John Colm of WIRE-Net has long been a national leader in defining regeneration strategies for older industrial regions. While I was at Case Western Reserve, I was privileged to sit on the WIRE-Net board, where I learned how WIRE-Net operates. It’s a national model sitting in NEO’s backyard.

Example: The Great Lakes WIND Network, started by WIRE-Net, is known throughout the Great Lakes. In regional economic development, John operates a “think and do” tank that designs and implements transformative strategies.

The $15,000 fellowship will enable Mr. Colm to investigate several European regions with urban and industrial characteristics similar to Northeast Ohio to determine how manufacturing firms and their associations are adapting to the challenges of globalization, shifting environmental policies, and demand for sustainability.

Colm’s study of “Manufacturing Sustainable Urban Regions” will take him to Valencia, Spain; Bologna, Italy; Stuttgart and Essen, Germany; and Copenhagen and Arhus, Denmark. Through discussions with manufacturing, economic development, and association leaders, Colm will examine how environmental and economic change at the local and regional level is affecting smaller manufacturers, their associations and resource centers. He will identify strategies that have practical application to Northeast Ohio, and other urban industrial regions across the United States.

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