Mar 19, 2018 | News
Building on the successful 2016 Upstate Regional Summit: Creating a Leading Region, Ten at the Top is pleased to announce its 2018 Upstate Regional Summit – “Winning the Future” – will take place on Thursday, September 25 at the TD Convention Center.
The 2018 Summit will provide a unique opportunity for business, community and civic leaders, as well as interested stakeholders from across the region to share ideas and discuss how to work collaboratively to ensure the Upstate region continues to enhance the economic vitality and quality of life for all residents.
“Ten at the Top is an organization that is focused on redefining our future as a collaborative Upstate,” Sue Schneider, Ten at the Top’s Board Chairman, said. “But a future to match our vision requires lots of work in the present tense. We’ve named our next summit ‘Winning the Future’ for that very reason. We’re focused on success and the work we must do today to achieve our vision for tomorrow.
The 2018 Upstate Regional Summit, presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina, begins with a morning panel session: “Is South Carolina and the Upstate Well Positioned to “Win the Future’ in Economic Development and Job Creation?”. The Summit will continue with breakout sessions involving presentations by and discussions with Upstate leaders through the lens of Ten at the Top’s five Regional Driver areas: Winning the Future Around Education & Workforce Development, Winning the Future Around Mobility & Connectivity, Winning the Future Around Innovation & Technology and Winning the Future Around Creating Vibrant Communities.
The Summit will culminate with the Summit Keynote Luncheon.
Polly LaBarre, 2018 Upstate Summit Keynote Speaker
Ten at The Top is excited to welcome Polly LaBarre as the 2018 Upstate Summit Keynote Speaker. Polly LaBarre is the Co-author of Mavericks at Work, Co-founder of Management Lab and Founding Writer at Fast Company. For more than 20 years, LaBarre has used her writing, business consulting, and speaking to help organizations unleash and organize human potential in ever more powerful ways.
As co-founder of the Management Lab, a “think-and-do” tank dedicated to rebooting management for the 21st century. Along with her partners at MLab (pronounced “M-Lab”), Polly has developed a pioneering method and platform for changing how large organizations change. They run large-scale, real-world experiments in “hacking management” to build the deep organizational capabilities crucial for thriving in a creative, disruptive world: adaptability, innovation and inspiration.
Polly has traveled the world to study and work with the courageous contrarians, management mavericks, and pioneering progressives who are inventing the future of organizations and business.
Early in her career, Polly was part of the founding team of Fast Company magazine. There she played a central role in the remarkable success of a magazine that recast the conventional wisdom on power, competition, work, leadership, innovation and change. The magazine introduced the world to a new universe of organizations and leaders whose management models were as distinctive as their business models were disruptive.
Polly is the co-author of the award-winning book Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win, which was a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller. Published in over 20 territories, Mavericks was a “Business Book of the Year” for the Financial Times, the Miami Herald and The Economist, which called the book “a pivotal work in the tradition of In Search of Excellence and Good to Great.” CNN, CNBC and GMA all created series around the book.
Polly’s writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including Fast Company, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review online, Fortune.com, the McKinsey Quarterly and she has served as business and innovation correspondent for CNN.
“We’re excited that Polly LaBarre will be our keynote speaker for ‘Winning the Future’,” Schneider said. “Her experience developing a pioneering method and platform for changing how large organizations change will be an inspiration to the leaders in the room who are interested in helping the Upstate thrive in fast-changing and disruptive world. Polly’s message is simple but profound: It takes adaptability, innovation, and inspiration.”
How to Get Involved
The 2016 Upstate Regional Summit brought together more than 850 community and business leaders from across the Upstate in a sold-out event sponsored by more than 45 organizations to discuss key issues impacting current and future growth and the importance of regional collaboration. Ten at the Top expects the 2018 Upstate Regional Summit to draw a similarly large attendance, participation and support among Upstate leadership.
Sponsorship opportunities are currently available for the 2018 Regional Summit. A table for ten at the Summit is available for $750. A table for ten with added exposure in the Summit’s networking expo is available for $1,250. There are additional exclusive sponsorships available at various pricing levels. All questions and inquiries regarding sponsorships can be directed to Caroline Gross at sponsor@tenatthetop.org or by calling 864-360-1015.
Individual Summit tickets will be available for purchase beginning in July based on available space. Due to past demand, Ten at the Top encourages organizations and individuals with a desire to get involved to commit early. Seating at the Summit is limited, so to guarantee tickets, TATT is encouraging companies to join as a sponsor. The sponsorship deadline is June 30 to be included in major Summit print materials.
About Ten at the Top
Comprised of public, private and civic leaders from across the ten-county Upstate South Carolina Region, Ten at the Top was created to connect and encourage regional collaboration through data-driven research and regular convening of leaders and citizens to address key issues facing the region. Ten at the Top works with regional partners to foster collaboration and strategic planning to enhance the economic vitality and quality of life for Upstate residents both today and as the region continues to grow. For more information, visit www.tenatthetop.org.
Mar 12, 2018 | News
By Dean Hybl, Executive Director, Ten at the Top
As the next step of the Connecting Our Future initiative to develop a regional vision and actionable strategies for enhancing mobility, transportation and connectivity across the 10-county Upstate region, Ten at the Top is inviting interested stakeholders to share their ideas during the Connecting Our Future Idea Exchange. The workshop is being held on Monday, March 19th from 1:30-4:30 pm at the Michelin Conference Center (517 Michelin Road, Building 18, Greenville, SC 29605).
Born from the Shaping Our Future Growth Scenarios Analysis, Connecting Our Future was launched last fall as a collaborative effort to bring together the various organizations, businesses and local governments who have been working individually on some component of moving people and goods across the Upstate. The Connecting Our Future partners have contracted with Kimley-Horn to create a regional vision and actionable strategies to enhance current and future mobility in the region.
The Connecting Our Future Idea Exchange will be an opportunity for interested residents and community leaders to share their ideas and insights around a number of topics related to mobility in the Upstate. The topic areas include: commuter travel, bicycle & pedestrian, transit, freight movement, workforce access, strategic infrastructure, land use & development and innovation & technology.
“When we first convened stakeholders around transportation and mobility, it was quickly recognized that everyone is working on important elements of moving people and goods across the region, but that most work was being done in a vacuum when in actuality there was an opportunity and need for greater connectivity and collaboration,” said Dean Hybl, Executive Director of Ten at the Top. “The ultimate goal of Connecting Our Future is to increase access to transportation, reduce congestion and improve connectivity across the Upstate. However, without a clear vision and actionable regional strategies, we would continue to struggle to create clarity and synergy on how to accomplish those goals.
“The Idea Exchange on March 19th is an important step in the process as we want to hear and understand the ideas and concerns of stakeholders from across the Upstate,” Hybl added.
Michelin is serving as the host for the Idea Exchange and is one of four Steering Level partners for Connecting Our Future. The others are Duke Energy, Hollingsworth Funds and the Jolley Foundation. In addition other businesses, local governments and non-profits have come together to support this regional initiative. A full list of the coalition partners as well as more details about the entire initiative can be found on the Connecting Our Future website, www.connectingourfutureupstatesc.org. The final vision and strategies, along with next steps, will be unveiled later this summer.
The Connecting Our Future Idea Exchange is a free event, but advanced registration is requested. For more details and to register, please go to www.connectingourfutureupstatesc.org or www.tenatthetop.org.
Mar 2, 2018 | News
By Dean Hybl, Executive Director, Ten at the Top
The word coherence is defined as “the quality of forming a unified whole” or being “logically connected and intelligible.”
When we think about building an Upstate region that is economically strong, good stewards of our resources and where all residents have opportunities to grow and succeed, it seems logical that creating coherence among stakeholders working towards enhancing our economic vitality and quality of life would help make each partner and holistically the entire region stronger.
Certainly, when you have multiple people, interests and other factors involved, creating coherence is a challenge for any business, community or endeavor. But imagine trying to create coherence when looking at the educational and future economic success of our children.
Just within the Upstate, we have 23 public school districts plus more than 20 technical colleges, two-and-four year colleges and universities and post-graduate schools and programs all supporting the educational attainment and success of their students. If you add to that mix thousands of businesses, all with their own specific employment needs, who rely on the students produced through the education system and then top it off with local and state governments and governing bodies who play varying roles in creating policies or setting spending rates, the result is a system where creating any level of coherence or connectivity can seem incredibly daunting.
Yet, studies have shown that regions that have developed connectivity and collaborative opportunities that include all elements of the education spectrum are able to provide valuable experiences to enhance the overall success of the students within the region. In a region like the Upstate where the educational and economic success of our communities are very clearly connected and there have been a growing number of collaborative regional initiatives in recent years, creating meaningful coherence and connectivity could provide even greater value for students and businesses across the region.
It was with this backdrop that Ten at the Top and Public Education Partners recently convened the first-ever Upstate Superintendents and College/University Presidents meeting at Tri-County Technical College in Easley.
With more than 40 representatives from k-12, post-secondary education and the business community in attendance, the participants clearly recognized both the opportunities and the barriers towards creating coherence and greater regional connectivity between the k-12, higher education, and business sectors when talking about the educational and future economic success of the children in the Upstate.
Fortunately, in the Upstate we have a number of individual districts, county or multi-county examples of initiatives where the various sectors within education and business have connected to create a program or enhanced opportunity for students as they move through the k-12 system, graduate high school, and move into post-secondary opportunities. The question in the room was whether we could possibly create a framework for developing similar partnerships and initiatives at a greater regional scale.
While many different values and opportunities were discussed throughout the meeting, there were a few themes that kept bubbling to the top:
• Intentional communication and dialogue is critical. It was pointed out that just the fact that this was the first-ever meeting at the regional scale of k-12 and post-secondary superintendents, presidents and provosts illustrates a deficiency and why there often seems to be a disconnect between those teaching students at different stages of their educational experience. Developing and supporting some type of consistent dialogue across the education spectrum could potentially eliminate some of the “inaccurate perceptions” that seem to currently exist among the various stakeholders as well as create a more seamless transition from one level of education to another. Then engaging the business community to be part of that larger dialogue would go even further in creating a coherent system that supports students through their entire path from the beginning of their education journey through entering the workforce.
• Adaptability and Commonality of Curriculum is enhanced by collaboration. There are a number of Upstate examples where individual 
school districts, businesses and colleges have worked together to develop a program of curriculum that supports their collective needs. Developing a system where those collaborative opportunities can be done on a larger, regional, scale would increase productivity at all levels and also help deal with the reality that the needs of our businesses are ever-changing based on technology and other factors and our school systems struggle to adjust at a quick enough pace.
• Challenges are often similar, so why not learn from each other? It was clear from the dialogue that whether it be state and federal mandates or ever-changing real-world dynamics (like student health and safety), each educational entity is dealing with many of the same issues and challenges when striving to support students. Rather than having to figure it out on their own, developing a platform for sharing of ideas, best practices and ways to address consistent issues would alleviate repetitiveness and create a greater opportunity for growing the collective capacity.
Creating a culture of coherence, connectivity and collaboration across the education and business spectrums in the Upstate will not be easy or happen overnight. However, often the first step in any pursuit is the hardest, so now that it has been taken, moving towards a “unified whole” is a pursuit that I hope and believe our education and business leaders are ready to tackle.
For more information about Ten at the Top’s efforts to build collaboration and collective capacity across the region go to: www.tenatthetop.org. For more information about Public Education Partners’ collaborative efforts with schools and the community to strengthen public education in Greenville go to: www.pepgc.org.
Feb 19, 2018 | News
By: Sue Schneider, Board Chair, Ten at the Top
Please go on a quick journey with me: Just imagine that for every second it takes to read the first paragraph of this letter, a cherry-red Tesla Roadster is moving seven miles closer to the asteroid belt in a thousand-year voyage to a new horizon. But this is not from a sci-fi story that takes place in the distant future—it’s actually happening. This very moment.
Elon Musk has captured our imagination on space travel and his Space-X launches continue to excite and engage us in the idea of heading to the stars, providing us all with a glimpse of the not-too-distant future. There’s that word—another that we need to reclaim and redefine. Like “community,” the word itself, “future,” also seems to be struggling under the weight of overuse. In the Upstate, we can’t afford to think of our future as a bland and unexciting destination. The future, however, is not just a place in time, or a destination. It’s a goal. An idea. A risk. A challenge. An opportunity.
We all want an amazing future in the Upstate. That’s why Ten at the Top is convening the ultimate game changer: The Connecting Our Future initiative. The kick-off event launched last October to create a regional vision for transportation, mobility, and connectivity in the 10-county Upstate. An advisory committee comprised of stakeholders representing education, transit systems, local governments, economic development organizations, health care, conservation groups and businesses is working closely with Kimley-Horn consultants to develop a regional vision and actionable strategies for transportation, mobility and connectivity.
Connecting Our Future is addressing these goals:
Reduced congestion
Increased connectivity and mobility
Moving people and freight across the region safely
Improving quality of life and health of Upstate residents by reducing emissions
The idea of tackling mobility in the Upstate is the Best. Idea. Ever. How frustrating is it to see where we need to be going but we can’t get there? Think of the countless hours we might sit in an Interstate-85 traffic jam: Your exit is within sight but traffic is stalled. While a space car is moving at a rate of seven miles per second, it can seem like a thousand-year journey to travel just across the Upstate.
But developing a collective vision for mobility in the Upstate is not just about traffic congestion; it is really about ensuring that we plan for a future that provides accessibility to work and play for all of our citizens. Transportation is an equalizer and levels the playing ground for everyone; it can also mean the delivery of an economic advantage that provides us lift-off—the rocket fuel to propel more jobs and us to new investment. This will help us create a region that can move people, goods and services while maintaining—and enhancing—our collective quality of life.
A rollout event is planned for June, but you can get involved now. Please consider participating in the upcoming Stakeholder Symposium:
Stakeholder Symposium
March 19, 2018
1:30-4:30 p.m.
The Michelin Conference Center
517 Michelin Road, Bldg. 18
Greenville, SC 29605
As leaders and community members we are creating the future that we want by redefining what it means. And just like the space car, that future we all seek is inching closer and closer to us by the second.
A new horizon is just up ahead. Let’s find that future before it finds us.
Feb 13, 2018 | News
GREENVILLE, S.C.— Ten at the Top is pleased to announce the addition of two new staff members, Adelyn Nottingham and Dewey Evans, both of whom will serve as Program Managers for the organization. Ten at the Top is a nonprofit organization focused on promoting collaboration and strategic planning across the Upstate region.
Adelyn joins the TATT team after working for The Haven Homeless Shelter in Spartanburg, South Carolina. She previously served as in the Americorps Vista program through the United Way of the Piedmont working specifically with the Know(2) Program in Cherokee County. Due to her experience in enhancing the quality of life for community members, her efforts will focus on Human Potential, specifically on The Pique, a young professional development initiative, as well as issues facing Upstate seniors. She is also serving as the lead program manager for the Connecting Our Future Transportation, Mobility and Connectivity initiative. Originally from West Virginia, she now makes her home in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Dewey will coordinate the efforts around Economic & Entrepreneurial Vitality, Sustainable Growth and Community Vibrancy. These areas will focus on improving the Upstate’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, encouraging responsible future growth and embracing the cultural heritage of the Upstate. He comes to TATT with a strong desire to make an impact in the economic and community development arena and is excited to contribute to the Upstate’s regional development strategy. A graduate of Appalachian State University and Pickens High School, Evans currently resides in Easley, South Carolina.
“To ensure that Ten at the Top is appropriately structured to continue accomplishing our mission to build the collective capacity of the region around issues that impact economic vitality and quality of life, we felt it was important to focus as much of our staff resources as possible around our programs and initiatives,” Dean Hybl, TATT Executive Director, said. “Thus, we are doubling our staff of program managers and are very fortunate to have two young professionals with a familiarity for the region as well as a passion for making the Upstate a better place to live, learn, do business and raise a family.”
About Ten at the Top
Comprised of public, private and civic leaders from across the ten-county Upstate South Carolina Region, Ten at the Top was created to connect and encourage regional collaboration through data-driven research and regular convening of leaders and citizens to address key issues facing the region. Ten at the Top works with regional partners to foster collaboration and strategic planning to enhance the economic vitality and quality of life for Upstate residents both today and as the region continues to grow. For more information, visit www.tenatthetop.org.
Feb 7, 2018 | News
By Dean Hybl, Executive Director, Ten at the Top
According to a new Upstate Interactive Arts & Culture Map unveiled during Ten at the Top’s January 24th Culture Counts Regional Forum hosted at the Chapman Cultural Center, the 10-county Upstate region is home to more than 1,300 Arts & Culture organizations, venues and programs. Yet, much of the discussion during the forum was that perhaps we don’t do enough to tell the story and leverage the economic and community value of that significant regional investment in cultural activities.
According to Anthony Radich, the event’s keynote speaker and Executive Director of the Western States Arts Federation, “many have ignored the creative economy in the past because for many years the interaction was typically through writing a check and therefore they didn’t see it as something that can generate revenue within the economy.”
However, Radich added, that has changed in recent years as “a lot of focus has been put on the creative economy as something that helps power the overall economy in a state or region.”
Anthony Radich, Keynote Speaker (Left)
Radich credits the growing number of economic impact studies around the role of arts & culture in the economy as helping to change the dynamic. He referenced two specific things that economic impact studies highlight that help illustrate that arts & culture are an important part of local economies.
- Arts organizations and venues employ people who then purchase goods and services and support the economy.
- The studies Identify how arts & culture are related to tourism. Sometimes a specific event can attract people to come to your community, but the studies show that cultural availability as a part of the total package of what attracts people to visit a community is critical.
According to numbers Radich provided during his presentation, the Upstate region has more than 17,500 people employed in what is designated as the creative economy. Looking specifically at Spartanburg, the non-profit creative economy generates more than $32 million in revenue for the local economy.
“Your cultural economy in itself is a medium sized industry,” Radich said. “Communities would love to bring in an industry with an economic impact at the level that the cultural economy provides here in the Upstate.”
Allen Smith, President and CEO of the Spartanburg Area Chamber of Commerce, sees arts and culture as playing an even greater role in providing communities with an advantage when attracting jobs and professional talent. He points to the recent selection of the 20 finalists for the Amazon second headquarters project as an example of the role having a culturally vibrant community plays in shaping a place where people want to live and businesses want to set up shop.
“If you did an overlay of the 20 finalists for the Amazon HQ2,” Smith said, “you would see that they are probably some of the most culturally advanced communities in the nation and I don’t think it is an accident.
“Today, people are choosing place before position. Communities that are winning at recruiting talent are the places that have put a priority on cultural vitality,” Smith added.
Smith said that having tools like the new regional arts & culture asset map is important because attracting professional talent is the number one issue around economic development and is something that we must do regionally.
Panel Discussion
“We have to think of talent recruitment as a regional effort or we will not be successful,” Smith said. “We do just not have the population or resource base as individual communities. We have to create the perception of the Upstate region as a vibrant place where people want to live and work.”
Now that the regional assets map has been developed, the next step will be to leverage the information and resources to help tell the story of the Upstate as a culturally vibrant region and cultural destination.
“We have a region that has everything here from the culture, the history, outdoors,” said Tim Todd, Executive Director of Discover Upstate. “Working together regionally we have to leverage our assets and tell a compelling story of what great assets we have in this region.”
“For a place like Greenwood, being associated with other places like Greenville, Spartanburg and Oconee that have great cultural programs is valuable,” said Anne Craig, Executive Director of the Greenwood Arts Center. “Having information compiled regionally illustrates the totality of the story, instead of looking only at our individual communities.”
Now that the Upstate Interactive Arts & Culture Map has been compiled and unveiled, the next step is taking the information and leveraging it in a way that promotes the Upstate as a cultural destination for potential tourists and potential new residents.
If you are interested in accessing the new Arts & Culture Map or getting involved in the discussion on how to collectively leverage this new resource, go to www.tenatthetop.org.
What: Ten at the Top Upstate Culture Counts Forum
When/Where: January 24th/Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg
Who was there: 130+ business and community leaders and residents interested in arts & culture in the Upstate
