Regions are moving ahead with their own ambitious economic development plans. Reviewing these plans can give civic leaders in Northeast Ohio some insights into how others are meeting the challenges of globalization.

Louis Branscomb has long been a strong voice on the state of the innovation economy in the US. In this commentary, he outlines the decline of the U. S. relative position in innovation. He suggests how the state and local governments can combine with the private sector to help provide a national response to our innovation challenge.

Rob Grunwald, an economic and public policy analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, promotes the idea that early child care investments are good economic development investments.

A simple message: invest one dollar in early childhood development and foreign at risk child, and you'll get back as much is $18 over the child's lifetime.

The Fund for Our Economic Future has been working on an "economic development barometer".

In Northeast Ohio, we need to be focused on building our innovation economy. I'm quietly hopeful that the work being done by the Fund will help us keep innovation issues front and center.

Governor Mitch Daniels has some lessons that civic leaders in Northeast Ohio can follow. In his first year as governor, Daniels has shaken things up.

IIn his first year, he has shaken up state agencies and moved the state past stale debates over daylight savings time. In the process he has angered even some of his own Republican supporters.

>Regina Brett brings a good perspective by comparing Cleveland and our new mayor to Jim Collins' framework, outlined in his best selling book, Good to Great. You can read here commentary here.

What can our cities in NEO learn from Auckland, NZ? Civic leaders in Auckland just issued a major report on the creative industries. Learn more. Download the report.

Innovation will drive our region forward. Here are a few of important papers on the topic. The first comes from Lewis Branscomb, a professor at Harvard and a recognized expert in the U.S. innovation system. His commentary provides a good perspective on the declining relative performance of U.S. innovation. Read more.

David C. Barnett asks the tough questions of Randell McShepherd, one of the founders of Policy Bridge.

Randy does a good job outlining the mission of Policy Bridge, why it's needed. He also does a good job introducing Policy Bridge's first report on the plight of African American men in the region.

The Apollo Alliance represents an emerging opportunity in Northeast Ohio. The Alliance, a collaboration of business, labor and environmental organizations, promotes the move toward energy self-sufficiency and higher income jobs.

Recently, Policy Bridge released its first report on the lost potential of African American men in our region. Here's an idea to keep this idea moving forward: Conduct a seminar or workshop on the best practices for creating wealth in inner city neighborhoods.

For some years, Michigan has been implementing an initiative to help its smaller tool and die shops. Last week, the State announced that five more firms will be added to the Tool and Die Recovery Zone program. Read more.

Here's a good review of the economic evidence on the role of small business in employment growth. Although it's written for a Minnesota audience, the author's conclusions apply more broadly. You can read the article here.

Here's an interesting story of a minority incubator in Lorain County. As one of the organizers points out, "Lorain has almost 40 percent minorities, and less than 3 percent of its businesses are owned by minorities."

Louisville stands as a poster child for city-county governance. Recently, a group of civic leaders in Ft. Wayne visited Louisville to attend the National Conference on Collaborative Government. Here is a commentary. Read more.

In New Jersey's Einstein Alley, civic leaders recently held a summit to explore some of the best practices in building innovation networks.

The local Congressman who helped organize the summit had an insightful quote: "Local innovation and entrepreneurship, not top-down governance from federal and state leaders, is needed to strengthen Central Jersey's economic future." Read more.

The news on renewables -- particularly biofuels -- is popping all around us.

Here's a good article on renewable fuels in Minnesota. As one participant in the conference noted, "The future is going to be exciting. We're just starting to scratch the surface with renewables." Read more.

At the Dec. 8 "Art of Cool" conference in Lansing, MI, the Michgan Department of History, Arts and Libraries released a strategy for leveraging arts and culture to produce new tax revenue, provide good-paying jobs and create sustainable businesses.

Over at Brewed Fresh Daily, George Nemeth asks an important question. Why is the PD's series on innovation only a week long? That prompted me to comment:

Here are some economic development preditions for 2006:

The County will continue to develop its new strategy outlined by the Blue Ribbon Task Force. The Task Force will become CuyahogaNext Advisors. Look for new initiatives -- innovation zones -- around Baldwin Wallace and the Euclid Avenue Corridor. We will also see productive negotiations between the County and other entities such as JumpStart, BioEnterprise, and the newly renamed CAMP.

Philadelphia is promoting the creative economy as an economic development strategy. Read more. Cleveland can follow the same strategy.

The Cuyahoga County Commission has adopted an economic development strategy that calls for expanded investment in early childhood development as an economic development strategy. In an

Nashville is taking steps to leverage its health care assets into another, related cluster of companies. What are the lessons for Cleveland? Do we have any organization that can step forward and look at the Nashville strategy?

Some of the most intereesting regional collaborations in the country are emerging in Wisconsin. Civic leaders from eighteen Wisconsin counties are banding together to market the region as the "New North."

In the last month, Wisconsin, Georgia and Iowa have released important reports on the future of manufacturing. The reports include a common theme: for manufacturing to advance, promoting innovation is critical.