Note: The Skinny blog is written by Rick Smith, editor and co-founder of WRAL Tech Wire and business editor of WRAL.com.

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – A new report focusing on suggestions on how to improve the economic future of the South is due out Nov. 17, and a forum in the Triangle will feature a discussion of its findings as well as other possible ideas.

“A Way Forward” Building a Globally Competitive South” will take place at SAS on Nov. 17 from 3-6 p.m.

A report by that same name is due to be issued by Nov. 17 from the Global Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill. It includes nearly 40 essays from a number of different writers, including UNC System President Tom Ross and UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp, who also is an inventor and entrepreneur. The new report, which runs more than 200 pages based on the table of contents, is an update of two studies about the South and the economy published in 1986.

“The 25 years since the issuance of these reports have been marked by profound economic changes from which neither North Carolina nor the South has been spared,” the GRI says on its website.

“Given the magnitude of change, 2011 seemed to principals at the Global Research Institute a good time to take another look at these famous objectives, to assess how the recommendations contained therein held up over time, to offer fresh analyses of the economic challenges facing both North Carolina and the South, and to lay out some new ideas about how to forge ahead.”

(For more insight into the report’s contents, check out the table of contents.)

UNC-CH and N.C. State are partnering to put on the forum. SAS is serving as host.

Thorp and NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson are among the forum’s participants.

“We need to act purposefully to reset our region’s upward trajectory,” Thorp said in a statement about the event. “The forum will bring together people and ideas that can help us all better understand what it’s going to take to move the South and North Carolina forward for the long term.”

Added Woodson: “There’s no question that the research, innovation and graduates produced at colleges and universities have had a strong and positive impact on the South and the nation. This forum is a great opportunity to sharpen our focus and seek ways to work together toward helping our state and region regain their economic vitality.”

Speakers include former NC Governor Jim Hunt, state Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco, NC Central Chancellor Charles Nelms, William Harrison, a retired chairman and chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase & Co., and James Owens, former chairman and CEO of Caterpillar.

The event is free, but registration is required. (Contact Kathryn Wright at kathryn_wright@ncsu.edu or (919) 513-0805.)

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