If you haven’t already done so, you’ll definitely want to set a reminder to sign up for next year’s GNOu Summit, the popular and growing industry-driven Workforce and Talent Pipeline Conference for the Greater New Orleans region and the state of Louisiana.
Facilitated and organized by GNO, Inc., the GNOu Summit is where employers, education and training providers, government, and community stakeholders come together to foster relationships, discuss trends, and fine-tune programs designed to benefit industry, workers, and the entire economy.
The result is a triple win. “Companies get to inform the training ecosystem that provide the workers they need, educational institutions will be able offer a market-relevant, cutting-edge curriculum, and students are better trained for higher-demand jobs,” said Josh Tatum, Vice President of Business Growth and Retention, GNO, Inc.
The third annual GNOu Summit was held in September this year at the Higgins Hotel and attracted industry partners from advanced manufacturing, logistics, energy, technology, maritime and beyond. It gave educators, workforce training professionals, and talent recruiters the opportunity to delve into the details of emerging industry trends and workforce needs in the state’s most productive sectors.
“The GNOu Summit allows the education and nonprofit sectors to hear what’s happening in the quickly changing regional economy,” said Tatum. “Educators don’t always have the opportunity to keep track of industry changes. The GNOu Summit provides that opportunity, providing a dynamic space for shared collaboration and empowering participants to make the connections necessary to meet demand.”
Forces driving the GNOu Summit
Right now, nearly 90 million people in the U.S. lack the skills needed to thrive in the future workforce. It’s facts like these that inspired GNO, Inc. to serve as the region’s workforce development intermediary by establishing the GNOu Summit.
“As the world was coming out of the Covid pandemic a few years ago, we found there was a disconnect in the workforce ecosystem,” said Tatum. “There was not enough alignment between industry, non-profit training providers, and education, particularly in K-12. We realized we needed to get everyone in a room to generate a real kick-start to the system.”
Before the GNOu Summit was created three years ago, there was no coordinated conference, across-the-board mechanism for bringing GNO regional businesses, education, and non-profits together to tackle the issue of emerging and growing skills gaps, but the demand for this kind of forum is crystal clear as evidenced by its rapid growth. “We started out at the Conference Center on 11 with 150 people attending,” Tatum said. “Then the following year we had 200 participants and this year there were around 250.”
The Nuts and Bolts
No one could resist making the imminent Super Bowl a major theme of the Summit’s opening reception, with a panel discussion called Scoring Big: Economic & Workforce Impacts of the Super Bowl. The panel included Walt Leger, President and CEO of New Orleans & Company, Kim Boyle, Vice Managing Partner at Phelps Dunbar LLC, Marcus Brown, EVP and General Counsel with Entergy, and Jerry Bologna, President and CEO of JEDCO.
The following day the Summit’s Keynote Speaker, Heather McKay, Senior Vice President of Employer Engagement and Executive Director of the Strada Institute for the Future of Work, spoke about the national talent landscape and the importance of employer engagement strategies.
“The morning keynote with Heather McKay of Strada provided some key workforce statistics that every employer would find eye opening,” said Tará Burnthorne Lopez, Dean and Professor of Marketing, College of Business, Southeastern Louisiana University. “I brought two additional members of my team to the GNOu Summit this year and Heather McKay’s presentation left us with pages of ideas that will definitely show up in our curriculum. In addition, I connected with several employers and will be working with them to support their talent pipeline.”
The morning keynote set the stage for the Summit’s workforce and training tracks.
The Workforce Track
The Workforce Track of the Summit delved into a vast range of industries including Trade and Logistics – Louisiana as the Logistical Gateway to the World, Creative Production Culture – Film, Video Games, Mustic, Aerospace & Advanced Manufacturing – Developing the path forward for the Future Workforce of Manufacturing, and the Healthcare Industry – Leading the way in Healthcare Delivery and Technology Advancements to Save Lives. Healthcare providers like Ochsner and LCMC said they benefited from these updates and the University of Holy Cross President Stanton F. McNeely said the updates help keep the University’s Radiologic Technology program at the forefront of medical imaging developments.
Across the board, GNOu Summit industry attendees expressed their interest in nurturing the next generation of talent. “Developing the Entergy workforce is integral,” said Dr. Sumesh Arora, Program Manager, Diversity & Workforce Strategies, Entergy. “Entergy has a strong desire to have the workforce reflect the communities that we serve and to ensure we develop local talent. There are over 100 types of jobs we require, including line workers, trade crafts, process control technicians, IT, cybersecurity, communications, marketing, and legal. The GNOu Summit provides an opportunity to work with like-minded individuals to grow the state’s workforce, collaborate, and learn best practices. If healthcare is doing something great, we should too. By building effective partnerships we do not need to reinvent the wheel.”
One of the Workforce Track sessions was on the “All-the-Above” approach to Future Energy Developments in Louisiana: Workforce Requirements to Support the Future of Energy. This was the most popular session of the Workforce Track which explored developments in the “all-the-above” energy strategy, from oil and gas, to wind energy, carbon capture, and biofuels.
“With demand spanning both foundational and emerging industries, a ‘both/and’ approach is critical to diversifying the economy and meeting the workforce needs of all employers and industries in Greater New Orleans,” said Michael Hecht, CEO, GNO, Inc. The GNOu Summit is the place where education and training providers find out how their programs can be updated to reflect these changes.
“As the region continues to emerge and grow, industry sectors are investing in new technologies and are experiencing an evolution that is creating new career pathways,” said Hecht.
The Workforce Track finished with the Greater New Orleans Jobs Report. “There are many factors that can shift the trajectory of the region’s economy – business announcements, private and government investments, and aspirational developments – as well as the evolution of new technologies and innovation. With a deeper understanding of current conditions, regional stakeholders can better prepare for occupational shifts and respond accordingly,” said Hecht.
The Talent Track
The Talent track focused on best practices and programs including the STEM Economy – Cultivating a Diverse and Strong STEM Ecosystem for Industry Growth, emerging trends in the Future of the Workplace, the Louisiana Department of Education Accountability Systems & Curriculum Updates, Re-entry Talent – creating a second chance through Education-to-Employment Pathways, Sectoral Partnerships as a model for the Workforce, Innovation – Collaborating, Coordinating, & Convening to achieve Wins in the Game, and Employer Engagement & the Work-Based Learning Continuum.
And if that wasn’t enough to boost the entire workforce ecosystem, the Lunch Panel Discussion, sponsored by JP Morgan Chase, covered the topic of Collaboration at the Center, moderated by Victoria Phipps, Vice President and Program Officer , with panelists Louis David, President and CEO of New Orleans Business Alliance, Ryan Mattingly, Executive Director, Louisiana Green Corp., Cate Swinburn, President and CEO, YouthForce NOLA and Chuck Morse, Executive Director, ThriveNOLA.
Feedback from participants confirms the value of the Talent Track of the Summit. “I am passionate about shrinking the gap between business education and practice,” said Burnthorne Lopez. “At Southeastern, we focus on making the transition to industry seamless for our students so they can start having a positive impact as soon as they are hired by an employer. The GNOu Summit allows me to sit in the rooms with leading employers in our region and learn about the most critical things on their minds. It’s information I can take back to our faculty and students.”
GNOu Summit participants said they were able to develop important partnerships which are the very essence of the region’s workforce ecosystem. “Overall, the conference was very informative, and I’ve made some great connections which may lead to partnerships in the future,” said Yasin Pierce, Program Coordinator, Youth Empowerment Project.
Economic Development for the Win
The Closing Keynote was all about Positioning Louisiana to Win and featured Osmar Padilla, Assistant Secretary of Louisiana Workforce Commission, Dr. Monty Sullivan, System President of Louisiana Community & Technical College System, Dr. Kim Hunter-Reed, Commissioner of Higher Education of Louisiana Board of Regents, and Paige Carter, Chief Business Development Officer of Louisiana Economic Development (LED).
It’s all about talent retention and talent attraction. The GNO region is a thriving educational hub that produces 80,000 graduates per year and has one of the highest per capita higher education concentrations in the nation, so the aim of the GNOu Summit is to connect industry and education in a way that helps keep talent here. “These bright minds represent the future workforce and business leaders who will drive innovation, economic growth and community development across Louisiana,” said LED Secretary Susan Bonnett Bourgeois.
See You in 2025!
There’s no doubt that the GNOu Summit is an integral part of creating industry-driven workforce ecosystems and talent pathways as the feedback proves. “I thought this was a great Summit, overall!” said Allison Mathews, Employer Relations Coordinator at Loyola University, New Orleans. “I look forward to attending more in the future.”
When asked what their favorite part of the GNOu Summit was, participants consistently mentioned the people they had the opportunity to connect with. “It’s about the diversity of people cross-cutting different professions: academic, government, non-profit,” said Dr. Arora. “The Summit is an opportunity to interact with so many people from different walks of life.”
“I always meet interesting people who inspire me,” said Burnthorne Lopez. “I’m looking forward to reconnecting with people from prior years and connecting with new people as well.”
