Another View of Life After the G-20 - "Time to Reinvent Ourselves Again" with a 21st Century Global Renaissance

The Pittsburgh G-20 Summit has come and gone. So what now? How about another Pittsburgh renaissance, one focused on attracting talent from around the world and nurturing a globally conscious citizenry, answers David A. Murdoch, a partner at K&L Gates and Chairman of the Board at the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh.

"The world's leaders and their delegates left town more than a week ago," Murdoch writes in Sunday's Post-Gazette. "We and our neighbors have gone back to work, back to our routines. What now? Did the G-20 summit make a difference for our community?

"A theme embedded in Pittsburgh's DNA is one we rarely recall: 'To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success.'

"H.J. Heinz gave us this great quote after he put tomato paste in a glass bottle so it could not be infected by bacteria or ruined by wooden splinters.

"Without the financial power of a New York City or the political power of a Washington, D.C., we in Pittsburgh still find people beating a path to our doorway because they want to find out how we do common things uncommonly well.

"We can be rightly proud of our evolution from an industrial- to a service-based economy with strengths in high technology, health care and education. We can feel good about our transition from a land of dust and smoke to one of green hills and blue skies. These are the reasons President Barack Obama cited in bringing the G-20 to Pittsburgh.

"But sometimes it seems as though we have become too taken with our story, and too complacent about our future. It is time to re-invent ourselves again."

Continue reading Murdoch's opinion piece at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09277/1002646-109.stm