JONESBORO, Tennessee — Northeast Tennessee leaders gathered at Grace Meadows in Jonesboro for the seventh annual Education to Jobs Summit.
The summit, hosted by Tennessee First Development District, brought together education, business, government and nonprofit leaders with a focus on building a stronger workforce pipeline in the region.
Through a series of panels, summit attendees learned about several issues affecting many industries.
Lottie Lyons is the event coordinator.
“We're looking to see what the problems are, what the solutions are, is there anyone out there who's already doing something, and is there anything that can come out of the conversations at the summit to create some solutions in our region,” Lyons said.
Lyons said this year's summit didn't just focus on today's issues.
“I think this time we're really understanding what's important, maybe more deeply than we've done before, because we're not just trying to solve problems for the current workforce, but the future workforce as well,” she said.
One of the issues highlighted at the summit was AI.
The keynote speaker was Dr. Lynn Parker, an artificial intelligence expert who has led national AI policy efforts in Washington DC for four years.
“I think in the future, companies will become increasingly competitive with each other because the companies that adopt AI and leverage it in their business to become more efficient, more effective and more creative will thrive,” Parker said.
This year's summit also featured a panel with members of Gen Z, the next generation to enter the workforce.
The panel discussed misconceptions about Gen Z and how employers can get the most out of their younger employees.
Johnson City Schools Superintendent Steve Barnett said hearing from the panel was important to him and the future of Johnson City school operations.
“I thought that was really beneficial in terms of how we go about recruiting and training potential teachers and employees for our school system. We're making sure we're listening to the students who are entering college and high school,” Barnett said.
Summit organizers say that given the success of this and previous events, they hope to hold another Education to Jobs Summit in 2025.