I-Open Innovation Zone Report April 2006

I-Open Innovation Zone Report
Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio
Prepared by Betsey Merkel, Co-Founder and Director, I-Open

Portions contributed by Ed Morrison, Co-Founder and Director, I-Open
April 2006
The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)

4415 Euclid Avenue, Suite 310, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
info@i-open.org
Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 1

License The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)
4415 Euclid Ave Suite 306, Cleveland, Ohio 44103 Phone: 216-220-0172 Web:
https://sites.google.com/site/instituteopeneconomicnetworks/
INDEX
• Introduction to I-Open Innovation Zones – Page 2

• The I-Open Innovation Zone Model – Page 3
o Objectives – Page 3
o Strategic Activities and Benchmarks – Page 4 - 5
o Research
o Networks
o Entrepreneurial Initiatives
o Development of Online Education Opportunities
o Criteria
• Midtown Innovation Zone Report First Quarter, January through March
2006 - Page 5
• Resulting Midtown entrepreneurial initiatives – Page 6
• The I-Open Innovation Zone Network Today – Page 8
• Our Opportunity: The Center for Regional Economic Initiatives (REI) –
Page 9
• Next Steps – Page 10
• I-Open Team - 10
• I-Open Supplemental Materials – Page 12
• History – Page 12
• Today’s Updates on Research and Practitioner Work - Page 13
Introduction to I-Open Innovation Zones
What are we doing at I-Open?

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open) is building Innovation Zones
in Northeast Ohio to accelerate entrepreneurial partnerships and collaborations
between libraries, universities and local businesses. I-Open has developed a
process to cultivate business leadership and sustain innovation and
entrepreneurial activity. Innovation Zones integrate business, research,
educational and cultural assets that our region has to offer to fuel creativity and
innovation.
What are Innovation Zones?

I-Open Innovation Zones are small zones to encourage density and achieve
critical mass faster by creating an entrepreneurial culture. Innovation zones
provide access to business and opportunities for applied research, case studies
and internships and offer colleges and universities a high number of diverse
partnership opportunities to connect to business.

What is the I-Open Innovation Framework?
The I-Open Innovation Framework organizes social and economic investments
into five areas: Brainpower, Dialogue & Inclusion, Innovation & Entrepreneurial
Networks, Quality, Connected Places and Marketing & Branding. The Framework
acts as a guide for investment activity in an innovation zone. With the aid of new
measurement tools such as social network mapping, I-Open Strategic Activities
allow us to 1) visualize the size and location of social and financial capital, 2)
understand the relationship between sectors of investment, and 3) measure
investments over time.
What are I-Open Civic Forums?

I-Open Civic Forums are the first step in building innovation zones. Weekly
forums educate future leaders in Open Source Economic Development and
provide a platform for entrepreneurs to practice new behaviors and work
together. Simple rules of behavior create a safe neutral place to exchange ideas
and build networks. Topics align with the Innovation Framework, introduce global
models and communicate topic relationships to economic development and
prosperity.
I-Open Civic Forums quickly move ideas to action by promptly identifying next
steps. People move in the direction of their conversations and, over time, open
systems of networked activity coalesce around transformative initiatives.
Collaborating individuals and organizations lead innovation supported by an
availability of quality, connected workspace, meaningful relationships, and
acumen.
Individuals and organizations practicing open source economic development

behave toward one another in ways that build trust and respect. Ethical behavior
and compassionate leadership build the quality relationships needed to
accelerate idea exchange and begin to seed unprecedented exponential growth
of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The I-Open Innovation Zone Model
Objectives
• Rebuild a deep, sustained commitment to entrepreneurship and

innovation
• Utilize the region’s unique assets, especially knowledge-based assets

such as our colleges, universities and libraries in new and different ways,

creating unique value propositions that will attract and retain businesses
that create high-paying, new economy jobs.
• Instill a spirit of lifetime learning in our children, and create a deep regional
commitment to flexible, continuous learning.
• Learn and practice new habits of collaboration among government, non-

profit, philanthropic, educational and business organizations.
Strategic Activities and Benchmarks
Research
I-Open is developing a research and laboratory network across Northeast Ohio to
promote collaboration and accelerate innovation and entrepreneurial activity.
• Benchmark: number and quality of researchers committed to the

networks.
Networks (See attached social maps January 11 and March 22, 2006)
Develop and nurture open collaborative networks to accelerate economic
development in regions
• Benchmark: number of networks supported by the Innovation Zone

infrastructure.
Entrepreneurial Initiatives (See list below)

Generate transformational initiatives to leverage new ideas, innovation and
business development
• Benchmark: track each new initiative and its relationship to the Innovation
Framework demonstrating location of investment in each quadrant.
Development of Online Education Opportunities

Position Myers University as a leader in distributing I-Open process and tools for
open economic development distance learning applications and desktop training
products for academic, industry and government leaders and students nationally.
• Benchmark: Number and quality of innovative educational programs and

participants
Criteria

• Provide safe neutral environments
Safe, neutral environments encourage leaders to build trust and
collaboration.
• Engage cross-disciplinary activity

Open economic network development is an integration of the humanities,
the social sciences and business development. Innovation systems
require new skills in network weaving, open economic strategy design,
business value building and appreciative leadership.
• Produce a high volume of activity

Open networked systems produce a high volume of activity at any given
time increasing the likelihood of social connectivity and emerging
innovation.
• Create open networked hubs

Engage grassroots, grass tops and senior level leadership in strategic
activities.
• Build capacity networks

Capacity networks provide the infrastructure to connect resources and
support services for ongoing group activity. These networks help
entrepreneurs to gain access to lab facility and equipment, funding, social
connectivity, and access to information.
Midtown Innovation Zone Report

First Quarter, January to March 2006
Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurship Along the Euclid Corridor
The Midtown Innovation Zone
Midtown Innovation Zone activity began in January 2006 in partnership with

Myers University and the City of Cleveland. Since that time open weekly forums
created early stage network development and provided the opportunity to learn
new practices and tools for economic development. Forums are modeled after
the seventeen-month pilot process developed at the Case Center for Regional
Economic Issues (REI) 2003 through 2005 demonstrating unprecedented
exponential growth in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Midtown forum topic development has focused on the economic value of citizen
journalism; infrastructure innovations for regional sustainability; building quality,
connected places for the NEO African American community; creating an
informatics culture; strategic networking and social network mapping.
Marketing & communications consist of weekly or daily posting to Midtown

Wednesday Blog http://www.midtownwednesdays.blogspot.com; the Djembe
Project Blog http://www.djembeproject.blogspot.com; posting to regional event
calendars; weekly email announcements and press releases to the I-Open opt-in
and media mailing lists.
Over 400 people have participated in twelve weeks of forums hosting speakers in
the following areas: government (2), business (9), civic (7), and academia (2).
The Midtown opt-in email list has generated 18,828 media impressions.
Weekly social network maps measure the growth of open economic networks
and identify people who are connected to each other by idea exchange and
resource sharing. (See attached social network maps January 11, 20006 and
March 22, 2006)
In the second quarter of development (April to June 2006), working groups are
applying basic concepts of open source economic development practices and
new tools to organize, plan and implement resulting early stage initiatives listed
below.
Initiatives offer solutions to gaps in infrastructure building necessary to propel

NEO forward as a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Resulting Midtown entrepreneurial initiatives
NEO University Innovation Café is a co-operative effort of students and alumni

from regional universities and colleges. The Café will provide a place for students
to work together on innovative projects and initiatives. Centrally located in
Midtown, it will offer innovative workspace, public WiFi access, meeting rooms
and healthy food.
The Djembe Project is a community initiative to strengthen historical African

American cultural organizations in Cleveland and spearhead new projects
through the strengthening and mapping of social networks. The Center will
leverage social networks to accelerate innovation and entrepreneurship in NEO.

Film and Movie Incubator Independent Film Company is seeking support to build
a film and movie incubator; create a new regional workforce; and produce digital
film products.
Global Literacy Networks Building global literacy networks around the world to
provide for third world children and the opportunity for schools overseas to
receive books from the United States.
GIS Initiative To identify, build and strengthen social networks between regional
leadership investing in GIS capabilities and training; standardize measurements;
devise storage and process solutions; identify global models and best practices
for regional applications.
GreenCityBlueLake http://www.gcbl.org Develop the economic development

strategy; leverage an OSED process to achieve a higher level of social
engagement to strengthen best practices and the quality of innovational content
posted to the community site.
Business Innovation Network Develop industry applications of open source tools

and practices to inform business leaders the value of collaboration within a
corporate entity.
Ohio Conference on International Entrepreneurship Fall 2006, hosted in

partnership with Cleveland State University will network Associate Deans from
Ohio colleges and universities to discuss and learn how to work together to
strengthen business schools and faculty curriculum. By working together,
academic leadership can leverage region resources and discover collaborative
opportunities to compete globally.
Research and Lab Network connects academic leaders who adopt I-Open
curriculum, support student internships and conduct innovative research. Lab
networks connect researchers, innovations, facility and equipment for bioscience,
creative digital media, film, technology, etc. These networks will provide
infrastructure for innovation zones in other areas of the region such the
University Circle zone targeting innovations at the intersections of science and
technology.
Student Internship Opportunities I-Open is working with regional colleges and

universities to develop internship opportunities. Cleveland State University
recently hosted an I-Open Research Symposium for CSU faculty and PhD
students.

Video Game Competition Develop a plan to teach youth how to build video
games, web sites and to host the Midtown Gaming Competition. There is an
active network of individuals interested in developing a gaming competition.
The I-Open Innovation Zone Network Today
I-Open is building a regional network of Innovation Zones across Northeast Ohio

connecting research, resources and capabilities to strengthen innovation and
entrepreneurship. A portfolio of transformative initiatives will be developed for
each zone. Universities and Colleges located in these zones and will benefit from
regional collaborations to build trust accelerating new business opportunities,
student internships and best practices.
Midtown Innovation Zone

The Midtown Innovation Zone is a model for Northeast Ohio.
Contributors: Myers University and the Myers University Library, Cleveland State
University, The City of Cleveland
Status: 1 Qtr. mature
In Development:
The Berea Innovation Zone
Contributors: Baldwin Wallace College Center for Innovation and Growth, the
City of Berea, the Berea City School District, the Berea Chamber of Commerce,
the Berea Public Library.
Status: Ready to begin
Innovate! On the Circle

Contributors: The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, FUTURE @ The
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC),
Systems Technology Affiliates (STA) and EcoCity: GreenCityBlueLake,
engineering and research.
Objective: to explore the intersections between the natural sciences and
technology for the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures.
Voices in the Valley

Contributors: Youngstown State University and the Warren Youngstown
Chamber of Commerce.
Kent State University and Kent, Ohio

Contributors: the Kent State University Department of Economic Development,
Kent State University Business School, and the City of Kent.
Fairview Park Library and the Fairview Business Leadership

Contributors: the Fairview Park Library, proposed Chamber of Commerce, local
schools and municipal government.
Hiram College and Hiram Village and Township Collaboration

Our Opportunity: The Center for Regional Economic Initiatives (REI)
Like the Case REI model, the Midtown Innovation Zone has proven that by
leveraging a process of weekly forums, and sharing I-Open practices and tools to
support open source economic development, open innovation and
entrepreneurship results in a very short period of time.
The Midtown Innovation Zone has yielded eleven possible initiatives in twelve
weeks of activity. With the proposed additional six Innovation Zones to begin
within the next few months, NEO has an opportunity to engage in an
extraordinary number of entrepreneurial activities regenerating our region and
the country.
It is critical that Northeast Ohio support the creation of a center, the Center for
Regional Economic Initiatives (REI), to coordinate research, guide leadership,
publish issue briefs and policy recommendations. REI will connect resulting
innovation and entrepreneurship to research located in our regional colleges,
universities and libraries.
In addition, expansive new knowledge databases facilitated by advances in

technology software, speed, capacity and lower costs, must be constructed to
support non-political decision-making affecting our limited natural resources. I-
Open entrepreneurs are already proposing web-based platforms to support
global standards for energy, water and modern models for education.
The Center for Regional Economic Initiatives is the missing link between
research, innovation and entrepreneurship and will provide an invaluable
connection to future sustainability.

Next Steps
Phase One
• Planning Grant
• Model Design
• Process
Engage a group of diverse stakeholders

• Our model: CuyahogaNext and the Indiana Humanities and Business
Leadership process
Outcomes
• Determine scope of REI responsibilities
• Identify five transformative initiatives
Phase Two
• Determine who will lead REI
• Determine funding and resources
I-Open Team
Ed Morrison, Executive Director

Email: edmorrison@i-open.org
Ed Morrison is co-founder of I-Open based in Northeast Ohio. Until recently, he

was Executive Director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) at the
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. He
holds a BA degree from Yale University and MBA and JD degrees from the
University of Virginia.
For over nineteen years, he has been conducting strategy projects with economic
developers in the U.S. His work won the first Arthur D. Little Award for excellence
in economic development presented by the American Economic Development
Council. Ed is the architect of the strategic economic development plan for
Oklahoma City, and he served as economic development consultant to the
Chamber from 1994 to 2002.
Betsey Merkel, Director / Network Development & Programs

Email: betseymerkel@i-open.org

Betsey, co-founder of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks, brings
twenty years of business development experience, designing community
residencies and ongoing project management in the non-profit sector. Areas of
focus include the creative industries, land conservation and water management,
the performing arts industry, and architectural restoration.
Working with Ed Morrison and the I-Open Team, her approach to network design
has created I-Open Civic Forums, catalyzing many diverse projects, proposals
and businesses. She designs process to support community engagement and
entrepreneurial innovation initiatives. Betsey co-authored "Artist to Artist", a
business development seminar supported by the State of Ohio Office of the
Governor and the Ohio Arts Council. Betsey earned a Master of Music from the
Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University.
Susan Altshuler, Director/Finance & Grants Administration

Email: susanaltshuler@i-open.org
Susan, co-founder of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks has over
25 years of office and financial management in both the corporate and nonprofit
environments. For the past eight years, Susan worked as Special Assistant
under Richard Shatten, Director of REI at Case Western Reserve University from
1998 to 2002, and then under Ed Morrison, Director of REI from 2003 to 2005.
Under her management, Susan worked on special projects, programs, and
events; led fundraising efforts with the Director to ensure long-term funding by
developing funding proposals, identifying significant prospects and managing
flow of relationships with donors; coordinated day-to-day activities for REI
professional staff; supervised Department staff and student researchers;
responsible for grants and contract administration; assisted Director in the hiring
and evaluation of staff and researchers.
Dennis Coughlin, Director / Administration & Operations

Email: denniscoughlin@i-open.org
Dennis, co-founder of I-Open, the Institute for Open Economic Networks, has
significant experience in operations management with non-profit organizations
creating budget proposals, managing staff, developing programs, and analyzing
systems. In his positions, he was accountable for all financial operations,
including preparing budgets, approving purchases, general accounting,
preparation, analyzing and presenting financial statements. He previously worked
as a consultant at REI under Ed’s stewardship.

I-Open Supplemental Materials
The I-Open Model
The I-Open model builds a sustainable process and practical tools for business,
civic, government and academic leaders to identify transformative initiative(s)
and design next action steps toward 30, 60 and 90-day goals. This replicable
process encourages participants to think entrepreneurially and creates cultures
capable of identifying business innovations quickly to move forward faster with
exceptional business opportunities and exponential growth.
I-Open builds open economic networks to engage leaders, to build trust and to
model collaborative behaviors enabling working groups to identify transformative
initiatives, moving ideas to action. Engagement begins on a grassroots level and
progresses out to include all leadership.
One Northeast Ohio pilot program, Tuesdays@REI, developed a civic forum

process at the Case Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) between 2003
and 2005. We engaged over 3,000 participants over a seventeen-month period,
generating 83,000 media impressions and producing a multitude of initiatives,
proposals and new businesses. Over 200 hours of video content of expert
presentation was produced from each public program and posted on the Internet
for public access.
This pilot continued to contribute to a larger leadership process, evolving over

nine months into the 2006 Cuyahoga County Commissioner’s Blue Ribbon Task
Force. The BRTF embraced over 200 ideas from leaders resulting in five
transformative initiatives adopted and funded by Cuyahoga County. A copy of the
report can be downloaded off of the County website.
Link: http://www.cuyahogacounty.us/bocc/blueribbon.htm
History
“The open source economic development model suggests that in an innovation

economy regions will be transformed by open networks of collaboration with
colleges, universities, schools and libraries as hubs in these networks.” – Ed
Morrison
This approach to knowledge sharing was also practiced by Richard Shatten, late
Director of the Center for Regional Economic Issues (REI) at Case Western

Reserve University. Shatten had a keen understanding of the business
community and the ability to help others bridge the gap between research and
practice. He was the guiding hand behind public private partnerships that
reinvigorated Cleveland in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Richard taught that meaningful
civic activism must ultimately rest on serious economic analysis of the issues. He
moved easily from thoughts and ideas to creative action, never loosing sight of
the need to build effect networks among people to get things done.
Richard’s efforts to bring divergent parties together in meaningful and mutually

beneficial relationships are what his colleagues remember best about him.
Shatten’s successor, Ed Morrison, continued to build on this legacy until the

close of REI in July 2005, by helping people to understand where they fit in to
economic development and the importance of social behaviors as fundamental to
the success of open source economics, a new approach to economic
development.
In Morrison’s twenty-five years as an economic development professional, he

has served regions across the nation demonstrating a gifted ability to bridge the
gaps between community and leadership and by strategizing practical solutions
to tough community problems. Morrison’s innovative approaches to economic
development are continuously shaped by advanced theoretical and practitioner
research and characterized by a new level of Internet interaction.
Today’s Updates on Research and Practitioner Work, by Ed Morrison
There is significant literature available on social network analysis and innovation.

Here is some of the most current news and updates:
Valdis Krebs, New York Times, Magazine, 3-12-06, “Can Network Theory Thwart
Terrorists?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/magazine/312wwln_essay.html?ex=114283
0800&en=1fe03acd5b49e523&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Valdis Krebs, social network analysis, Business Week article on IBM

organizational structure and network mapping, 2-17-06:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/feb2006/id20060216_633293.ht
m

June Holley at ACE-NET has been working closely with Valdis and applying
these tools for several years with good success and anecdotes. June has been
involved with I-Open since the beginning.
See http://www.acenetworks.org/frames/framesabout.htm
June and Valdis presented a lecture to the business school at UCLA and USC
last month.
On Tuesday afternoon, 2-28-06, Valdis and Ed Morrison will be giving a

presentation to a research seminar at the Cleveland State University Business
School.
At the core of the I-Open approach is the development of open networks of

innovation – sometimes called clusters. There is a wealth of information about
clusters and networks. This is the core approach of the Council on
Competitiveness in Washington. See http://www.compete.org/
This is the core of the Council's regional innovation initiative:

http://www.compete.org/nri/
It is also the core of Michael Porter's work. See his book: On Competition.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998. See also, the Institute for
Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard University. See:
http://www.isc.hbs.edu/econ-clusters.htm
It is also the basis for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City:
http://www.icic.org
You can look to the National Governors Association, as well:

http://preview.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.9123e83a1f6786440ddcbeeb501
010a0/?vgnextoid=85e0303cb0b32010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD
Cluster based development is strongly supported in the UK:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/clusters/ecotec-report/
As for proof that it works, look to Silicon Valley, as documented in Regional

Advantage, a book by Anna Lee Saxenian. Her seminal work: Regional
Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Harvard
University Press, 1994).
People of international stature working on this approach right here in Cleveland:

• Valdis Krebs is a consultant in social network analysis.
Valdis Krebs: valdis@orgnet.com
• David Morganthaler, a venture capitalist, is very strongly supportive of

cluster-based development. David Morganthaler:
dmorgenthaler@morgenthaler.com
Both of these following people have a lot of experience and have thought deeply
about these matters.
• Pete Rea at the Baldwin Wallace Business School. BW has chosen to

help incubate I-Open.
Peter Rea: prea@bw.edu
• Ed Morrison has also been working with the new Center for Regional
Development at Purdue. Please communicate about Ed’s work with the
Director of the Center, Sam Cordes.
Sam M. Cordes smcordes@purdue.edu
• Ed Morrison developed this approach over the past seven years working
in the field. Please communicate with JR Wilhite, the Commissioner for
Community Development in Kentucky's Cabinet for Economic
Development.
J.R. Wilhite JR.Wilhite@ky.gov
• For success stories about this approach working in Cleveland, explore the
case of Herb Crowther and Midwest Biofuels. He went from an idea to
pumping biodiesel in five months.
Herb Crowther hcrowther@capling.com
• Norm Roulet and Peter Holmes, of Real NEO http://realneo.us who are
looking at this issue from the community computing side. What types of
infrastructure do we need to support dozens of clusters?
Norm Roulet norm@realinks.us
Peter Holmes pholmes@realinks.us
The open question is how can we create, nurture, sustain (choose your verb)
new clusters in Cleveland and the County? That's what I-Open is focusing on.


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I-Open Innovation Zone Report

Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Northeast Ohio

Prepared by Betsey Merkel, Co-Founder and Director, I-Open

The Institute for Open Economic Networks (I-Open)

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 1

• Introduction to I-Open Innovation Zones – Page 2

Introduction to I-Open Innovation Zones

What are we doing at I-Open?

What are Innovation Zones?

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 2

What are I-Open Civic Forums?

Individuals and organizations practicing open source economic development

The I-Open Innovation Zone Model

• Rebuild a deep, sustained commitment to entrepreneurship and

• Utilize the region’s unique assets, especially knowledge-based assets

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 3

• Learn and practice new habits of collaboration among government, non-

Strategic Activities and Benchmarks

• Benchmark: number and quality of researchers committed to the

• Benchmark: number of networks supported by the Innovation Zone

Entrepreneurial Initiatives (See list below)

Development of Online Education Opportunities

• Benchmark: Number and quality of innovative educational programs and

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 4

• Engage cross-disciplinary activity

• Produce a high volume of activity

• Create open networked hubs

• Build capacity networks

Midtown Innovation Zone Report

Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurship Along the Euclid Corridor

The Midtown Innovation Zone

Midtown Innovation Zone activity began in January 2006 in partnership with

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 5

Marketing & communications consist of weekly or daily posting to Midtown

Initiatives offer solutions to gaps in infrastructure building necessary to propel

Resulting Midtown entrepreneurial initiatives

NEO University Innovation Café is a co-operative effort of students and alumni

The Djembe Project is a community initiative to strengthen historical African

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 6

GreenCityBlueLake http://www.gcbl.org Develop the economic development

Business Innovation Network Develop industry applications of open source tools

Ohio Conference on International Entrepreneurship Fall 2006, hosted in

Student Internship Opportunities I-Open is working with regional colleges and

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 7

The I-Open Innovation Zone Network Today

I-Open is building a regional network of Innovation Zones across Northeast Ohio

Midtown Innovation Zone

Innovate! On the Circle

Voices in the Valley

Kent State University and Kent, Ohio

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 8

Fairview Park Library and the Fairview Business Leadership

Hiram College and Hiram Village and Township Collaboration

Our Opportunity: The Center for Regional Economic Initiatives (REI)

In addition, expansive new knowledge databases facilitated by advances in

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 9

Engage a group of diverse stakeholders

Ed Morrison, Executive Director

Ed Morrison is co-founder of I-Open based in Northeast Ohio. Until recently, he

Betsey Merkel, Director / Network Development & Programs

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 10

Susan Altshuler, Director/Finance & Grants Administration

Dennis Coughlin, Director / Administration & Operations

Copyright 2010 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 11