Day 1

Opening Plenary: Innovation to Compete

Workforce Innovations 2006 Regional Strategies…Global Results: Talent Driving Prosperity opened with Conference Chair Bill Sanders arriving center stage after flying across the country as the "Billinator" stirring up excitement and recruiting regional economies for Workforce Innovations. Vickie Bradshaw, Secretary of the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency, welcomed attendees and explained how California is working toward building a "healthy, strong, and relevant workforce system."

Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, discussed moving from a supply side delivery of services to a demand driven approach that fosters innovation and is geared toward meeting the needs of business. DeRocco articulated three truths that drive the demand side approach: 90% of the fastest-growing jobs require education beyond high school; globalization is a national challenge that must be met at the regional level; lifetime job security is a thing of the past, but learning must be lifelong.

Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, saluted the workforce investment system for stepping up to the plate in assisting the victims of last year's Gulf Coast hurricanes and challenged it to define its role in our country's innovation economy. Secretary Chao outlined President Bush's American Competitiveness Initiative that stresses education, entrepreneurship, and innovation. Continuous training and education must be at the heart of workforce development strategies, she stressed.

Author and thinker on the history of future and change, James Burke, explained that we all house "mint condition brains," naturally configured for innovation. And, it is innovation that triggers change. Cross-disciplinary connections (whether immediately recognized or not) are the key to innovation. No data exist in isolation; everything we know is related to something else, and often in unexpected ways. The challenge for the workforce system is to make connections that pay off in communities across the country.

Streamlining for Success:
A Conversation with Two Leaders Making Statewide Transformations

This session featured different approaches by two states to deliver better services with fewer resources. Both Indiana and Idaho have undertaken major efforts to streamline the delivery of services, create regionally focused systems, and shift administrative costs to direct training. Moderator Mason Bishop spurred conversations by asking how each state used currently available tools and strategies, and how their experiences can work in other states.

Ron Stiver of Indiana and Roger Madsen of Idaho agreed that a main driver for success is figuring how to do more with less. One of the session's prominent themes was communication and interconnectedness. Cross-pollination among various entities that have a stake in an economy's success (i.e., boards of education, boards of science and technology, and workforce boards) yields better results for workers and businesses.

Madsen described Idaho's merger of the state's Departments of Commerce and Labor-which combined two well-established cultures to deliver a consolidated set of services. Stiver stressed accountability, flexibility and competition among service providers. Indiana also created local buy-in by allowing its regions to position themselves for economic success with state officials acting as policy directors and technical assistance providers...

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