2018 Impact Summit

Minnesota recently marked the 30th anniversary of its landmark Rural Development Act of 1987. This legislation directed significant new investment to spur economic growth and opportunity in distressed areas slow to emerge from economic recession and adjusting to a changing global landscape for agriculture, manufacturing, and mining. 

A similar legislative proposal was drafted for introduction in 2017, but it was never introduced. Above all, the Regional Competitiveness Act would have built upon its 1987 predecessor by (1) investing new state funding in cross-sector collaboration through Minnesota Initiative Foundations and Regional Development Commissions; (2) promoting partnership among state agency and local/regional stakeholders for solutions to challenging problems in workforce development, housing, and childcare, etc.; and (3) providing new resources for capacity building. While empowering local and regional problem solving, the approach would have introduced dynamic accountability through a new dashboard-style tool for tracking progress, highlighting success, and demonstrating need on a regional scale over time.
Various "critical indicator" dashboards or dashboard-like tools convey important metrics and trends for a variety of stakeholders and geographic areas in Minnesota. However, no single dashboard, or series of dashboards, serves this purpose for the distinct regions of Greater Minnesota. “Regional Competitiveness Dashboards” would build upon recent efforts toward improved regional community and economic development by charting where we are, where we want to go, and how fast we’re getting there over a range of stakeholder-driven indicators.

Momentum is building for a Regional Competitiveness Act for 2019, and efforts are underway to make "Regional Competitiveness Dashboards" a reality for stakeholders focused on community and economic prosperity throughout Greater Minnesota. This session will discuss (1) the impetus for such collective action, (2) past efforts informing this work, and (3) the implications of this work on state, regional, and local investment and impact.