Returning Prosperity to America’s Heartland
building a shared vision for our region’s future

Center for Governmental Studies | Northern Illinois University | December 10-11, 2009

{ Conference Program | PDF }

In honor of our 40th anniversary, on December 10th and 11th, 2009, the Center for Governmental Studies (CGS) at Northern Illinois University (NIU) assembled more than 100 leaders from throughout our region to identify priorities and actions that we can pursue together to return prosperity to America’s Heartland. Issue experts from the U.S. and abroad challenged and informed the gathering and provided a context for generating more than 200 actionable ideas. These will provide the framework for a regional action plan that will be used to stimulate a broader conversation about how we can align our priorities and pursue collaborative action on behalf of the region’s future. This action plan will be posted here in January 2010.

Over four decades, CGS has worked with scores of communities throughout Illinois and portions of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Indiana. We know first-hand that this part of the American Heartland has significant assets that can produce long-lasting success in the 21st century global knowledge economy. Examples include our excellent regional transportation and telecommunication systems, a well-educated and diverse population of more than 11 million people, entrepreneurial businesses and financial organizations that produce hundreds of billions in Gross Domestic Product annually, world-class institutions devoted to science and technology, and metropolitan Chicago’s global economic engines.