Rob Godbey has been on the forefront of spreading the importance of the “creative class” and new economy growth in West Virginia since he moved back to his home state seven years ago. After spending several years in IT and consulting roles around the country, he moved back to form a management consulting practice called GodbeyWorks to help West Virginia companies embrace the latest best practices in innovation and management.

One of Rob’s many talents is identifying global trends and getting to the heart of what they mean to West Virginia’s growth and quality of life. Last year, the Creative Communities team of A Vision Shared, the volunteers behind Create WV, hired Rob to architect the highly successful first version of the Create WV Conference. By every account, the conference on how to build creative communities throughout West Virginia that were poised to embrace and benefit from the New Economy was a huge success largely because of Rob’s vision and planning.

We are thrilled to announce that Rob will again be Create WV’s conference program manager for the 2008 event being held at Snowshoe Mountain Resort October 22-24, 2008. Rob’s primary role is to identify themes of relevance for West Virginia, develop keynote and track topics, and work with track leaders to identify and secure speakers. If you have any feedback or ideas for Rob, please send them his way at [email protected].