TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, The Huffington Post, NBC News, Microsoft, major foundations, and other job creators in the public and private sectors hosted a non-partisan luncheon and entrepreneurship exhibition at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. The two-part event featured a lunch panel discussion on job creation with leaders in politics, media, and the private sector, including Ohio Governor John Kasich, conservative political commentator Laura Ingraham, and Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington. The panel was moderated by former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw.
"At a time when our national politics is deeply broken, leaders across the private sector as well as governors and mayors have shown that they have the ideas and the initiative to move America forward," said Huffington. "What today's event made clear is that America's jobs crisis requires innovation from every corner of our society, from foundations and start-ups to established corporations and educators. It also requires a focus on our successes -- the opportunities for growth that are available, as well as the surplus of creativity, ingenuity, and hard work that has always defined this country."
The full list of panelists included John Kasich, Governor of Ohio; Laura Ingraham, syndicated radio host and Fox News contributor; Walter Isaacson, CEO of the Aspen Institute; Judith Rodin, CEO of the Rockefeller Foundation; Allen Blue, Co-Founder of LinkedIn; Scott Case, CEO of Startup America; Brad Smith, General Counsel at Microsoft; Sanford Shugart, President of Valencia College; Marc Freedman, CEO of Civic Ventures; Jeremy Heimans, CEO of Purpose; and Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.
"We're here to talk about what I believe is the most critical grassroots issue in America today: how we prepare this country for the future and restore a sense of confidence," said Tom Brokaw. "Having a job is not just about economic security. It's also about emotional and cultural security for this country."
During the discussion, the Huffington Post announced the promises made by the partners of the "What Is Working" initiative. They included The Skoll Foundation, which committed $250,000 to JobRaising, a challenge co-sponsored by Crowdrise and HuffPost that will fund the most creative and innovative ideas from non-profits trying to create jobs; The Rockefeller Foundation, which will award $1 million to an organization with the most innovative solution to create jobs; The Ford Foundation, which is investing $150 million over the next five years to address the factors contributing to the skills gap; Starbucks, which has already financed $80 million in loans and created 4,000 jobs through Create Jobs USA, will sell its music CD "Indivisible" in Starbucks stores and donate $2 for every CD sold; and LinkedIn, which will engage its 175 million members by curating a dedicated "What Is Working" discussion group, and connecting job-seekers with available jobs.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we want to tell you that we believe in the entrepreneurial spirit of the American population," said Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation. "So we're offering a $1 million prize for the best scalable ideas for how to grow small business, particularly to hire young people. We're going to do this competition virally; watch for us on The Huffington Post and Twitter. We really think that those ideas are out there. We've used prizes before to galvanize incredibly great ideas, and then we're going to take them to scale."
Over the next year, companies that choose to participate in the Promises Initiative will be highlighted across The Huffington Post's broad range of platforms, including HuffPost Live.
The luncheon attracted leaders in politics, media, and the private sector. After the lunch panel, guests and members of the public were invited to attend an exhibition showcasing social entrepreneurs, small businesses, and innovative ideas that provide skills and training to create jobs. Exhibitors included the Millennial Trains Project, founded by Patrick Dowd, a former JPMorgan analyst who is organizing cross-country train rides that will bring enterprising young Americans together to study the country's regional challenges and brainstorm solutions; Kickboard, a tech start-up that uses tablets to help teachers cut down on paperwork, centralize student data, and share it with other teachers, administrators, and parents; Zeel, a company that connects patients to the health providers they seek; and ConnectEDU, which uses a sophisticated algorithm to connect students with the colleges most likely to accept them.
About The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is a Pulitzer Prize-winning source of breaking news, features, and entertainment, as well as a highly engaged community for opinion and conversation. The Huffington Post has 38.5 million monthly unique visitors (comScore June, 2012) posting over 6.5 million comments each month. The site has over 30,000 bloggers -- from politicians, students and celebrities to academics, parents and policy experts -- who contribute in real-time on the subjects they are most passionate about. The Huffington Post has editions in the UK, Canada, Quebec, France, and Spain, with L'Huffington Post Italia scheduled to launch later this year.