It’s no secret that Atlanta is full of incredible talent. I’ve seen many of the city’s top leaders go through our programs and continue on to have a powerful impact on the quality of life in our region.
For some time, Leadership Atlanta has been searching for a way to help our city maintain its rightful place among the leading cities of the world. We believe that a vibrant, creative and well-educated population drives the energy and passion behind every successful city and region. We see an opportunity to gather proven ideas from other global cities, and transform them into initiatives that will enhance the future for all of us in the greater Atlanta region.
Late last month at the Woodruff Arts Center, we were able to finally put Atlanta’s great minds into action during (co)lab summit – a conference exploring how our entire region can solve problems through collaborative leadership.
As the oldest community leadership program in the nation, Leadership Atlanta has more than four decades of history helping to develop better leaders. We’ve learned that the key to achieving big goals is to foster diversity in our thinking and collaboration in our approach.
With the help of Leadership Atlanta alumni, and in conjunction with the city of Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and Central Atlanta Progress, (co)lab summit was able to explore how Atlanta can harness, inspire and activate the collaborative leadership that will propel us forward as individuals, a community and a region.
Over two days, lectures, salons, and labs acted as a living laboratory that helped to foster interaction and collaboration. Over 1,400 attendees from across the business, education and civic sectors came together to share ideas and connect on how we can make Atlanta more appealing to entrepreneurs, Millennials, leaders, and educators.
(co)lab participants also confronted the most pressing issues facing cities today: attracting and retaining talent, cultivating innovation and transforming education.
We were thrilled to offer (co)lab attendees access to incredible thought leaders from across the region and world. More than 60 speakers shared insights, research and ideas that fueled our conversations, including such notable guests as Education Innovation expert Sir Ken Robinson, AirWatch CEO Alan Dabbiere, Coca-Cola’s Vice President of Innovation David Butler, founder of Indiegogo Slava Rubin and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.
(co)lab had a special emphasis on education and the need to adopt a bias toward transformation. Our economic success and the cultivation of our future leaders will depend on our ability to produce more graduates who can perform in a changing society, adapt to technology and compete against the best and brightest minds in the world market.
As we deliver a new generation of leaders into the workforce, we must seek to understand the changing nature of talent management. Learning how to attract, motivate, lead and retain the new workforce – including the Millennials – is a defining characteristic of successful businesses and prosperous regions.
While the discussion of these topics was the first step toward change, it was only part of the experience. Through teams of community leaders, important topics such as amplifying culture, attracting the creative class, forging new partnerships, and raising the high school graduation rate will continue to receive the attention they deserve while innovative strategies are built and given the opportunity to result in real change.
The inaugural (co)lab summit proved successful in a variety of areas by providing support to students and young professionals in learning about their place in the future of our community; by inspiring up-and-coming leaders to interact on topics of global importance; and providing a forum for experts to find insights that challenge the norms, and push us further as a region.
What do we hope that (co)lab summit was able to accomplish for the city of Atlanta? Simply put: change. The kind of change that can only be achieved through collaborative leadership.
