The Community's Conversation

Downtown Columbus is our region’s largest employment center with ninety thousand jobs, a number steadily growing prior to the pandemic. 

Now, work-from-home trends threaten to undermine downtown’s vibrancy. This CMC forum maps out the future trajectory of downtown Columbus with a panel of experts.

This CMC forum was recorded live on February 23, 2022.

The panelists are:

Marc Conte, Executive Director, Capital Crossroads and Discovery Special Improvement Districts

Michael Coleman, Partner, Public Affairs and Government Law Group, Ice Miller, and Former Mayor of the City of Columbus

Jeff Edwards, President and CEO, Edwards Companies 

The host is Mark Ferenchik, Columbus Neighborhoods/Urban Issues Reporter, The Columbus Dispatch

This forum was sponsored by The Robert Weiler Company, Installed Building Products, and by Marker, Inc.

Ohioans aren’t used to bare store shelves, apart from occasional pre-snowstorm emergencies. And while most U.S. stores are far from empty, some items have become noticeably harder to find during the pandemic. At play in this crisis of the world’s supply chains are many interlocked circumstances.

At this week’s CMC forum we’ll untangle the global supply chain crisis and explore the ways Ohio is helping to fix it.  

This CMC forum was recorded live on February 16, 2022.

The panelists are:

Ken Ackerman, Founder and Lead Consultant, K. B. Ackerman Company

Dr. Keely Croxton, Professor of Logistics, Department of Marketing and Logistics at the Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business

Charles Goodwin, Director of Operations and Aviation Business Services for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority

The host is Eleanor Kennedy, Assistant Managing Editor of Columbus Business First

This forum was sponsored by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority.

American students have gone from one-room schoolhouses to keeping up with a global economy moving at the speed of light.  

While technology advances faster and faster, America’s educational institutions move at the rate at which students can learn and the two are often out of synch. Across America, wide gaps also exist between students in the educational opportunities around them.  

This week’s CMC forum explores the promise of equitable education and its importance to a stable democracy. 

This CMC forum was recorded live on February 9, 2022.  

The speakers are: 

Rebecca Kemper, Ph.D., Researcher with The Center for Research and Evaluation at COSI 

Kyra Schloenbach, Chief Academic Officer, Columbus City Schools 

Dr. La’Tonia Stiner-Jones, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Associate Professor of Practice,  Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University College of Engineering 

The host is David DeWitt, Executive Editor of The Ohio Capital Journal. 

This forum was sponsored by Communities in Schools of Ohio. 

Title IX, part of a landmark civil rights law passed in 1972, changed the sports world forever. Title IX barred discrimination based on sex in education programs that receive federal aid.    

Today, we explore the results of fifty years of Title IX with a panel of experts who unpack the changes from this landmark law on the world of sports. 

This CMC forum was recorded live on February 2, 2022.  

The speakers are: 

Janine Oman, Senior Deputy Director of Athletics, The Ohio State University 

Dr. Kimberlee Kiehl, Chief Operating Officer, Ohio High School Athletic Association 

Dawn Stewart, Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of Athletics, Otterbein University 

Linda Logan, Executive Director, Greater Columbus Sports Commission 

The host is Michael Arace, Sports Columnist, The Columbus Dispatch 

This forum was sponsored by Porter Wright Morris & Arthur and by The Ohio State University.

Columbus, Ohio is home to nonprofits and social enterprises that embody a laser-focused approach to solving social challenges with initiatives that produce results backed by data.  

When working to solve social issues, the pitfalls to well-meaning organizations can be many, including “mission creep” and the temptation to analyze results through rose-colored lenses.   

For organizations that manage to stay laser-focused – and that bluntly self-assess their impact – genuine social change, even a global scale, is possible.    

Today, we’ll explore the determination needed to drive social change, and the lessons learned by Central Ohio experts whose efforts are making Columbus – and the world - a better place. 

This CMC forum was recorded live on January 26, 2022.  

The speakers are: 

Ann Bischoff, CEO, Star House   

Greg Bixler, Co-Founder and CEO, Design Outreach  

Vicki Bowen Hewes, CEO, SocialVentures  

The host is Laura Smith, Vice President of Programs & Learning with Philanthropy Ohio. 

This forum was sponsored by CareSource and by Grange Insurance. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped office life like no other event in memory. While workers in many professions remain tied to place-based work, millions of office workers have been set free by technology to work anywhere in the world.   

But has team cohesion and morale suffered as a result? Should the pandemic’s changes be the “new normal” for office workers, or will a hybrid work environment be the ideal future that delivers teamwork and flexibility?   

Today, we’ll explore the future of the office in Columbus with a panel of leading experts.  

This CMC forum was recorded live on January 19, 2022.  

The speakers are: 

Diane Flinders, Vice President of Sales, King Business Interiors  

Ira Sharfin, CEO, Continental Office  

David White, Director of Workforce and Talent Solutions, One Columbus  

The host is Bonnie Meibers, Reporter, Columbus Business First. 

What are the challenges facing today’s young people, how do they see themselves, and how can the adults in their lives best help them to succeed in life? How can young people be placed “at promise” as opposed to “at risk”? 

Researching these critical questions – and working to find and promote the right answers – is the pioneering 501(C)3 nonprofit Black Girl Rising.

Headed by fran frazier (who spells her name in lower case), Black Girl Rising is working to steer Black girls in Ohio ages 11 to 18 to success through a multipronged approach that involves research, advocacy, community-based work, and inclusive and honest conversation.  

This CMC forum was recorded live on January 12, 2022.

The speakers are: 

fran frazier, Principal Investigator of Black Girl Rising  

Camille R. Quinn, Ph.D., Assistant Professor with the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University  

Aliya Horton, a Charter Member of the Rise Sister Rise Black Girl Think Tank, and 3rd-Year Pre-Law Student at The Ohio State University  

The host is Tonisha Johnson, Anchor and Reporter for Spectrum News 1 Ohio   

This forum was sponsored by The Columbus Foundation and by PNC. 

2021 was tumultuous for Central Ohio’s economy, so just what will the new year bring? At this week’s CMC forum, we’ll hear what 2022 might like for the Columbus economy from a panel of leading experts. This CMC forum was recorded live on January 5, 2022.

The speakers are:

Bill LaFayette, Owner of Regionomics

Doug Buchanan, Editor in Chief of Columbus Business First

Fadhel Kaboub, Associate Professor of Economics with Denison University, and President of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity

The host is Mark Williams, Business Reporter for The Columbus Dispatch.

This forum was sponsored by BDO, Fifth Third Bank, The Robert Weiler Company, and by Keeler & Nadler Family Wealth.

The forum’s partner was The Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio with support from The Columbus Dispatch.

Today’s forum, recorded live on December 15, 2021, examines the decline of many American malls and the forces shaping the country’s changing retail climate. Once a staple of both the suburban and urban scene, the American shopping mall has suffered a visible decline in recent years.  

While many high-end malls continue to expand, others have closed.   

Conventional wisdom blames the rise of online retail, the declining popularity of department stores, and COVID lockdowns, but a significant factor is the shrinking American middle class. 

Today we’ll hear about the forces shaping retail from:  

Yaromir Steiner, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Steiner and Associates.  

The host is Matt Barnes, Morning Co-Anchor with NBC4 Today. 

This forum was sponsored by The Easton Community Foundation and GBQ.  

Columbus developers are betting big on the long-term appeal of downtown, with a massive new project on the Scioto Peninsula, a state-of-the-art soccer stadium for the Columbus Crew now open to fans, and office and residential projects rising in and around downtown.

We'll hear what the future holds in store for downtown Columbus from leading developer Bob White, Jr.

This forum was sponsored by The Robert Weiler Company and Smith and Hale LLC. It was recorded before a live audience following COVID protocols at the Boat House on December 8, 2021.

The speaker is:

Bob White, Jr., CEO of The Daimler Group.

The host is NBC4 Anchor Colleen Marshall.