The acceptance that we live in a globalized era was the theme in keynote speaker Richard Longworth's presentation at the Small Cities Conference at Minnetrista on Saturday.
Saturday was the last day of the sixth annual conference, an event comprised of 11 sessions and two lectures by keynote speakers with the aim of discussing ways cities in the Midwest can break through barriers and increase the area's economic power.
This year's conference theme was The Sources of Urban Growth. Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairsand author of "Caught in the Middle," gave a lecture to a small group of Ball State University professors and Muncie residents about what should be considered for cities in the Midwest to grow.
"There is thinking that needs to be done," he said during a forum. "We have all these universities which have all this intellectual fire growing. Put together we have full intellectual capacity, but we haven't put it together. All these universities compete with each other for the greater glory of their states."
Longworth said students must not limit themselves to staying in the country once they graduate, but to look other places to see where they can benefit.
"Students must realize that almost anything in life can be done in another country," he said. "Because we belong now to a global society."
Longworth said a way students can interact on an interstate level is to work with their communities.
"There has always been a division between the universities and communities," he said. "So we have to break the barriers between both."
James Connolly, director of the Center for Middletown Studies, said the event helped Ball State professors from different areas of study come together.
"We want to put BSU professors in touch with scholars from other institutions," he said. "But it's also a way of associating differentdisciplines across the university."
The first conference was held in 2001, organized by then-director of the Center for Middletown Studies, Bruce Geelhoed.
Connolly said this year the sessions were during the weekend so the local community could participate.
"Some past conferences have been more focused on scholars and others have been focused with the community, but this year we wanted both to participate."
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