Jennifer has been the director of the Civic Innovation Lab since its inception in September 2003. She was previously the founder and director of ClevelandClicks, which was a member-supported group that held monthly breakfasts showcasing local technology businesses, organized educational forums for technology entrepreneurs and offered related resources. Prior to ClevelandClicks, Jennifer worked as a financial analyst, consultant, and was associate director of Business Planning for Sony Music in New York City. Jennifer has an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business and a BA from Denison University.

The Civic Innovation Lab, a project funded by The Cleveland Foundation, offers mentorship, training, networking, visibility and funding, of up to $30,000, for ideas that have a measurable and tangible economic impact on the Greater Cleveland community.

Through its support of individual initiatives, the Lab encourages broader civic engagement by creating an environment of innovativeness and openness. Since its launch, in September 2003, the Civic Innovation Lab has received over 200 proposals, supported nearly 20 new initiatives, and trained almost 150 entrepreneurs.

Two champions will also join us:

Kate O'Neil - Exhibit: Cleveland brings local artwork to vacant, Cleveland storefronts encouraging entrepreneurs to lease vacant storefront space, local artists to display their work and local residents and employees to purchase works by local artists.

Daniel Carl - The Northeast Ohio Videogame Initiative is an effort to promote the interactive entertainment industry in Greater Cleveland. By arranging collaborative projects between area universities and institutions, as well as presenting public events focused on videogame development and related fields, the initiative hopes to foster local development studios and bring a portion of the $10 billion dollar entertainment software industry to our region.

Kirk Neiswander is President of Entrepreneurs EDGE. Entrepreneurs EDGE creates and delivers programs and services that help CEOs of mid-market companies (up to $500 million in revenue) in Northeast Ohio to increase their value and actively participate in efforts to enhance regional economic development. This initiative complements existing efforts in the region such as JumpStart's focus on entrepreneurs and COSE's focus on small business services.

Focusing on the 17-county region, Entrepreneurs EDGE provides educational programs, specialized services, networking opportunities and best practices for the CEO, key managers and other employees. The collective use of resources and brain power will allow mid-market companies to grow in value, spin out new stand-alone businesses, and create and nurture new business concepts. In addition, Entrepreneurs EDGE will provide mid-market leaders with a vehicle for a collective civic voice.

"The focus is not just on innovation or global markets," says Mr. Neiswander, "but instead on increasing the value of participating businesses and then having them share some of this new-found value with the community."

Gary D. Hallman is President and CEO of Medina General Hospital. He joined the hospital in 1988 as Senior Vice President, was promoted to Executive Vice President and COO in 1992 and named President and CEO in 1993. Mr. Hallman moved into the health care field after 17 years in the banking industry. He is a member of the Ohio Hospital Association and also serves on the board for First Merit Bank and Westfield Companies. He joined us to talk about the changing face of healthcare and the challenges and benefits of being a community hospital in Northeast Ohio.

Advanced Performance Inc. manages projects involving human resource development and organizational effectiveness for companies with limited human resource staffing. Ensuring people and organizations perform effectively leaves your company with more time and resources to focus on customers and the core business, which maximizes performance and strengthens your competitive edge. API founder Sunny Klein Lurie has also created a program called Fast Focus Careers which helps people discover and identify their strengths, explore employment possibilities, and create a personalized career plan including total support from a career coach.

OneCommunity is a nonprofit provider of a community-based ultra broadband networking services to educational, governmental, research, arts, cultural, nonprofit and healthcare organizations in Greater Cleveland.

Our community's widespread use of the OneCommunity network prompted Intel Corporation  to name Cleveland-Northeast Ohio as a Worldwide Digital Community. And Cleveland was the only U.S. city selected as a Top 7 Intelligent Community of 2006 by the Intelligent Community Forum.

As a medical urologist specializing in pain syndromes, Dr. Jeannette Potts has developed a nurturing, mind-body approach for her patients. She struggled, however, in an environment where economic constraints and the seduction of technology are smothering the art of medicine. Confronted by her own personal frustrations, she discovered the revitalizing inspiration derived from her extracurricular passion: tango!

Dr. Potts was raised in a household where ethnic music seemed to be always playing. Her mother, a Mexican, and her father, a Polish-American, enjoyed dancing and usually included their children in many international events. Her grandmother, Lily, and her sisters could dance with Latin American or Eastern European men with ease at any venue. But they also loved hard rock music and disco.

Growing up, Dr. Potts enjoyed hearing her grandmother's dancing stories. Lily and her boyfriend would go to all of the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers movies, then practice the dance moves, subsequently clearing the ballroom in Mexico City, where they danced on Saturday nights. Lily was only 15 years old at the time. Her grandmother's love of music and dancing never ceased, and it actually flowed with the times. Whenever she visited, she encouraged her granddaughters to blast the latest tunes on the stereo and would join in with rhythmic gyrations that rivaled the teenagers of the day.

While describing her passion for the dance and the life lessons she interpreted from the tango, she realized the intrigue and curiosity she provoked in others. Even non-dancers became captivated by her vivid explanations and the passion conveyed by her eyes and body language. She walks ever so elegantly between two seemingly disparate worlds: the conservative medical world and the artistic, spiritual world of dance. It is through this journey and her frequent dance with others that she teaches us the Tango Lessons for Living!

How does the ongoing immigration debate affect businesses here in Northeast Ohio? What are the issues that separate legal worker programs from illegal aliens living and working in the United States? Join us as we talk with Joe Drake, founder and owner of J.F.D. Landscapes in Auburn Township, OH about these issues.

John Ziztner is president and founder of E CITY (Entrepreneurship: connecting, inspiring & teaching youth) . ECITY's clear and focused mission is to teach entrepreneurship to low-income young people in the Cleveland area by improving their academic, business, technology and life skills so that they can become economically productive members of society and break the cycle of poverty in their communities.

Entrepreneurship Preparatory School Co-founder and Head of School Marshall Emerson III brings five years of community school operational experience, from the W.E.B. Dubois Academy of Cincinnati- one of the highest performing urban community schools in Ohio.  He has also received training from Building Excellent Schools- a Boston organization which has trained many of the leaders of our country’s successful urban charter schools. He believes the key to overall student success and development is a school environment that encourages children to foster a hunger for academic and personal success.

Steve Marks left a high profile position at Key Bank to pursue his dream of entrepreneurship. Driven by the desire to provide fresh, healthy foods for his family while both he and his wife worked, Steve created Bix Foods. All Bix Foods entrees and side dishes are cooked fresh daily.  Everything is fully cooked and then quickly chilled and refrigerated until sold or delivered.  Steve's goal is to provide busy families with a convenient, healthy, delicious alternative to traditional take out food.

A native of Indiana, Carolyn has lived in many regions of the country, but is delighted to have settled down with her husband and teenage daughter in northeastern Ohio.

Patrick Manfroni, Executive Director of (i)Cleveland joins us to talk about the (i)Cleveland network of college students and area professionals focused on keeping the best and brightest minds in Northeast Ohio. (i)Cleveland was conceived by Northeast Ohio's leaders as one of the key answers to the critical talent challenge facing the region. The Greater Cleveland Partnership (formerly known as the Greater Cleveland Growth Association), led by Bill McDonald, Vice Chairman of National City, created (i)Cleveland as the region's approach to retaining its best and brightest students. The idea for the program was "born" in July 2000 and formed under the auspices of the Cleveland Scholarship Programs, Inc. The program's first staff member was hired in November 2000.  (i)Cleveland members gain face time" with senior level executives, access to potential internship opportunities and a chance to make a great impression and open doors for future employment opportunities. (i)Cleveland membership is recognized among employers as an opportunity to meet and hire the best and brightest.

Student members also get exposure to experts who will help you build your networking and leadership skills, networking opportunities with established leaders in the area, as well as future leaders, exposure to a variety of industries in the region that will help you gain insight and focus on a specific career path or industry, and opportunities to attend unique, members-only events.

How do you take a public entity, run it like a business, and not only survive, but thrive in some of the toughest economic times in the history of your industry?

Well, it takes marketing savvy, guts, a deep understanding of your customers needs and a commitment to focus on improving the customer experience, and most importantly, punch dummies.

Find out more this Sunday when we talk with Kristie Van Auken, Director of Marketing for the Akron-Canton Airport.

Kristie joined the airport staff in 1996. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Austin College in Sherman, Texas and a Masters of Public Administration from Western Michigan University. Her major responsibilities include all airport marketing, communications and air service development initiatives. Kristie serves on the aviation committee of the National Business Travel Association, is on the board of the Canton/ Stark County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and is a Leadership Akron graduate. She also serves on the Walsh University Business Advisory Council. Additionally, Krisitie serves on the Vestry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Akron, as Junior Warden. Prior to joining the airport, Kristie worked for the Greater Akron Chamber and the State of Michigan, International Affairs division. In 2005, Crain’s Cleveland Business included Kristie in their 40 Under 40 list of upcoming executives in Northeast Ohio.

Join us to learn more about the little airport that could!

Professional graphic designers Genevieve Kenney and Nicole Bismark Wilson entered the world of entrepreneurism when they founded Invite Design in 2004.

After years of working in design studios and designing invitations for many, many friends, they realized the best moments in life are comprised of occasions that bring people together to celebrate and grow.

Invite Design creates beautiful, quality invitations that reflect each client's unique personality. They specialize in custom-designing invitations that are based on the theme, colors, flowers, and location of the event. And, their invitations get results.

Wayne Zeman is Vice President, Venture Development for MAGNet, an organization of CAMP, Inc. where he heads CAMP’s Innovation Group including entrepreneurial assistance and business incubation, product design and development, and innovation services.  He is responsible for CAMP’s growing portfolio of incubator tenant and client companies, a $1 million Cuyahoga County loan program that assists in the design and development of new products and processes, and a wide variety of activities focused on the development of new products and the startup and growth of technology-oriented businesses.

Zeman received both a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration degree from Cleveland State University.  He is on the Board of MidTown Cleveland, 5i Tech LLC, and Cam-Lem, Inc. and is a member of the National Business Incubation Association, the Ohio Venture Association, the Northeast Ohio Software Association, the Edison Technology Incubator Director’s Council, and the Commercial Development Association.

Julie Fink, Andria Trivisonno, and Becky Jones founded Portfolio Magazine Online (PMO), a unique, online magazine that features an individual's talents and abilities and inspires the creative mind in March 2005. PMO allows creative and innovative students to post and build their portfolios online to gain national exposure.

A new online issue of Portfolio Magazine Online is posted every three months, debuting in January, April, July, and October.  Each issue highlights a new student on the front cover, a new feature article interviewing a talented individual about their journey to success, and a brand new Top Ten, which features ten outstanding portfolios.

Marc T. Miller is the Founder and CEO of Sogistics Corporation (Twinsburg, Ohio). Miller founded Sogistics in 1988 as a sales productivity improvement firm specializing in the large sale. He is considered a thought-leader in the complex selling space.

Sogistics is a "Business Development Firm" that specializes in "Sales Productivity Improvement." Their work is typically focused on helping organizations build and develop sales teams that deliver competitive advantage beyond products and services. As a result of these efforts, clients gain the ability to better create and manage the type of selling opportunities that can significantly accelerate the revenue growth of their company.

Marc's book, Selling is Dead, documents a research-based approach for organizations to achieve advantage in how they create and manage selling opportunities. Selling is Dead, published by John Wiley & Sons, has been a bestseller endorsed by Neil Rackham (author of SPIN SELLING) as well as executives at GE, Marriott International, Siemens Medical, and Trimble.

Chef Matthew Barnes’ passion for cooking began as a young boy, and his culinary dreams have only grown with age.

Ronayne has been recognized for his dedicated efforts by receiving a number of notable honors, including the 2005 American Institute of Architects Planning Achievement Award for “Connecting Cleveland, the Waterfront District Plan” and the 2004 Dean’s Distinguished Alumni Award from Cleveland State University Levin College of Urban Affairs.  Ronayne serves on the boards of Gateway Economic Development Corporation, Downtown Cleveland Partnership, and Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA.) He received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Miami University and a master’s degree in Urban Planning Design and Development from Cleveland State University‘s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs.

Pau and Doug share their insights on what they'd like to see happen in the Cleveland business community in 2006.