Touted as a merger of academic horsepower and business horse-sense, the 2010 Winter Institute proved to be just that.The 48th annual academic and business event, held March 4 in St. Cloud, drew nearly 500 people throughout the day.
This was the first time the foundation joined with St. Cloud State University, the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce and Times Media to sponsor and organize the event.
The morning's academic event was at St. Cloud State and the afternoon/evening business event followed at the Best Western Kelly Inn. The evening's events kicked off with an interactive panel discussion, complete with a new twist: live text polling. (It really was pretty fun to see the results coming in the on screens up front!) The discussion was moderated by Minnesota Public Radio's Chief Economics Correspondent, Chris Farrell.
That was followed by the traditional area economic forecast and something new this year - some comedy (and yes, even a non-economics person like me found it pretty funny!) from Yoram Bauman, The Stand-Up Economist.
Many agree that the economy is slowly turning around, including Randy Olson, our VP for Economic Opportunity, “I think the worst is behind us. What happened in 2009 was probably the worse we’ll see. It’s important for our region to have a strong economy because it means there are jobs, growth and consumer spending.”
The attendee survey revealed that half of the participants were there for the first time - 60% said they'd attend again!
The event also received some nice media coverage - take a look (or listen)!
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