Conference Answers Challenge Posed by "Gallis Report" From: University Currents Date: March 31, 2000 By: Carey Hoffman Phone: (513) 556-1825 Photo illustration by: Lisa Ventre Archive: Campus News, General News Regionalism guru Michael Gallis will return to Cincinnati for a UC-hosted conference at the Westin Hotel Monday, April 17 with an updated message: Economic development is more dependent than ever on the proximity of high-quality universities. Gallis galvanized Tristate community interest last summer with a report on economic opportunity, "Preparing for the New Millennium." That report noted that university-based research can be a central engine in the drive for economic development. "We are even more convinced than we were a year ago about the power and meaning of an innovation economy and the role of the university in shaping that," says Gallis, a Charlotte, N.C.-based planner considered one of the nation's leading voices on regional issues. UC is prepared to fill that role for Greater Cincinnati, according to UC President Joseph A. Steger, one of the conference's organizers. "Last year, the Metropolitan Growth Alliance's Gallis report challenged the Greater Cincinnati community to prepare for the new millennium by thinking and acting regionally," Steger says. "Gallis challenged UC, in its role as the region's only Research I University, to be an economic driver of the region through technology development, biomedical research breakthroughs, educational excellence and extraordinary health care. We're ready to accept that challenge and let the community know how we plan to proceed." The conference, "Preparing for the New Millennium: The Role of Research in the Economic Development of Greater Cincinnati," is sponsored by UC, the Metropolitan Growth Alliance, the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing Sciences, Bio/Start and BioConcepts. Keynote speaker for the day is UC alumnus Carl Patton, the president of Georgia State University, who will make a presentation on "Partners in Economic Growth: The Georgia State Research Alliance." Other speakers include President Steger, Donald C. Harrison, senior vice president and provost for health affairs, and William J. Keating of the Metropolitan Growth Alliance and a member of the UC Board of Trustees. Gallis works with a number of metropolitan regions across the country. He says making themselves centers for the "new economy," characterized by high-tech and biomedical companies, is paying huge dividends for cities like Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Austin, Texas, and Nashville, Tenn. Even a well-established region like the San Francisco Bay area has emerged through the new economy over the last year to challenge New York City as America's most dynamic business environment. "One of the most fundamental measures facing Cincinnati is becoming an innovation economy center," Gallis says. "That has to involve the universities and it has to involve Cincinnati becoming an intellectual center in the United States." Gallis recognizes UC as the region's natural leader because of the research strength already embodied by the university. But he believes it is going to take an increase in support from all aspects of the community to take that level of research to a point that Cincinnati becomes a center for the new economy. "New economy centers all involve high-quality (educational) institutions, and they are characterized by two interesting things," Gallis says. "One is that the types of businesses that are attracted to locate there and incubate and grow there tend to be high-quality, high-wage companies. Then they are also companies that are attracting high-quality talent in terms of the young people they are recruiting. Both points very much depend on the quality of the university you have."