The last couple of years, we've held one-day forums for the Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS) the day before the ACCE convention.  This year, we're tackling regional issues head on from within the convention.  There will be a full track of workshops, an issue forum and several ARS awards presented on Thursday and Friday, making it easier for convention-goers to fill up on the latest trends, tools and teachings around working together as a region.  Whether you're new to the regional stage, or you've been working at the regional scale for years, these sessions will provide you with new ideas and strategies that you can use in your own community.

Check out these sessions:

Thursday, August 5

9:45 to 11:00 am  -- Cross-sector Partnerships for Livable Communities
We need to cross more than just political boundaries to make and keep our communities vibrant places to live and work.  Cross-sector partnerships like the one that the Federal government is promoting through DOT, HUD and EPA will be necessary to address related issues like transportation, housing, economic development and environmental stewardship.  Speakers will talk about the Federal model for livable communities as well as how this works at the regional level.

11:15 am to 12:30 pm -- Collaborative Regional Leadership
How do you get leaders in your region to buy into a shared vision for the community?  And once they "get it," how do you sustain their support and participation to get things done?  There is no magic kool-aid, but there are ways to get public, private and other civic leaders talking and walking the regional game, as our speakers' experiences will show.

3:00 to 4:30 pm -- Climate Prosperity Project: Inspirational Strategies for Growing Your Region's Green Economy
The Climate Prosperity Project has been featured front and center at past ARS Forums, always with some highly workable strategies to share. This year, we're bringing in speakers from a couple of pilot projects to talk about how growing green opportunities actually works under this program.  These afternoon issue forums provide a little more time to get into some bigger issues.

Friday, August 6

9:45 to 11:00 am -- Mega-Regional Connections
Now that you've got your region organized, well led and behind a shared vision, what's next?  Megaregions, like regions, represent the way large, complex systems like transportation or energy actually function.  So the scale might be a grouping of several regions and may cross mulitple states.  Organizing megaregions is still relatively new, but some megaregions are making those connections to help their regions compete in the next economy.  Come join this discussion.

11:15 am to 12:30 pm -- Inclusive Leadership
Regions thrive when all segments of the community have an opportunity to prosper.  This means giving a broader cross-section of our ever diversifying population a voice at the leadership table.  Different perspectives create new choices for regional leaders to take, but disrupting the status quo isn't easy.  This session will explore how regions might make their leadership reflect the broader regional population.

We'll have more complete session details (like who's speaking) soon.  See you in Milwaukee!