GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - Michigan Municipal League CEO & Executive Director Dan Gilmartin will give the keynote address during the 3rd Annual Public/Private/Partnership (P3) Conference in Grand Rapids May 31. The event, taking place at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids, is jointly sponsored by the Urban Land Institute of Michigan and the Michigan Municipal League. (Please note this event was originally scheduled to take place in April but has been rescheduled for May 31).

To register go here. This half-day event will begin at 8 a.m. with a breakfast and keynote address, and will continue through the morning with discussion panels, a case study, and the Metro Marketplace, where exhibitors from non-profit, development organizations, communities, and local governments can market their property listings, development plans, incentives, and services to developers and financiers, and the private sector can showcase their services to the public sector community.

The past two conferences in Rochester and Lansing have been overwhelming successes and attracted more than 450 of the state's leading real estate developers, investors, public officials, academics and professional service provider. Gilmartin will give the keynote address and discuss how to balance community wants with market realities. View the full agenda here.

"It's more important now than ever before that seemingly disparate groups find common ground to build communities that attract our young leaders to live, work, shop and play in Michigan."

Non-members of ULI can save $100 off membership when they register for this event at michigan.uli.org. For registration and sponsorship information, please contact ULI Coordinator, Shannon Sclafani at ssclafani@uli.org or (248) 807-1600. Click here for more details on registering for the event.

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at (734) 669-6317 and mbach@mml.org.

Please Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, this event has been cancelled and will be rescheduled at a later date.

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan - Michigan Municipal League CEO & Executive Director Dan Gilmartin will give the keynote address during the 3rd Annual Public/Private/Partnership (P3) Conference in Grand Rapids April 19. The event, taking place at DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids, is jointly sponsored by the Urban Land Institute of Michigan and the Michigan Municipal League.

The past two conferences in Rochester and Lansing have been overwhelming successes and attracted more than 450 of the state's leading real estate developers, investors, public officials, academics and professional service provider. Gilmartin will give the keynote address and discuss how to balance community wants with market realities.

"It's more important now than ever before that seemingly disparate groups find common ground to build communities that attract our young leaders to live, work, shop and play in Michigan."

Additionally, the ULI will bring buyers and sellers together for Deal Making opportunities where municipalities, schools and nonprofits can unveil their surplus properties and market to prospective investors at Deal Making tables.

Non-members of ULI can save $100 off membership when they register for this event at michigan.uli.org. For registration and sponsorship information, please contact ULI Coordinator, Shannon Sclafani at ssclafani@uli.org or (248) 807-1600. Click here for more details on registering for the event.

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at (734) 669-6317 and mbach@mml.org.

The Michigan Municipal League's new book, The Economics of Place: The Value of Building Place Around People was the focus of a recent "That Michigan Radio Show". The book received rave reviews from show co-hosts Steven Bennett and Holly Hetzner.

"As I was reading through the book I was nodding my head so often that my co-workers probably thought I was going into some kind of seizure. No, I wasn't seizing I was just in violent agreement with a lot of the observations noted in the book," said Hetzner during the show.

The radio show, sponsored by the Prima Civitas Foundation, was expected to air on the Michigan Talk Network this weekend, but also is available online here and starting on Monday (Dec. 12, 2011) on itunes under podcasts, search "That Michigan Show" and find show 12.

Michigan Municipal League CEO Dan Gilmartin was a main guest for the show and he talked about the book (available here on Amazon.com), and why placemaking is vital to Michigan's future.

"One of the real issues here in Michigan is issue of place," Gilmartin said. "We're in an environment now where jobs are mobile, people are mobile, companies are mobile, and we're finding out those people we're after if you will are choosing cities throughout the world. The world is becoming more urbanized that it's ever been. There are 60 million people a year around the world moving to cities. We're seeing some real upticks in those urban lifestyles and attracting talented new workforces and attracting new businesses. So when you talk about trying to create jobs and bring Michigan out of its doldrums the concept of having places that people want to be in is more important now than it's ever been."

Listen to the full show here and you can listen to the first part of Dan's segment here and the second segment here.

Read other reviews and articles about the League's new book here.

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at (734) 669-6317 and mbach@mml.org.

Chris Kolb talks transit Tuesday at a Let's Save Michigan/MML event in Lansing.

LANSING, Michigan - Today's driving-age teens care more about buying the latest technology device than they do buying a car. This comment by Chris Kolb, president and CEO of the Michigan Environmental Council, really rings true in my household. Kolb said it during a Twitter talk about the future of transportation in Michigan Tuesday, Sept. 13, by the Michigan Municipal League and Let's Save Michigan. The panelists at the unique Twitter-focused event were Kolb, League CEO & Executive Director Dan Gilmartin, Rich Studley, president and CEO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce; and Rory Neuner, project coordinator for Transportation for Michigan. The session was kicked off by a presentation by Robert Puentes, senior fellow for The Brookings Institution.

Kolb's comment about today's youth decreasing reliance on the automobile is also echoed frequently Gilmartin, who often talks about how Michigan youth are moving to cities like Chicago and New York where public transportation is readily available. Many of them, Gilmartin said, don't have cars and are moving to cities without jobs. He said they are drawn by the allure of these cities being fun, entertaining places where people want to live, work and play.

In my home, my 17-year-old son had little desire for about 18 months after his 16th birthday in getting his driver's license and was in interested in attending colleges in major cities - we did a college site visit in Chicago and Morgantown, West Virginia - two cities with excellent public transportation systems. For a long period of time, my son would rather have the latest iphone or a laptop than a car. While he took driver's training at age 15, he didn't get his license until a few weeks ago - a mere 5 months before his 18th birthday. It must be a generational thing as I've heard similar stories from my friends with children of the same age.

But for me and my generation, the day I turned 16 I was in line at the Secretary of State to get my license.

The point is public transportation is viewed much more favorable by millennials and the generations that follow. We need communities thinking about regional transportation. Kolb commented how someone could fly into Metro airport in Detroit and if they wanted to take public transportation to nearby Troy it would take three hours to do so. In contrast, it's very common for a family to go on vacation to Chicago, in part, just to ride the subway. Read more about the Michigan's Transportation Vision: A Twitter Talk on Twitter @letsavemich and @mmleague and the hashtag #mitransvision and here on this website.

Matt Bach is director of communications for the Michigan Municipal League. He can be reached at mbach@mml.org or (734) 669-6317.

Rory Neuner and Dan Gilmartin listen to Rich Studley at Transit Vision Twitter event Tuesday.

Let's Save Michigan and Michigan Municipal League conduct at Transit Twitter Talk Tuesday.