Hundreds of people gathered in the CSU Student Center Ballroom for the Global Cleveland Summit. The Summit brought "community leaders, organizations and individuals to the table to brainstorm ideas for creating a more global and welcoming city."

The day began with a welcoming message from several individuals representing involved institutions.

Dan Walsh, President of Huntington National Bank

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson

Ron Berkman, President of CSU

Ronald Richard, President & CEO, The Cleveland Foundation

Steve Hoffman, President, Jewish Federation of Cleveland

After the welcome speeches, Kauser Razvi, the lead consultant on the Global Cleveland project, spoke about Building a Global Cleveland.

Kauser Razvi

Ms Razvi took a somewhat verbose mission statement and culled a few important words from it.

This was followed by a panel discussion of Creating a Welcoming Community that included:

Moderator Gregory L Brown - Executive Director, Policy Bridge
Elizabeth M. Hijar - Newcomer and Convencion Hispana Coordinator
Marina Markovich - Program Coordinator, Jewish Family Services Association of Cleveland
David Enzerra, Director of Public Affairs, Lubrizol Corporation

Each told their own story and shared ideas from their personal or organization's perspective,

Moderator Gregory L Brown - Executive Director, Policy Bridge

David Enzerra, Director of Public Affairs, Lubrizol Corporation

Marina Markovich, Program Coordinator, Jewish Family Services Association of Cleveland

Elizabeth M. Hijar, Coordinator of Convencion Hispana

Questions and Answers from the audience continued the discussion. Here is a comment from Global Cleveland driving force Albert Ratner. He told how Cleveland of course wants the best and brightest but we need all kinds of people.

After lunch, people met in work groups and addressed topics such as:

Retaining International Students by Engaging Businesses
Talent Sourcing Strategies
Assisting Businesses with Retention and Connection
Creating Welcoming Neighborhoods
Fostering Boomerang Attraction
Creating a Welcoming Culture
Connecting Refugees to Economic Opportunity
Leveraging Relationships in Ethnic Communities and Other Affinity Groups to Bolster the Population

The group gathered back together at the end of the day with work session highlights. A report from the Summit will be presented in August 2011.

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Global Cleveland Launch PartyCleveland State UniversityMay 25, 2011

Global Cleveland Launch Party
Cleveland State University
May 25, 2011