Yesterday I had the great fortune to be able to attend Richard Florida's seminar, "A Creative Future." According to this morning's GB Press Gazette article, there were about 400 attendees. It was a veritable "Who's Who" of Green Bay. Leaders, presidents, CEOs, and the like were all in attendance.

All in all, it was a pretty powerful, and sobering presentation on the state of North Eastern Wisconsin, and the state as a whole. Florida, and the entire Creative Transformation team were absolutely astounding. Governor Jim Doyle, however, was not. Doyle made a guest appearance, totally unbeknownst to probably anyone but the organizers, as he was not on the agenda, to discuss his economic plans for the state of Wisconsin. You’ve got to give the guy a modicum of credit, it was certainly the right audience to pitch, but it was undoubtedly the wrong message. Doyle was preaching about programs, plans, platforms, and agendas on how to bolster the manufacturing sector and keep our young college grads in the state, basically promising a bunch of money for a host of yet-to-be-determined initiatives. He did not, however, put any meat on his plans. Thus, the majority of the attendees viewed him not as part of the solution, which we were all striving to craft, but as part of the problem, which we are trying to eradicate. Nice job Jimbo.