Tri-State Development Summit shows representatives how to better communities

QUINCY (WGEM) - Tri-State representatives have a better idea on how to make it a better place.

200 leaders and professionals took notes and shared ideas, plotted the future to improve your community and discussed the betterment of 23 cities in the area.

“My speech was really about collaboration and how it’s being done in other parts of the world and why it’s important for the economy of the future,” said writer and entrepreneur Louis Zacharilla.

Zacharilla was this year’s keynote speaker at the 2023 Tri-state Development Summit in Quincy.

“What it is is it’s an enormous problem-solving forum which is really cool,” Zacharilla said. “It’s really cool to be a part of.”

Zacharilla founded the intelligent community forum, a thinktank that helps tap into the potential of communities large and small and innovates new ideas.

“The problems are complex today and the only way you solve those is together,” Zacharilla said.

Housing shortages, childcare crises, and workforce challenges are some problems the tri-states face right now.

All of which professionals, like the event’s Executive Director Leslie Sieck, addressed at the summit.

“We’re talking about alternate certifications for teachers to help address the teacher shortage in our region,” Sieck said. “We’re talking about very important transportation projects for economic growth and we’re talking about a lot of things from a community level that we can address together.”

Sieck is also Culver-Stockton College’s vice president for economic workforce development.

Sieck said she can bring her skills to the summit and learn from her counterparts.

“Tri-state Development Summit and our region, our 36 county region is really set to achieve great things in the next five to10 years,” Sieck said.

Sieck said one initiative they plan to start after today is placemaking, making the tri-states a place everyone wants to live.

Some of those leaders will be back at it on Friday for the first ‘Women in Business Collaboration.’

More than 100 people will be there to hear from speakers from industries like health care and economic development.

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