Navigating myregion.org just became more intriguing. Last week more than 250 maps provided a detailed picture of the elements that comprise Central Florida’s seven-county region.

The full-color maps are pivotal in the critical analysis of Central Florida’s communities and systems because they provide a finely detailed visual depiction of the region’s assets and challenges and how they impact each other within the region. Additionally, the maps provide a picture of how the region is positioned in rapidly changing regional, super regional and global economies.

The maps, which were developed by the consulting team of Michael Gallis & Associates, were displayed at the Kennedy Space Center during a joint meeting of the Executive Committee, Leadership Council, CEO Roundtable and Technical and Communications Committees. Over 100 government, business and institutional leaders in the seven-county region examined the maps for their completeness and accuracy in each one of the Essential Activities or areas of study. Those areas include environment, education, public safety, diversity/demographics, healthcare, culture, infrastructure, development, economy/workforce, governance, tourism, transportation, and history. Participants also provided input on information that was missing and ranked the top three items in each category.

The maps were presented publicly to attract input from individuals from “all walks of life and different areas of expertise” in order to collect as much input as possible, said Lawrie Platt Hall, Technical Committee Liaison.

Complex in their design, the maps serve as the foundation of myregion.org's exploration of the region’s current and future needs. The maps will be the focus of the second round of Essential Activity Workshops scheduled for July 9-12, 2002.