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by Mike Dearing

The consolidated Indiana MPO and Midwest Planning Conference is history. In the shadow of such a meeting of minds I usually find myself rejuvenated and ready to tackle anything that gets in my way that would prohibit making my little corner of the world a better place to live. It is always a challenge to those of us in the planning profession to try to solve short term inadequacies and at the same time stay true to a vision of the future.

I came away from several of the sessions with a renewed fervor to merge current planning methodologies with "out of the box" ideas. I believe that a concerted effort to merge the old with the new is doable. If you had the opportunity to listen to the ideas and philosophies of the lunch and dinner speakers like Des Moines' Tom Kane, Ian Lockwood, and IU's Dr. Tom DeCoster, you have a head start to begin to envision the future of planning with fresh eyes.

I would like to thank again all of those who helped make the conference a success and I urge you to attend future Indiana MPO (NIRPC in 2005) and Midwest (Kansas City in April, 2006) conferences to share our ideas.