Holly Parker believes that regional innovation requires widespread input and engagement. That is precisely what the Mid Michigan Innovation Team’s Learning Communities are all about. As the Learning Community Coordinator, Parker is quite the innovator herself. Directing meaningful discussions around innovation and collaboration in Michigan’s most promising industries with key partners is an arduous task. Discussions can get far off track, lead to dead-ends, or brush up against seemingly impossible obstacles. Still, the Learning Communities are a critical piece of the MMIT efforts to reinvent Michigan’s economy. Funded by a grant from the C. S. Mott Foundation, the Learning Communities are an integral part of the innovative MMIT - WIRED implementation plan. Learning Communities will provide stakeholders across the Mid-Michigan region with a venue for resource and information-sharing, collaboration, innovation acceleration, and project enhancement across a range of targeted industries -- a nebulous, yet vital process. Parker’s leadership has been priceless in the success of the Learning Communities. Parker has proved very adept at shaping the discussions in order to flesh out tangible, workable issues and opportunities, and focusing on finding actionable outcomes. Each meeting of the Learning Communities features a presentation by a regional organization with promising practices, followed by discussion of implementing the goals outlined by the Learning community. When the discussion seems to be going awry, Holly steps in with her even hand, reworking the structure of the discussion and incorporating key players to assure that the learning goes forward. For example, the Advanced Manufacturing Learning Community discovered that their ideas and opportunities would be stunted without input from area manufacturers. Parker decided that the Learning Community could go no further without a big change. She contacted one of MMIT’s key partners, the Center for Automotive Research (CAR), and began to flesh out the questions raised in the Learning Community. Together, Parker and CAR are organizing an event which would bring area manufacturers together with the Learning Community to tackle the challenges and opportunities identified by the group, and to engage the missing player: Michigan’s manufacturing companies. Since the launch of the Learning Communities, Parker has demonstrated the use and importance of this space for regional learning. Parker invited Lou Glazer (President of Michigan Future, Inc.) to set the stage for the Learning Communities’ launch by outlining priorities for fostering growth. Glazer’s presentation provided an insightful and succinct understanding of regional qualities that attract talent and drive prosperity: * Creating an entrepreneurial environment/regional attitude that rewards innovation * Creating attractive places to live, especially for young adults who are drawn to diverse, energizing, and vibrant places * Creating education systems that graduate students prepared to continue and succeed in post-secondary education & training, employment, and life-long learning Since the launch, the communities have taken on tasks specific to their industries. The Healthcare Learning Community is currently focusing on strategies to fulfill the two-fold vision articulated by the Healthcare Learning Community at the last meeting: (1) to become an "innovation resource" for the healthcare industry in Mid Michigan (i.e. seeking out, promoting, and fostering successful strategies for healthcare workforce development); and (2) serving as a communications and advocacy hub for the healthcare industry's workforce needs. The Advanced Manufacturing Learning Community is working to plan the early 2008 manufacturing event and other strategies for involving the private sector, while identifying Mid Michigan manufacturing resources and assessing industry needs. The newest Learning Community, in Entrepreneurship, is championed by Karen Bantel, Executive Director, Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Network is scheduled to launch on November 13 at 10:00am at the Genesys Conference and Banquet Center of Genesys Regional Health System in Grand Blanc. The event will provide a brief overview of programs and address common issues, concerns, partnerships and assistance for entrepreneurs. The group will also be asked to imagine how to collectively build a highly entrepreneurial region and identify an actionable plan to lead to the vision. For more information on the MMIT, please visit midmichiganlearningcommunities.pbwiki.com/ or email h.parker@primacivitas.org.