Leadership Retreat

Is North Carolina ready to respond to the extraordinary growth we will continue to experience for the foreseeable future? To do so, the state will need creative, visionary solutions to the complex pressures presented by record growth, and well-prepared leaders who will adopt and implement them. Where will we find this leadership, and how will it be prepared? 

In May 2008, the Institute for Emerging Issues (IEI) hosted a Leadership Retreat at the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC to begin to answer these questions.The Leadership Retreat is traditionally the first component of IEI’s model public policy process and marks the official start of a new program of work. 

At the Retreat, IEI convened a group of leaders representing business, government, higher education and nonprofits to identify a collective, comprehensive and visionary agenda to address the dramatic infrastructure challenges we face.

Preliminary polling conducted by IEI found that the majority of North Carolinians are most concerned with the impact of growth on three core infrastructure systems: water/sewer, transportation and school construction.

The Retreat discussions uncovered significant overlap of these core issues. It was also apparent that the green infrastructure and land use planning must part of any discussion on infrastructure, as well as differing needs of rural communities and urban communities alike.