The next ARS National Forum on Regional Stewardship will be held in Chicago, Illinois, May 3-5, 2006, at the Hotel Allegro. The theme of this spring's Forum is "Creating Competitive Regions."

Program Highlights

• Chicagoland- Find out about the work of Chicago Metropolis 2020 and other regional organizations that make this dynamic region successful.
• Regional Competitiveness- Experts from national and regional organizations will frame the Forum sessions with best practices and the latest strategies for making regions economically, socially and environmentally resilient.
• Building Successful Regions- Building Successful Regions A Report on Interdisciplinary Research- New research funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will analyze and illuminate how regions can be resilient in the face of economic and demographic change. Members of the inter-disciplinary research team will describe their approach to understanding the components of regional success, who governs at the regional scale and why it matters.
• Global Gateways- Regions in all parts of the country are developing strategies and using new techniques to compete globally.  Find out what?s working and why.
• Making Place Matter- The Role of Public Colleges and Universities- Representatives of American Association of State Colleges and Universities teams that have been working on community, business and academic initiatives for the last two years will.
• Growing, Retaining and Attracting Talent- Increasingly it is understood that competitive regions are those that can create internally, retain and attract a talented workforce.  The challenges and new successful strategies will be explored.
• Neighborhood Development and Regional Competitiveness- Successful programs are linking neighborhood development and redevelopment activities and regional economic development initiatives. 

Building Regional Competitiveness Creating a Collaborative Strategy

Regions are urged to bring multi-sector teams to work together creating strategies to make their regions more competitive in the interactive Friday morning workshop.

• Participants will do a ?diagnostic assessment? of their region?s competitiveness and do a ?best practices scan? to identify relevant experiences from other regions.  Participants then will develop a ?Regional Competitiveness Roadmap? that can be used after the Forum by their region.  It is suggested that regions bring teams to the Forum to collaboratively develop the roadmaps.  This session will be facilitated by Doug Henton and John Melville of Collaborative Economics. 
  

ARS Regional Stewardship Awards

The closing plenary will feature the announcement of the 2006 Regional Stewardship Awards.

The Hotel Allegro is located at 171 West Randolph Street . To make your reservations, please call .  Be sure to mention the ARS Forum to receive the group rate of $189/night excluding taxes by April 10, 2006.

To register for the Forum and see the agenda please visit the ARS website at regionalstewardship.org/register4forum.html.

For more information on the ARS National Forum, please contact Michele Baker at or call .