By Stephen Cole Like it or not, we are living in a global economy. It is up to each one of us to determine what we want to do about it.
Globalization is nothing new to our region — we only need to look at our history. Almost 400 years ago, Henry Hudson discovered this river valley as he sought new trade routes. Our industries have been leaders in innovation and the inventors of new technologies. The Hudson Valley has been the birthplace of world leaders. Our academic institutions have taught and shaped the influencers and visionaries who have had profound effect on our history and economy.
Current bestsellers describing globalization and the world economy continue to climb the charts and sound a clarion call for business, academia and government. Locally, many dismiss the warning or do not see a relevance. Others take notice and ask, "what does it mean for me, my job, my community and our future."
One regional organization, Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress, has heard the call and taken the initiative to ask our communities, "What does globalization mean to us in the Hudson Valley?"
Push valley to forefront
Unlike many other regions in the state, the mid-Hudson valley has a strong and vital economy. It is important for all of us to ask how we sustain it and stay at the forefront as a region on a global stage?
There are more than 2.2 million people in our region. There are 242 municipal governments spread through nine counties. We are educating our young people in 127 school districts and dozens of private schools, colleges and universities. We have hundreds of community committees, boards, councils, economic and commerce organizations. Compounded with thousands of businesses, both large and small, incalculable decisions are made on a daily basis that are impossible to understand, let alone enumerate.
There is a cacophony of rulings, regulations and special interests that beset the people of this region on a daily basis. To succeed regionally, we have to find some common purposes and actions so we do not ensnare ourselves in bureaucratic bombast.
In our globally connected world, we need to collaborate among our many constituencies. There is no single leader, organization or institution that has an answer for what we need to do to compete in a global economy.
The Global Hudson Valley Initiative looks to build a framework for our region's leadership and citizens so plans for the future can be developed.
To create this framework, we are initiating the most comprehensive program ever undertaken in the area — perhaps in the country — in terms of inclusiveness and its ability to touch every part of our region, and every person in it.
This interactive process seeks the input and comment from the leaders and citizens in all geographical, social, economic and institutional sectors of the region. The initiative is reaching out to all segments of our region and is prepared to have a member of its speaker's bureau attend any meeting of any organization in the Hudson Valley.
Get active
You can help by leading a "21st Century Discussion" in your community. Invite a member of the Global Hudson Valley Initiative to your community, business, institution or organization, whether at your church social club, business board of directors, school board or governmental board. I encourage you to learn more about this significant initiative. Visit the Global Hudson Valley Initiative Web site at www.globalhudsonvalley.org.
Share your comments, encourage others to participate and become a framer of region's future. Finally, join our regional convention May 17.
As Peter Drucker wrote, "The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Stephen Cole is co-chairman of the Global Hudson Valley Initiative Steering Committee and is program director, regional initiatives enterprise on demand for the IBM Corp.

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