Coalescing an IT agenda for West Central Illinois: A Partnership Approach Involving Opportunity Returns, Chief Elected Officials of Western Illinois, and the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs

DCEO/Opportunity Returns West Central Regional Manager, Tom Carper, Director of the Workforce Investment Office of Western Illinois, Blanche Shoup, and the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs Economist, David Lamie, initiated and coordinated a series of regional forums focusing on the role of information technology in community and economic development in the region. By conference time it is expected that this initiative will have resulted in the formation of a regional Technology Council and an IT agenda for the region. Other community and regional leaders might consider how this approach would work in their region.