Please click thru and check out Scott’s entire post on yesterday’s FFEF event:
Beyond the change in focus, there is also a change in demographic. Gone is the great hoi poloi of the Voices Town Hall Meeting. No painter capturing the scene. No digitally-enable democracy. And, sadly, no rappers. This event was for the movers and — hopefully indicated by my invite — a few shakers. The audience was overwhelmingly in business attire. Among other things, this made the journalists (and the blogger) easier to pick out.
The commitment to regionalism was evident, though somewhat focused on the biggest counties. First off, meeting in Akron is in itself a symbolic nod toward regionalism. Last week I attended a more typical “regional” meeting in Cleveland (for something entirely different) in which I was the only representative from outside the Cleveland region. Even for Clevelanders, Akron represents a sort of not-West-Side/not-East-Side neutral ground. And apparently the folks from up north found their way down the dirt roads to Knight Center Holler without any problems.
The presenters came from Cuyahoga, Summit and Lorain Counties. I saw a pretty strong Youngstown contingent. But not a lot of serious talk about how to bring into the effort the less densely-populated counties or those on the perifery of what we are calling Northeast Ohio.
At this stage, discussion of K-12 education is minimal…
Pho’s Akron Pages: Initial Impressions of the Advance Northeast Ohio Launch
