Links to the other sessions: Session 1, Session 2, Session 3
In this session:
- Betsy Miner-Swartz – Be a Hero, Will You Save a Life Someday?
- David Murray – Michigan, Leading the FutureMidwest Movement
- Rory Neuner – Creating a Livable Lansing
- Matt Dugener – The Thing About Cheese and Underoos
Be a Hero, Will You Save a Life Someday?
Presenter: Betsy Miner-Swartz
http://www.giftoflifemichigan.org
Betsy Miner-Swartz is a communications specialist with Gift of Life Michigan, Michigan’s only designated organ and tissue recovery organization. She is working to grow the Michigan Organ Donor Registry through statewide promotion of organ, eye and tissue donation.
Before her role with Gift of Life, Miner-Swartz was a newspaper reporter and editor, earning state and national awards for her work at the Times Herald in Port Huron and the Lansing State Journal.
Having lost her father to pancreatic cancer and mother to ovarian cancer, Miner-Swartz is intensely aware that each day is a gift. She’s extremely proud, motivated and grateful to work in a field that literally helps save lives every single day.
In Wyoming 79% of drivers are registered organ donors. National average is 42%. Michigan is 25%. Michiganders now need to be in the Michigan Donor Registry. Michigan has 3000 people on organ donation waiting list.
No one is too old to donate. Had 90 year old kidney donor and 103 year old tissue donor. One donor can save up to 8 lives. 9 Michigan heroes saved 39 lives.
Real quiet in here. Ultimately positive but extremely sad stories to share. Got to be rough to deal with seeing this type of thing all time… But the flip side is those who received donations. They got a second chance on life because of those heroes.
A lot of us do a lot of great things, but we often only get one chance to save a life. Organ donation is how we can do that.
Michigan, Leading the FutureMidwest Movement
Presenter: David Murray
http://www.themurr.com/
Twitter: @davemurr
David Murray is the director of Social Web Communications for re:group and enjoys helping businesses value the digital landscape and showing job seekers how to use social media to find new careers.
Murray came back to Michigan in 2008 after 10 years away and immediately went to work organizing Detroit’s Social Media Club chapter. As member of iDetroit, he has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal online and has been featured in David Meerman Scott’s blog Web Ink Now and his book, “The New rules of Marketing and PR.” He is also co-chair of FutureMidwest, a conference inaugurated earlier this year.
FutureMidwest was to re-educate our region.
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” – Yogi Berra
Moved back to Michigan from Arizona. Re-connected with a lot of people. People drive Michigan’s pride and passion. Out of state people saw and recognized this at FutureMidwest. Need to connect the hubs (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, etc.). Michigan needs to reclaim its brand.
Michigan = Opportunities
Dave lost his job 3 times since coming back to Michigan, but again, it’s not about the jobs. He was waiting for someone to have SXSW type conference Michigan. It didn’t happen. So, they did it. Huge attendance, blew out expectations.
Strangers are the true metric. Didn’t recognize half the people there. People need to move their small businesses into the digital domain.
Michigan is old. It is a bunch of separate communities. Need to extend digital handshakes to reach out to others. That will create the connections we need.
Passion attracts passion. Use this to rebuild Michigan. If you want limitations, all you have to do is ask for them. Just use your passion. Allow other people to participate.
Tear down your garden walls.
Creating a Livable Lansing
Presenter: Rory Neuner
Twitter: @rory_neuner
By changing to more walkable communities, we can reshape this region and encourage healthier, happier, safer, more sustainable and more affordable lifestyles. Rory Neuner has become integral in this pursuit and sees the potential in everything — even a simple sidewalk — a plain, yet key component to improving so many of the region’s problems, ranging from obesity to poor social connectivity.
Through Neuner’s attempt to change a culture of inactivity and childhood obesity she is creating networks with leaders in more than 20 states to find solutions to these issues. For more information, visit the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.
In Lansing, Rory is an active member of the Walk and Bike Lansing initiative. She’s also responsible for getting Lansing on the League of American Bicyclists‘ list of Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community Winners. She is co-founder of the Michigan Complete Streets Coalition, a group several Michigan organizations working to pass a statewide complete streets law that would improve the design and engineering of Michigan streets and roadways.
Other presenter’s make her point easier. Michigan is in the midst of a change. TEDx Lansing is about moving us through that change. Need to broaden our horizons.
Livability is a key component of that transition. It’s made up of:
- Design
- Transport
- Community
- Economy
- Sustainability
- Health
- Education
- Safety
Livable communities are walkable communities. Transport/mobility allows us to get to places, connect with others and partake in commerce.
Automobiles take up a lot of space. It’s hard to create density without talking about how we re-shape our environment
Success in the knowledge economy requires we rethink our environment.
Mobility = Options. When you wake up in the morning, you should have 3-4 options on how you get to work. This isn’t a zero-sum game and it’ss about the freedom.
40% of a trips we take in this country are 2 miles or less. Can we change?
[DOH! Netbook finally died after a full day of typing. Cutting over to the Notes app on my iPod... whew!]
Emerging Leadership
- Complete Streets
- Public Transit
- Many others…
The narrative for Michigan continues to be in the economic side, but we also need to think about the built-in environment.
The Thing About Cheese and Underoos
Presenter: Matt Dugener
Twitter: @mduges
Matt Dugener is a founding member and CEO of Orient, an executive services firm. Dugener’s current executive engagement is COO of Enliven Software, a growing software company. He has a history of starting successful ventures in both the private and nonprofit sectors.
After starting a nonprofit economic development organization — West Michigan Science and Technology Initiative – in Grand Rapids, Dugener launched two biotech companies, Grand River APP and ClinXus. Dugener was the founding board chairman and of both companies and was alsofounding president and CEO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP).
Dugener is also the founding president of the “If” Foundation, a nonprofit organization aim to reinvent imagination in our society.
Chose Alfred P. Sloan as professional mentor. Ended up being the worst decision of his life. Sloan turned a lot of people into widget makers. He was the ultimate example off managing by numbers.
“Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.” – G.K. Chesterton
What was the thing that was missing? He forgot he could fly, slay dragons, play with his kids. As a society, we are more practical than we have ever been in our history. Too much practicality will get you to care about only the impact on the bottom line, not whether it’s good or bad. Can also be extreme with too much imagination.
We need a balance of both. That is the most powerful person on earth. This can still be used for bad (e.g., Hitler… disturbing quotes).
But wonderful possibilities exist. Ben Franklin personifies that balance in a positive way. Do not fear mistakes. Larger point is that logic will take you somewhere… so be careful for what you wish for.
Cheese is the essential local experience. Hand-crafted by people who live there. It’s who we are.
Underoos – what do we bring with us from our youth… our imagination.
Both cheese and Underoos can be/are smelly and messy… and risky.
R.I.P. Sloan
