I have the honor of co-chairing Agenda 360.  To explain it and why I am involved, some personal background might help.

Let me begin with a confession.  I did not go to high school in Cincinnati and I did not come to Cincinnati for a job.  I moved here from Miami, Florida and have had the good fortune to have lived in many exciting places, like Las Vegas, Nashville, San Diego, Washington, D.C., and Boston.  I was not running from the law or part of the witness relocation program.  My moves were all school or work-related.

Having lived in all of these places, I decided to try Cincinnati because I concluded, quite objectively, that it was one of the most livable places in the country.  I will refrain from plugging our amazing arts and music scene.  Nor will I spout off stats about our hospitable business climate and affordable cost-of-living.  Suffice it to say, Cincinnati has most, if not all, of the cultural amenities and business opportunities of any big city, with little of the hassle.

Even Cincinnati’s harshest critics would concede that it has the ingredients for success in a global marketplace, arguably more of those ingredients than some of the regional talent and job magnets that consistently top livability indices.  Yet something here is missing.  Without citing statistics or rankings, we all know that Cincinnati can be better.

Such intuitive insight comes, in part, from our community’s recent struggles.  Fragmentation, whether political, racial, or geographic, has resulted in a form of economic “cannibalism” in which we ended up competing with each other rather than other regions.  These struggles kept us on the sidelines for too long.

But, if you ask around, you will find that we have grown from these struggles.  Many of our civic leaders understand that our success, as a region, does not depend exclusively on the ingredients – what we have or do not have.  Our success will be determined by the recipe we follow – that is how we leverage our assets, deploy our resources, and relate to one another for our collective long-term benefit. 

This new understanding of the global economy, regional competitiveness and the need for collaboration spawned Agenda 360.  To date, nearly 2,000 residents and a diverse volunteer corps of over 400 business, nonprofit and government leaders have participated in Agenda 360, including me – a transplant and concerned citizen who simply wants to make a difference and has the good fortune of living in a place where I can make that contribution with real impact.

The goal of Agenda 360 is simple.  Cincinnati’s future cannot be left to chance.  Thus, we are creating a plan to transform Cincinnati USA into a leading metropolitan region for talent, jobs and economic opportunity for all who call our region home.  Obviously, there’s a lot more to it.  You can learn more and get involved by visiting the Agenda 360 website at www.cincinnati360.com.