Today was RAEDI’s annual meeting and luncheon. Remax of Rochester being a member of RAEDI meant that we were able to get a spot at the Remax table to hear Thomas Stinson’s presentation addressing Rochester and Minnesota’s economic state today and in the future. Richard Florida who named Rochester as one of the top towns in US for anticipated job growth was referenced several times, as was his call for finding and retaining talent as one of the primary ways to encourage economic growth. Beth and I had already attended a “discussion” a few weeks ago sponsored the The Current that discussed much the same thing as we heard today at the RAEDI meeting. Similarly, Stinson pointed out the major evidence for Rochester’s potential to grow: a large population of people over 55 needing health care and retiring from their jobs, while there is a diminishing number of people to fill those jobs from which the elderly are retiring fueled by recent lower birth rates. To ensure that this growth occurs, Stinson introduced what he called “The 3 Rs”: Retention, Recruitment, Retraining. Keeping the talent here, bringing the talent in and training people effectively so that they can employ their varying talents seem almost too obvious. What is less obvious is how to actually DO the 3 Rs. My previous blog about The Current’s discussion already mentioned the potential difficulties in “retaining” talent and creating forums for talent, so I won’t go into that again. Instead there were two terms that stuck with me from today’s presentation: “creative destruction” and “disruptive innovation”: in order to make big progress forward the old systems and ways of thinking and doing have to be rejected in favor of radically different ways of doing things. In conjunction, Stinson presented what he called the “new normal” and iterated the most valuable notion: to embrace and adapt to change. He quoted Wayne Gretzky: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been” and drove home his final point- for Rochester to succeed in its projected growth and success, we have to embrace change, anticipate the future, and be innovative and resourceful about the ways to keep and use the talent in this town!