Dais Includes Both Regional and National Leadership Aimed at Helping the Midwest be More Competitive Through Better Broadband
Fairlawn, Ohio – Today Great Lakes Connect, a new regional conference to be held in Fairlawn, Ohio at its Hilton announced its agenda for the conference later this month. Following in the footsteps of the popular Western States’ Mountain Connect conference, Great Lakes Connect will quickly become the Midwest’s leading conference dedicated to examining how to harness broadband for economic development, community advancement, and innovation.
The agenda for the conference includes the story of the FairlawnGig network told by Mayor William Roth and Deputy Director of Public Service, Ernie Staten. It’s a story of how one small city that relies on being a destination for business both business professionals and consumers addressed its own broadband shortcomings by investing in building a fiber network on its own. Considering broadband an “essential infrastructure” for life in the twenty-first century has had amazing results in terms of business attraction, home values, and local innovation.
Additional national voices visiting Northeast Ohio to speak at this conference include:
- Mignon L. Clyburn, FCC Commissioner, 2009 to 2018
- Gig Sohn, Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy
- John Windhausen, Executive Director, Schools Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition (SHLB)
- Jase Wilson, Founder & CEO, Neighborly
- Aaron Deacon, Founder & Managing Director, KC Digital Drive
Taking place September 24-26, 2018, Great Lakes Connect will serve community leaders and technology companies by:
- Bringing Midwest community leaders the groundbreaking and unique content they need to make investment decisions
- Gathering key regional decision makers in the industry together for networking and an exchange of ideas
- Addressing the geographic-specific-issues of broadband challenges in the Midwest
Great Lakes Connect will feature industry and thought leaders addressing topics not discussed anywhere else along three tracks, including Economic and Community Development, and Emerging Technologies.
Found online at www.greatlakesconnect.org, the agenda for the conference is designed to help communities find a path forward.
“This path forward,” explains co-conference organizer Jeff Gavlinski, “often includes creative solutions in rural areas or bold strategies in urban communities. The conference theme, Creating Intelligent Network Infrastructure to Compete in the Global, is intended to help communities make some tough but smart choices when designing a network to serve their broadband needs.”
About Great Lakes Connect
Great Lakes Connect 2018 will be held from September 24th – 26th at the Fairlawn Hilton in Fairlawn, Ohio. Learn more about Great Lakes Connect at www.greatlakesconnect.org.