Ann Arbor’s business community wants to be engaged in the new regional vision for success.

And those behind the countywide effort to define priorities for ongoing economic development here want the community to feel the urgency driving the A2Success plan.

But how do those two forces combine into a real movement?

And how can the average person, business or even sector participate in change?

Attendees at the annual “Impact Ann Arbor” event, organized by the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, are spending the rest of this morning and the lunch hour trying to define just what kinds of priorities this region needs to move it forward.

As a basis, they’re using the A2Success plan, formed by a regional leadership coalition to set the priorities for “smart and successful growth of the Ann Arbor region.”

That effort - with 16 identified areas for improvement teams - started to move into the community engagement part of the plan by taking the spotlight at Impact Ann Arbor.

This year’s event featured a legitimate attempt to pull the audience into the process, asking each of 29 tables to react to information on A2Success and form a question for the panel so the morning Q&A session responded to the crowd’s concerns.

A sampling of the questions:

• How do you entice young talent to stay in the area while job growth is stagnant?

• How serious are we about improving the quality of life?

• How do we eliminate the “island” of Washtenaw County?

• How do we take advantage of synergies with other areas of the state?

• How do we prioritize all of the initiatives when there’s an overall reduction in funding?

• How does this work with other efforts, like Ann Arbor SPARK?

• How does this differ from past efforts?

And one question that really seemed to resonate with the crowd:

• How do we make this more fun?

Panelists took a stab an answering all the questions as they came up.

One example: Responding to the question of “how will you report to the community,” Tony VanDerworp spoke about the specific set of metrics set up to measure progress, and how that data will be listed on the effort’s website.

But the audience still seemed to want more specifics.

The problems facing Ann Arbor and the strengths it can capitalize on are outlined in the 53-page 

report

generated by the group. And it defines the general actions needed and promises work on a business plan.

What won’t be found in the report is the answer to the common theme among attendees this morning: “How?”

We ran out of time before my table - featuring diverse voices from government, education, private investment, real estate and the growing IT sector - could pose our own question: “We hear the concern, but what exactly do we need to do? What is the ask here?”

Anyone in the business community who wants to be engaged in the new regional vision for success needs to plug into the A2Success plan to understand where it’s going. Most of us are in a place where we “get” the urgency.

But now those behind the effort need to not only make us feel the urgency, but also make the “ask” that lets us see a path of engagement - and take action.

Paula Gardner is Business Director for AnnArbor.com. Contact her at (734) 623-2586, by email or follow her on Twitter.

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