The Best NGA Meeting Ever?

This past weekend, I attended the 2015 Winter Meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, DC.  I always enjoy NGA meetings.  They give me a chance to catch up with friends and former colleagues, to meet potential clients and learn about their issues and policy concerns, and most importantly to represent and advocate for MOB Advocacy's clients.

While I enjoy the sessions, I have attended enough of these meetings to hear the same challenges come up year after year.  Government needs to fix the way we pay for healthcare, government needs to do a better job of teaching our kids so that they can actually get jobs, and government needs to do a better job helping startups and small businesses because they are vital to the economy.

That last one is really why I started MOB Advocacy - to help startups and small businesses tell their story to government (whether that is directly in the statehouses, or at meetings like NGA, National Conference of State Legislatures or the Council of State Governments) in venues that are usually dominated by big businesses.

So why was this the best NGA meeting ever?  One word TechShop.  In one session, TechShop's CEO Mark Hatch showed the power that a startup can have at a meeting like NGA - and helped a nation of potential entrepreneurs and creative startups in the process.

Mark told story after story of the businesses TechShop's advanced manufacturing facilities (which might sound like a huge factory, but is really just a giant membership-based high-tech tool shop) are helping to launch everyday.  It was amazing!

Watch Mark Hatch's presentation here (Mark's presentation begins at 12:24)

And best of all - the governors got it.  Governor Doug Ducey, governor of Arizona for all of about thirty days was making a back of the napkin outline for a new job skills program that would partner with the Arizona TechShop.  And at least three other governors publicly invited Mark to help them bring TechShop to their state or territory.  I'm willing to bet Mark also got a few emails after from other governors asking the same thing.

Watch the question and answer portion of the program here.

Why was this so successful?  It is pretty easy to dissect.  One, Mark had great stories.  Two, Mark kept it simple.  Three, Mark had one call to action - bring TechShops to your states and let us do the rest.  And wha-la - a few more successful public-private partnerships are born.

I'll be the first to admit - NGA meetings aren't for every startup.  But if you are a startup that needs states to make policy changes for you to scale, or you are looking for pilot program with a state or states - then an NGA meeting is a great place to meet key staff to start those conversations without having to travel the country to have them.

And when it works -- it is beautiful.

Michael O'Brien is the Founder & Principal of MOB Advocacy, a nationally-scoped state and local government relations firm located in Washington, D.C.  Contact Michael O'Brien if you are interested in exploring whether your company is ready for the NGA.

Welcome to mob advocacy's new blog

Welcome to The State of the States - the new mob advocacy blog.  In this blog, we will share our thoughts on state and local government and political news, interesting or trending legislation and thoughts on life in a small (but growing) start-up firm.

We at mob advocacy are very excited this week.  In addition to launching this blog and preparing for our website to go live, we signed a new client - Student Veterans Advocacy Group (SVAG)!  mob advocacy will manage SVAG's national state legislative campaign aimed at increasing educational opportunities for veterans and their families.  You may not know this, but due to a change in the 2011 GI Bill, veterans can only get reimbursed for the cost of in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.  Since active duty military rarely meet state resident criteria, they are forced to make up the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition.  That cost usually makes it too expensive to attend.  We say, Vets have sacrificed... Vets have earned it... so, Let Vets Go!  (if you see #LetVetsGo on twitter, please retweet, especially to your governor and state legislators) 

At the end of the week, mob advocacy will be attending the summer meeting of the National Governors Association (NGA) in Williamsburg, Virginia.  The NGA meetings are a great opportunity to build relationships with governors and their key staff members, discuss issues our clients are currently having or expect to have in the next legislative session, and learn about the important issues facing our state governments (and sometimes even sharing ideas for solving them).  mob advocacy will represent our clients at the meeting.  Should you be one of them?  If you have legislative or regulatory issues in your state (or several states), we should talk.

Healthcare is always a big discussion at NGA meetings. With the recent U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decision upholding most of the Affordable Care Act this meeting will be no different.  Many governors and state legislatures will spend the next twelve months deciding if and how to implement some, all or none of the law.  Health exchanges and the optional Medicaid expansion will certainly be hot topics.  Almost no one thought SCOTUS would decide to make Medicaid expansion optional, not even the National Association of State Medicaid Directors [read a great article here].  Now several governors, like Governor Rick Perry (R-TX) [article] , have announced they are not expanding their Medicaid programs and others, such as Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ) [article], are weighing the options.

Thanks for reading.  Feel free to comment, suggest a topic, ask a question.  Follow my twitter feed (@mob_advocacy) throughout the NGA meeting (#NGA2012) , and look for our post-NGA wrap up next week.

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