SMART Team:

Not only is this the SMART thing to do, but now it has become "COOL!"

BUT THE BIGGEST CROWD OF ALL WAS FOR GOV. JENNIFER GRANHOLM. Who has usual had more than enough charisma to have the chamber's slightly Republican leaning crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. Basically, Granholm outlined her plan to make Michigan a magnet state for immigration instead of a population-loser: fiscal responsibility, including a painfully balanced budget with no tax cuts; a diverse economy, created through spreading money now spent on life sciences to the advanced transportation and homeland security industries; a skilled workforce through education; and vibrant, "cool" cities. On that last point, important to tech types: Granholm said we're 47th in the nation in keeping our youth in our cities, and that we lost more than 13 percent of our young people in the '90s to cool cities like Chicago and Boston. (Yeah, well, they've got their drawbacks too.) She also spoke at length about the fact that we're "One Michigan" and that we can't be separated by race or city-suburb disputes. Granholm also called for a summit this fall with the Detroit Regional Chamber on regional problem solving.

Best,

Jim