Syracuse to host 2017 “Welcoming Economies Convening” event in October

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse will host the 5th annual event called “Welcoming Economies Convening” this fall. The conference “highlights the role of new Americans in economic-revitalization efforts.”

The event involves more than 350 leaders from across the country “who are committed to welcoming, retaining and empowering new Americans as valued contributors to regional economies,” according to a news release that CenterState CEO issued April 20.

CenterState CEO and Welcoming Economies (WE) Global Network will host the gathering Oct. 23 through Oct. 25 at the Marriott Syracuse Downtown.

The Convening event “builds on work being done by CenterState CEO to understand” the impact new Americans have on metro Syracuse’s economy and how the community can “harness its skills and talents to drive opportunities.”

The highlight of the Welcoming Economies Convening will be a day-long, public conference featuring presentations by local and national leaders covering the topics that include workforce development, entrepreneurship and business, business engagement, neighborhood development, social cohesion and equity, and organizational capacity building.

“Central New York’s foreign-born community members impact the labor economy as business owners and entrepreneurs who provide job opportunities for other residents,” Dominic Robinson, VP of economic inclusion at CenterState CEO, said in the release. “Additionally, they often come with skills and knowledge to support regional businesses as employees. With the region battling population loss, and urban and rural blight, the influx of refugees and immigrants has helped to reduce rates of vacancy in the housing market creating a stabilizing effect. As the region’s leading economic and business-development organization, CenterState CEO is excited to host the 2017 Convening and discuss ways to support and integrate refugees and immigrants to drive new economic prosperity.”

CenterState CEO is an economic-development strategist, business-leadership organization, and chamber of commerce. It has nearly 2,000 member businesses across Central and Northern New York.

About the WE Global Network

The WE Global Network seeks to “strengthen the work, maximize the impact, and sustain the efforts of local economic and community-development initiatives across the region that welcome, retain, and empower immigrant communities as valued contributors to the region’s shared prosperity,” according to the nonprofit’s website.

WE Global is a project of Decatur, Georgia–based Welcoming America in partnership with Detroit, Michigan–based Global Detroit.

The Welcoming Economies Global Network is a group of regional economic-development initiatives working to tap into the economic-development opportunities created by immigrants across a 10-state region, according to the CenterState CEO news release.

The states include New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com