Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin convened with a group of DaytonCREATE catalysts and volunteers on October 16th to discuss the economic revitalization of the Dayton-Springfield region. The meeting was held at The Entrepreneurs Center in downtown Dayton.

Change agents from the five teams of the DaytonCREATE initiative gathered to encourage the Governor and the Office of Economic Development to support state-level initiatives that enable economic revitalization and development efforts at the community level.

“This is visionary,” said Mayor Rhine McLin in her opening remarks, speaking of the depth and breadth of the DaytonCREATE initiative. “This is reality,” followed Sean Creighton, Executive Director of SOCHE- host of DaytonCREATE. “It’s about people, it’s about place, and it’s about becoming such an attractive environment that jobs come to the people and come to the place. This is the hope, that community revitalization and change can happen at this level.”

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Scott Murphy, of updayton, spoke of the “talent wars,” the increasing need to attract and retain young professionals. Updayton is developing a model to maintain “a constant focus on engaging and retaining our young talent.”

Katy Crosby, coordinator for the first updayton Young Creatives Summit to be held in April 2009, stated, “We need elected officials to tell us what you need from us, so that we community leaders can be sure to funnel energies in effective directions.” Crosby added, “Gather together young professional groups across the state and tell them ‘this is what is expected of you as the leadership of your community.”

Photographs courtesy Andy Snow. More here.
Information on other Dayton region initiatives at DaytonCREATE.

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