Outlook 2007 For Washtenaw County

Last week I had the opportunity to sit in on a luncheon with University of Michigan Economist George Fulton and Google Adword’s Grady Burnett.  Both speakers were to the point, witty and frank about the current issues facing the Ann Arbor region.

 George Fulton’s speech can be seen here.  20 years he has been doing this analysis for the Ann Arbor News and every year he has delivered an insightful, frank, yet witty speech.  Remarkable, considering economic numbers are usually the key to curing insomnia!  Now, what would have put this video presentation over the top, for me at least, would have been if they edited in the PPoint Slides George was using.  Here is the pdf of the handouts, and yes, they were the same as what George was referencing in his speech.

Grady Burnett’s speech can be seen here.  Unfortunately, the one question I wanted to highlight was not included in the video presentation here.  It was a question about when Google will overtake Microsoft in terms of size.  The questioner then proceeded on about other MS v Google things, but Grady was ready with a beautiful answer.  In essence, it was, Google focuses on the end-user experience and is concerned about making it the best there is.  That guy is smooth!