CGI America, which took place June 13 and - 14 in Chicago, IL, brought together approximately 1,000 representatives of business, government, foundations and non-governmental organizations to find “solutions that promote economic recovery in the United States.”
CGI was a great event to experience, and it brought like-minded individuals together to work on many actions relevant to the Reshoring Initiative and, of course, to the country.
I represented the Reshoring Initiative at the two-day event and participated in the Manufacturing Working Group. My group time was split between the skilled workforce and small-and medium-sized manufacturers sub-groups.
It was a privilege to hear the event’s speakers including Bill, Hillary Rodham and Chelsea Clinton. I also heard from Jack Lew, Treasury Secretary; Chris Christie, New Jersey Governor; and a range of national corporate and not-for-profit leaders.
However, the best value for me was the networking. I left the event with 50 business cards and 20 follow-up calls to make. Valuable follow-ups included: company, foundations, and trade association leaders. I also was lucky enough to rub elbows with mayors, New York U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s staff; a senior UAW leader; and professors from MIT and Rensselaer.
And, other event attendees were consistently impressed by the work of the Reshoring Initiative.
CGI participants are expected to work with several partners to develop an initiative/action that achieves measurable goals consistent with CGI’s overall mission.
My initiative is to find one or more large companies that will partner with us. Partners will thoroughly test the Reshoring Initiative’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Estimator™ for making decisions about offshore vs. domestic sources. These partners would then provide a reference to help motivate other companies to do likewise.
I have already identified one large company that I hope will become our first partner.
Other companies interested in partnering with the Reshoring Initiative to compare offshore and domestic costs more accurately, are invited to e-mail harry.moser@reshorenow.org.
