Content of My Presentation at Conference

I spent most of the 3 days prior to Wednesday preparing for my speech at the conference, intending to shed some light on local government and interaction with business/citizen groups in my home town of Hyattsville, Maryland as well as the experiences in Tyson's, Virginia. I spent a good deal of time researching the dynamic between Hyattsville City government, the Gateway Arts District, and the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation, intending to highlight the unique emphasis on artists/walkable communities and a somewhat dysfunctional local government. No offense intended here, but I've been to my share of council meetings and have damaged my vehicle repeatedly on the lunarscape of that now arroyo called 40th Place.
I'd also spent some time on Rt.7 in Tyson's corner at Christmastime and during Metro expansion and was curoius as to how Tyson's had evolved to this point as well. My intention here was to focus on how Fairfax County Government,  Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, and the Tyson's Partnership worked together. I really wanted to focus on how both governments at times DID listen to businesses and citizens---in fact giving real POWER to outside groups in terms of branding, marketing, infrastructure, development, and policy. Despite the many problems in both communities, I personally felt there had been positive evolution in quality of life and that the lives of stakeholders in both places were improving.