2013 Conference

• Hitting the chalkboard on Mackinac Island

  The Detroit News: May 23, 2013

  Next week, education and business will merge on Mackinac Island, as both educators and businessmen acknowledge the vital link between the two. A look at the agenda of this year’s Mackinac Policy Conference, put on by the Detroit Regional Chamber, makes it clear that the business community gets that if education doesn’t work in Michigan, the economy won’t work either. When the two intersect, that’s what will energize the state’s economy.

• West Michigan biz leaders seek to build bridges on Mackinac

  Crain’s Detroit Business: March 22, 2013

  More than 600 business leaders from West and Southeast Michigan have been telling Lansing since 2008, through the annual West Michigan Policy Forum Conference, that business taxes have to be cut, state bureaucracy needs to be reduced, health care providers should be rewarded for prevention, Michigan should be a right-to-work state, and the state’s road repair fund is as broken as the streets it is supposed to pay to fix.

• Snyder downplays re-election, says Mackinac must bridge divide

  Michigan Chronicle: May 21, 2013

  Gov. Rick Snyder isn’t that concerned right now about his re-election prospects. At least that is what the governor wants people to believe even as Democrats scramble to look for a suitable and stately candidate who can stake a claim on the state’s highest office.

• Juicer squeezes into policy forum

  The Observer & Eccentric: May 20, 2013

  Since launching their juice business in downtown Plymouth with just $13,000 barely a year ago, Caitlin James and her sisters have propelled it to perhaps Michigan’s biggest economic stage. Drought, which cold-presses, bottles and sells organic, raw fruit and vegetable juices from a kitchen on Forest, experienced serious growth in its first year and has attracted regional and national media attention.

• Protecting Republicans from the ghosts of GOP past: Q&A with Carlos Gutierrez

  Detroit Free Press: May 19, 2013

  During his tenure as President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Commerce, Cuban-born Carlos Gutierrez was the Bush administration’s point man on immigration reform. Gutierrez, a former chairman and CEO of Kellogg, advised GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney on outreach to Hispanics, but he was dismayed by the anti-immigrant tone of Romney’s campaign.

• A cheap, fair way to give African Americans a fair chance: Robert L. Johnson

  Detroit Free Press: May 19, 2013

  If you could improve the economic and financial well-being of minority Americans and increase employment opportunities without enacting new legislation or creating new taxes, would you do it? Most people answer yes. Next week, when I address the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference, I’ll detail two proposals addressing minority employment and access to capital that will not require new legislation or increase taxes.

• Talent, education, culture change on menu of Mackinac conference

  Crain’s Detroit Business: May 10, 2013

  Tackling the state’s gap between employer talent needs and the skills of the workforce is bubbling to the top as a priority for discussion at this month’s Mackinac Policy Conference. The conference this year is focused on three topical pillars: talent, education and culture change.

Registration for the 2013 Conference is now CLOSED

The Conference has reached maximum capacity. Lodging on the island has also reached its capacity. In order to provide attendees with a quality Conference experience, the Detroit Regional Chamber has closed Conference registration.

This will be a great Conference with a full lineup of influential thought-leaders at every level. If you will not be on the island, you can easily keep up with the Conference discussion with live coverage from DPTV each day or by checking back here for updated video, photo and print coverage.