Regional Innovation Summit Forges State Partnerships

WASHINGTON—Newly elected Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, announced he will join the New England Governor’s Conference. The partnership is a direct result of the Regional Innovation Summit that was hosted by the Council on Competitiveness, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at MIT in October.

The interstate collaboration will advance regional economic development in areas such as energy, education, manufacturing, and information technology. “Massachusetts is stronger if we can act in concert with the other states in the region,” said Gov. Patrick.

Dear Friend:
Last fall, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable joined with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Council on Competitiveness and seventeen other regional associations including the New England Council to host the Regional Innovation Summit at MIT. We thank you for your interest and participation in the Summit. Since then, we have been compiling the Summit’s best ideas, developing the themes, and exploring options to foster collaboration across the region to build a stronger innovation platform for New England. We wanted to update you on this activity, particularly a recent effort to engage new Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and the New England Governors’ Conference.

Massachusetts has not recently been a member of the NEGC. Under the new administration of Governor Patrick, however, Massachusetts has rejoined. We believe this provides an opportunity to incorporate some of the themes generated at the Summit into the NEGC agenda moving forward. For example, one of the most significant themes that emerged from the Summit was the importance expressed by participants from a variety of industry sectors of convening routinely around issues that will drive our innovation economy in the future. There was also a call for leadership, better and more frequent collaboration, and a sound planning and implementation strategy. The attached letter highlights the opportunity provided for the NEGC to engage on a regional basis around these and other issues, including many of those discussed at the Regional Innovation Summit at MIT.

Thank you for your contributions in identifying the themes and ideas that will position our region’s innovation economy for future success. We will continue to build upon this work and look for every opportunity to move this agenda forward. In addition, we invite and encourage additional thoughts and ideas on the themes raised at the Summit as well as other areas that will help drive the region’s future innovation economy. Please send any comments, thoughts or ideas you may have to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). It is important to continue this dialogue.

Sincerely,

Joseph P. Campanelli President and CEO Sovereign Bancorp Chair, Massachusetts Business Roundtable		James T. Brett President New England Council