The Michigan Opportunity

We continue coverage of the Pure Michigan Governor's Conference on Tourism, a three-day conference focusing on education, networking, and collaboration opportunities to advance the state's tourism industry. The Michigan Opportunity talks with tourism and hospitality leaders about current trends in the travel industry, the economic impact of travel and tourism on Michigan’s economy, and what’s new in Pure Michigan for the 2025 spring and summer travel season.

Guests include: Choose Lansing President and CEO, Julie Pingston; Motor Cities National Heritage Area Deputy Director and Michigan Travel Commissioner, Brian Yopp; Crystal Mountain Chairman and Michigan Travel Commissioner, Jim MacInnes; Advance Travel & Tourism Midwest Senior Sales Manager, Holly Laurencelle.

The Pure Michigan Governor's Conference on Tourism is an annual event hosted in Michigan for tourism and hospitality professionals. The three-day conference focuses on education, networking, and collaboration opportunities to advance the state's tourism industry. The Michigan Opportunity talks with tourism and hospitality leaders about current trends in the travel industry, the economic impact of travel and tourism on Michigan’s economy, and what’s new in Pure Michigan for the 2025 spring and summer travel season.

Guests include: Pure Michigan Vice President, Kelly Wolgamott; Visit Detroit President and CEO, Claude Molinari; The Henry Ford Museum Senior Director of Sales & Earned Revenue, Amy Cox; MRLA President and CEO, Justin Winslow

From the hardwood forests of the Upper Peninsula to the Final 4, this Amasa based company brings Michigan power to March Madness courts

Listen as Connor Sports Marketing Director, Zach Riberdy, shares how the company got started, their sustainability practices, an NCAA partnership, and more. Through their partnership with the NCAA® they provide over 14 floors for the March Madness® Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships culminating in the Final Four®. 

Founded in 1872, Connor Sports is the market leader in portable and permanent hardwood sports flooring systems, athletic flooring systems for aerobic and fitness facilities, and dance flooring systems for studios, stages, and institutions. 

As the #2 credit union in Michigan, Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU) has 23 branches, 358,000+ members, $7.7B in assets, and 1,100+ employees.

April Clobes, President and CEO of MSUFCU, discusses the history of the credit union and what the credit union offers to Michigan residents. She joined the Credit Union in 1996 and moved through many positions within the organization prior to being named President and CEO in 2015. She serves on five #FinTech Advisory Boards. 

Founded in 1937, MSUFCU has a national reputation for excellence including being named a Best Credit Union to Work For® by American Banker for the sixth year, a Top Workplace by the Detroit Free Press for 13 consecutive years, and a National Association for Business Resources/The Best and Brightest Programs Companies to Work For® winner for seven consecutive years.

Giffels Webster: Shaping Michigan’s Communities with Engineering, Planning & Innovation 

Jill Bahm is a Partner at Giffels Webster, a Michigan-based firm serving public, private, and institutional clients with their community planning, infrastructure, and land development needs. In this episode, she discusses how Giffels Webster helps communities with their vision for the future, working with MEDC and the Redevelopment Ready program, and more.

Since its inception in 1952, Giffels Webster has evolved to offer a broad scope of services centered on helping clients achieve their project or programming goals, including civil engineering, municipal consulting, planning, land development consulting, landscape architecture, traffic engineering, and GIS data creation and management.

Bridging Divides: The Michigan Political Leadership Program takes a bipartisan approach to public policy at Michigan State University

Since 1992, over 800 Michigan Political Leadership Program (MPLP) graduates have applied the skills and relationships they learned to work in their communities and serve in statewide offices. Tonya Schuitmaker and Rudy Hobbs are Co-Directors at the Michigan Political Leadership Program. They share with us how MPLP Fellows gain expertise to tackle public policy issues as candidates for office, as government officials or as citizen activists.

The MPLP at Michigan State University is a bi-partisan program that identifies individuals from across the state committed to community service and brings them together to engage in a leadership and public policy curriculum. The curriculum also incorporates practical politics, public policy analysis and process, personal leadership development and effective governance. Most notably, 17 MPLP graduates are now serving in the Michigan State Legislature.

Using innovation to attract urban talent to sustainable cities including: NYC, LA County, and Detroit (plus a touch of London and Italy)!

CIV:LAB was born out of a need for more coordination and collaboration between the various stakeholders that work to make cities more sustainable. We sit down with Founder and Executive Director, Simon Sylvester-Chaudhuri, and Chief of Staff, Allison Lucas, to learn more about CIV:LAB’s mission and vision.

CIV:LAB's work in Michigan began with working with Wayne State University, TechTown and Next Energy, helping secure a $1m grant from the Economic Development Administration. They continue to work closely with each of them, the University of Michigan, City of Detroit and a number of local urban innovators. 

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.) is filled with exceptional views and exceptional talent. From Ironwood to Sault Ste. Marie, the UP is home to three state universities, several manufacturing companies, and many national outdoor recreation events a year. 

We welcome back InvestUP CEO, Marty Fittante as part of our Around Michigan in Under 30 Minutes series, to discuss the current projects happening in the U.P. Fittante talks about the Upper Peninsula’s unique impact in the aerospace and defense industry, shares the various housing and seed fund projects to help tackle population challenges, as well as give insight into the Soo Locks project that is critical to international shipping. 

From work commutes to connecting people with destinations across Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, SMART has been Southeast Michigan’s trusted transit provider since 1967.

As the General Manager of the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART), Dwight A. Ferrell oversees a complex organization that provides essential public transit and paratransit services to the residents of Southeast Michigan. Ferrell has more than 35 years of experience in the public sector, managing large-scale operations, budgets, programs, and projects for some of the nation's most prominent transit agencies. 

Around the World in 30 Minutes: Insights from the Executive Director of Grand Rapids’ 75+ Year-Old World Affairs Council

This week we talk with Michael Van Denend, Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Western Michigan. He discusses how the World Affairs Council is dedicated to educating people in western Michigan about other countries, cultures, and regions of the world and provides a forum for discussing critical foreign policy issues facing the country. The Council is best known for sponsoring its award-winning Great Decisions Global Discussion Series.

Michael came to the World Affairs Council after 33 years as the executive director of the Calvin College Alumni Association, where he interviewed and wrote stories about alumni all over the globe. In addition, he’s an on-air radio programmer at WYCE 88.1 FM where he presents folk, blues, jazz, rock and a lot of world music.