construction: One Entrepreneur's Story"

• Two-Lane Bloggin' | "Creative Communities Under Construction"

• Vec3 | "Helping Create West Virginia"

• West Virginia State University | "Institute, West Virginia - Creative Communities Under Construction"

• West Virginia State University | "Essence of Entrepreneurs"

Bloggers are asked to answer any one or more of the below primer questions, citing an example(s) from their community/county. For those readers that don't have a blog, you can still participate. Leave thoughts here via comment, comment on the above listed blogs, or spread the word through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Bloggers/readers are welcomed to spread variations of the adjacent cone image across the Internet to spur discussion of new economy expansion in West Virginia. Physical cones are occasionally being placed in downtown areas across the state to generate buzz about the conference.

'Creative Communities' Primer Questions

• Creative Entrepreneurship – Who is taking a risk and starting a new business or project in your area? Who is taking advantage of the Internet to sell their art, publish their work, or sell their stuff?
• Arts and Culture – Who is cutting edge and breaking new ground in your area? What organization is championing creativity and innovation at home, work or in the schools?
• Creative Education – What is your local school or school district doing to promote innovation and creativity? Who is offering unique technical or scientific skills? Any creative camps for kids, or efforts to augment what kids get from school? Any unique adult education programs?
• Technology – What is your community doing to bring broadband or wi-fi to your community? To help people acquire tech skills? To promote social networking and communication between and within communities?
• Diversity and Inclusiveness – Who is reaching out to make sure people of all backgrounds feel welcome and included? What organizations or individuals are being proactive in talking about the value of diversity and pushing back against hate and discrimination?
• Quality of Place – Who is starting a cool new place to hang out and connect? What is your community doing to provide trails and other outdoor amenities? How is your town trying to build a better aesthetic to brighten downtown or neighborhoods?

Can the Innovation Economy Save WV...and the US?

BusinessWeek has an interesting article on the "innovation economy" and the hope that focusing on the next major wave of productivity and quality of life innovations can spur on our lackluster economy.

Historically, technological change has been the biggest force for productivity growth in the U.S. The latest figures show that "multifactor productivity"—a category that includes technological change and other improvements in business processes—accounted for 45% of productivity gains between 1987 and 2007. "Ninety-five percent of economists agree that innovation is the most important thing for long-run growth," says Acemoglu of MIT.

....At the same time, economist Paul Romer, now at Stanford University, showed how spending on innovation was different from the usual sort of capital investment because the gains from new ideas and discoveries could be shared by everyone.

West Virginia has not historically had an innovation economy; rather, it has often been "downstream" from innovation that was developed elsewhere. However, with the relatively modest leap into serious R&D with "Bucks for Brains," we're beginning to demonstrate that we understand the immense economic potential of ideas and innovation. 

During the 2008 Create WV Conference, we will showcase a business track session called "Building a New Economy Infrastructure - Policies and Programs" that will dive into what it will take for West Virginia to develop a serious innovation economy.

What Do We Want? What Do We Believe?

David and Alex Bennett are hidden treasures for West Virginia in the hills of Pocahontas County. Alex is internationally recognized as a leader in knowledge management and an agent for organizational change, was the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Enterprise Integration with the role of Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) for the United States Department of the Navy. David was co-founder, CEO, and then Chairman of the Board and Chief Knowledge Officer of a professional services firm specializing in engineering management, information technology and organizational development.

The Bennetts moved to Pocahontas County a few years ago to start the Mountain Quest Institute, "a research and learning center dedicated to working with individuals, groups and organizations to achieve growth, understanding and high performance in this age of change, uncertainty and complexity."

Recently, David attended a Create WV workshop in Marlinton and commented, "There’s an old saying – if you think you can or you think you can’t – you’re right. That’s not just an old saying, it’s a scientific fact. If you believe you can do something, you have a much higher chance of doing it. If you believe you can’t, you can’t do it,” he said. 

What does your community believe about itself? What does West Virginia believe? Whatever we believe about who we are and what our future is dramatically affects our future reality.

A relevant example is the West Virginia University football team. Regardless of what you think of Rich Rodriguez after his departure, you can't argue this: he set the bar high, cast a bold vision for competing for a national championship, and within just a few years the Mountaineers were in fact in that small, elite group of schools who had a chance to compete for it. For a state of our size and a school of WVU's status, it was an amazing achievement in just a few years (here's hoping it doesn't all unravel as quickly as it seems to be!).

RichRod didn't do it himself; it took boosters willing to invest and assistant coaches and players willing to buy in. But if we believed we could achieve such a bold agenda in football, couldn't we also believe that West Virginia could achieve bold things in quality of life and economic growth? Could we not move from the bottom of state rankings to near the top in areas such as physical and mental health, job growth and average household income?

Do we want it? Can we believe it? 

Disrupting Class-Chapter 8-Forging A Consensus For Change

Don't forget, this book is based on a couple of decades worth of research on managing innovation successfully. 

Specifically, this is a book on how to manage innovation within public education successfully.

In Public School Systems, there is little consensus on cause and effect ("which actions will lead to the desired result") or what they want ("the results they seek from their participation in the enterprise; and which trade-offs they are willing to make to achieve those results").  This "helps us understand why certain remedies that reformers have experimented with in the past have not worked...they get caught up in the daily conflict and compromise that are inherent" to this type of environment.

"People have tried democracy, folklore, charisma, salesmanship, measurement systems, training, negotiating, and financial systems.  All have failed.  We see only three possibilities: common language, power, and seperation."

Common Language

"Providing a common language is 'mechanism for movement'..with a common language and a common framing of the problem, tools like strategic planning, measurement systems, and salesmanship can be effective.  This is why "we have gone to such lengths to identify the root causes of the problems plaguing public schools (chapters 1-7) is our hope that this book serve this role for our readers...so that there is broader agreement on what is needed and how to achieve it."

Power

"Political and school leaders who seek fundamental school reform need to become much more comfortable amassing and wielding power because the other tools of cooperation will yield begrudging results at best....The democracy tool wasn't designed to deliver consensus in the face of fractious debates that characterize" public education.

Separation

"Its usefulness is primarily when the leaders do not possess the power to compel cooperation in discordant environments...and unless communities have reached a consensus on a common language and framing of the problem..leaders may have to use power tools to employ the separation tool."

And in doing so "create the capacity for change".   The book's final chapter is all about this "separation tool".