Conference to Explore Future Challenges

CONTACT: Michael T. Childress

FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY (November 1, 2000) — The seventh annual conference of the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center, which is being held this year in conjunction with Kentucky Leaders for the New Century, will feature nationally recognized speakers on Internet commerce and the federal budget, and a series of provocative panel discussions. The one-and-a-half-day conference is slated for November 13 and 14, 2000, at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington.

The conference begins at 1:00 p.m., Monday, November 13, with a half-day session on Kentucky and the New Economy, sponsored by Kentucky Leaders for the New Century with financial support from Fidelity Investments, Ashland Inc., and Delta Airlines.

New Economy visionary and e-commerce pioneer, Chuck Martin, will open the session with a keynote address scheduled for 1:00 p.m. A renowned online publisher, lecturer, marketer, and chairman and CEO of Net Future Institute, a U.S. think tank focusing on the future of the Internet and e-commerce, Martin is author of The New York Times bestseller, The Digital Estate, which provided a strategic guide for doing business on the Web. His latest book is Net Future.

The half-day session will also feature panel discussions of how best to define and leverage government’s role in the New Economy; to assist Kentucky businesses with the transition to “clicks and mortar”; to bridge the digital divide; and to educate citizens for wider participation in the New Economy. Registration for the half-day session begins at 11:30 a.m.

In addition, a welcome reception will be held Monday, November 13, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Sponsored by the New Economy Transition Team of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the reception will showcase some of the region’s companies and organizations that are embracing the New Economy.

Following the reception, Kentucky Education Television’s public affairs show, “Kentucky Tonight,” will be televised before a live audience from 8:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. All those who will be attending the conference are encouraged to be part of the audience.

Day two of the conference will expand to a full-day session on Tuesday, November 14, 2000 with registration opening at 7:45 a.m. During the morning session, the 2000 Vic Hellard Jr. award, which the Center’s board gives annually in recognition of service in the interest of Kentucky’s future, will be presented to this year’s winner.

During a late morning session, KET’s Bill Goodman, host of Kentucky Tonight, will lead a panel of distinguished Kentuckians through a series of questions about the state’s future. The panel will consider whether Kentucky is making progress, standing still, or losing ground on 26 long-term goals that were crafted as part of the Visioning Kentucky’s Future Project. Panelists will include: former Kentucky Supreme Court justice and General Assembly member, Walter Baker; Courier-Journal columnist Betty Bayé; former member of the Kentucky General Assembly and advocate for burley tobacco growers, John Berry, Jr.; Ashland Inc. Chairman and CEO Paul Chellgren; former Governor Martha Layne Collins; Council on Postsecondary Education President Gordon Davies; former Governor and U.S. Senator Wendell Ford; Kentucky Council of Churches Executive Director Nancy Jo Kemper; Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation President Kris Kimel; State Historian James Klotter; Kentucky League of Cities Executive Director Sylvia Lovely; University of Kentucky History Professor and Director of African-American Studies and Research, Gerald Smith; and founder and former director of Berea’s New Opportunity School for Women, Jane Stephenson.

The keynote lunch speaker will be Louisville native Dr. C. Eugene Steuerle, a Senior Fellow with the highly respected Urban Institute based in Washington, D.C., where he has conducted extensive research on budget and tax policy, Social Security, charitable sector issues, health care, and welfare reform. Dr. Steuerle is the author of a weekly column, "Economic Perspective," eight books, more than 125 reports and articles, 500 columns, and 45 congressional testimonies or reports. He chairs the Technical Panel advising Social Security on its methods and assumptions for fiscal projections. Prior to joining the Urban Institute, he served with the Reagan administration. He will discuss the future of Social Security and explore some of the ways that state governments and the nonprofit sector may be affected.

Three concurrent afternoon sessions on Tuesday, November 14 will include presentations and panel discussions of preliminary findings from ongoing studies of trends in postsecondary education and the implications of Kentucky’s aging population. The Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation also will lead a panel discussion on strategies for building a thriving entrepreneurial economy in Kentucky.

The day-and-a-half conference is open to all interested citizens. They can register online at www.kltprc.net/conference2000.htm or by mailing or faxing registration information to the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center, 111 St. James Court, Frankfort, KY 40601-8486, 502-564-1412 or 800-383-1412. For those who register on or before November 3, the registration fee is $45 for both days, which includes a continental breakfast and lunch on Tuesday and refreshments on both days. After November 3, the fee for both days will be $55. Students can attend both sessions for $10, and group rates are available. Scholarships are also available to those for whom the cost is prohibitive.

The Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center is a state agency dedicated to research into trends and issues that are likely to influence the future of the state. Created by the General Assembly in 1992, the Center is governed by a 21-member board whose largest component is from the at-large community.