State Legistlative Leaders Foundation
Preparing the leaders of today for the challenge of tomorrow
Leadership Summit 2008 - Chicago, Illinois
Harnessing the Power of Innovation
"The program was well planned, each segment tied in to the others. Good mix of corporate and legislative leaders and excellent presenters."
- Rep. Adrienne Jones, Maryland
It may have been that way in the past, but does it have to be that way forever?
Giving leaders the tools to find better ways to do things was the focus of SLLF’s 2008 Leadership Summit: Harnessing the Power of Innovation held recently in Chicago. For three days, more than eighty legislators and corporate leaders from across the country got together and explored ways to develop new and creative solutions to the policy and political problems that face them every day.
Led by an international faculty of experts on innovation and creativity, participants explo
red the importance of innovative thinking in addressing the increasingly complex problems in a world of shrinking resources. Participants discussed how they might broaden their own thinking and solve traditional problems with nontraditional solutions. Further, they examined the critical role that legislative leaders can play in encouraging innovation in government, the private sector and the citizenry. For example, participants discussed the 100 Ideas project by which leaders in Oklahoma solicited more than 3,500 ideas from constituents and culled those ideas down to 100 that became the core of the 2007- 2008 legislative agenda.
As is appropriate for an election year, the program concluded with a boisterous discussion about how to use "innovation" as an effective political message in this year when change is on the mind of the voters. Led by pollster and author Frank Luntz (Words that Work: It’s not What you Say, But What People Hear), this session brought the concept of innovation back around to the political world in which the leaders all live, especially six months prior to an election.
"Powerful content - real answers to daily problems of legislators....Legislators are used to reacting to problems and not using innovation to solve the issues. I can't wait to use these solutions in my committee hearings."
- Rep. Fred Brown, Texas
- Rep. Fred Brown, Texas
Program Schedule
Calendar
December 4 - 7, 2008
Annual Winter Leadership Forum
America's Vote: The New Political Landscape
SLLF Board of Directors Meeting
Charleston, South Carolina
Read More...
January 16 - 18, 2009
New Speakers Orientation
University of Tennessee - Institute for Public Service
Read more...
Program Agenda (pdf)
March 5 - 7, 2009
SLLF Issues Summit
Building Strong Economies in a Globalized World
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Read more...
July 1 - 5, 2009
Transatlantic Leadership Forum
Celebration of the 10th Anniversary of European Operations
Bad Ragaz, Switzerland
July 12 - 15, 2009
Emerging Political Leaders Program
Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
University of Virginia – Charlottesville, Virginia