On January 21st, Paul O’Connor spoke on a panel at an Economic Club of Chicago lunch along with Kevin Willer from Google (now president of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center) and Randy Blankenhorn. The topic was the GO TO 2040 Economic Development Plan for the 21st Century.

Paul is a self described “…insightfully funny suit, who is actually serious about collaborative future building…” His background is far too distinguished to list all his accomplishments here. Check out his LinkedIn profile if you want a deep dive. Paul founded World Business Chicago and was its Executive Director for 9 years. Today he leads the City Design Practice at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. We are also on the Board of Directors together at the Metropolitan Chicago Information Center.

I was inspired by his upbeat message about the future of Chicago and how Gen Y is going to lead us into a bright future. His refreshing message about us getting getting our head out of our hands was something I thought more people needed to hear. So I invited him to record the first interview on my blog.

I hope you enjoy the first of two parts, which focuses on Gen Y. Thank you, Paul, for your time.

I started volunteering at the national headquarters of Obama for America on April 11, 2007. (Here is a post from my first day – wish I had kept blogging about it!) Winning the primary, let alone the election, was beyond a long shot. However, the energy in the office was palpable.

Senator Obama wanted a phone number Americans could call and talk to a real person. I became one of the people who answered. Often three-days a week I would leave my office for a three-hour shift. The call center started out as 4 phones; by election night rooms were filled with people on the phone.

In a few short hours, as he takes the oath of office, the Obama honeymoon will be over. While we are all still enjoying it, I thought I’d share my very small part in this very large day.

I would love to hear how you are feeling today.