Hartford Business Journal Special Editions

84 Hartford Business Journal • November 26, 2012 www.HartfordBusiness.com Celebrating 20 Years of Business News T he Hartford Business Journal convened a roundtable dis- cussion on the future of Greater Hartford. Invited partici- pants were Oz Griebel, CEO of MetroHartford Alliance; Catherine Smith, commissioner of the state Department of Eco- nomic and Community Development; Christina Kishimoto, super- intendent of Hartford Public Schools; Chris Luise, executive vice president of ADNET Technologies LLC in Farmington; and Jack Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University. The mod- erator was Norman Bell, editor of the Hartford Business Journal. Here is an edited transcript of that 90-minute conversation: BELL: If we gather here 10 years from now, what's the one significant thing that's going to be different in Great- er Hartford? GRIEBEL: Ten years from now, you will see a significantly increased population in the city, greater popula- tion in the region overall in large part because of a number of things that are underway at the moment — [from] the improvement in the city public school system, to the Connecticut FastTrack Initiative, to the investment in healthcare across the board at the health center, and at the other hospitals at Jackson Labs. SMITH: I agree, there'll be more people. But what will be very helpful for the city is that we'll have rebounded as a cultural, an office center, and a housing center for the region. There's a push by younger people to be in more urban areas, so we'll benefit from that, but also because there are a number of initiatives we have underway that are being supported, not just by state and city government, but by the private sector and the business and community leaders who will help bring it to fruition. KISHIMOTO: There will be more diversification with the improve- ment of the school system. I also hope to be see- ing many of our Hartford public-school graduates increasingly choosing to stay, live, and work in the Greater Hartford area, which means the diversifica- tion of our workforce as well. We have now in Hart- ford public schools nearly 4,000 students from the Hartford region who elect to come in and choose to attend one of our 50 schools. We're starting to see much more of a regionalized school system as we continue to increase the number of our suburban families choosing to live in, to come into Hartford, not only to work but also to study, to have their chil- dren ride alongside them into Hartford as they come into work, to also have their children attend one of the Hartford public schools. LUISE: It's very difficult to say what does this look like in 10 years. I feel very, very positive with the reinvest- ment in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and the reinvestment into our edu- cation system as a whole. If I look at a 17-year-old — and I've got a freshman in college right now and It's that vision thing one graduating this year — and look at the focus and what they're going to be bringing to the table, to the economic table for this region in 10 years and look at the education they're getting, I'm very invigorated to see how that's going to be able to pay back to the region. It's a very exciting time for us to live in a tra- ditional city, such as this one. MILLER: You'll see a much greater presence of a whole range of higher education opportunities directly avail- able in the downtown area of Hartford. You already see some examples of that with (University of) St. Joseph's Pharmacy School and others. But I think that that's probably the single largest change. So for us at Central, it will mean establishing a much bigger physical presence here, making use of Connecticut FastTrack transportation and other things. BELL: What are the jobs going to look like 10 years down the road? SMITH: What we want to do is try to create a better conver- sation between the employers and the educational system so that the educators know where things are going. So many things can change so quickly that it's hard to know. But, right now we can make a few bets that we're very certain about. One is that technology and the STEM-type of skills are going to be important for almost any job that we're going to be recruiting here to Connecticut. Why is that? The companies that choose to be here are looking for knowledge-based workers, and that's one of our strengths today and needs to be one of our strengths " What we want to do is try to create a better conversation between the employers and the educational system so that the educators know where things are going." – DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith A LOOK AHEAD FUTURE HBJ panelists, from left, DECD Commissioner Catherine Smith; Christina Kishimoto, superintendent of Hartford Public Schools; Chris Luise, executive vice president of ADNET Technologies in Farmington. The Roundtable of civic leaders optimistic about Greater Hartford P H O T O S / L & R P R O D U C T I O N S

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