ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) has announced additional speakers to the agenda for the Roads to Renewal II conference, an event focused on companies and communities and the possibilities on the horizon amidst the automotive industry’s resurgence.

This year’s event – “Partnering for Prosperity: Communities & Companies in the Resurging Automotive Economy” – will take place March 29-30 at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich. The event will explore the economic implications facing automotive industry stakeholders, policy issues, Midwestern states’ initiatives, site selection and the repurposing of former manufacturing sites, growing and sustaining local businesses, and the importance of an educational infrastructure.

Michael Finney, the new head of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., joins the March 30 panel “Strategies to Spur Job Retention and Growth.” Other panel members include Curt Magleby, director of State & Local Government Relations at Ford Motor Co. and Bill Testa, vice president and director of Regional Research in the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

“It’s important to consider strategies that align both companies and communities’ needs in the future,” said Sean McAlinden, executive vice president of research and chief economist at CAR. “Communities must understand the big picture of the changing structure of automotive competition in North America and the future role of government in determining the market and shaping the pattern and content of production.”

McAlinden, along with Dennis DesRosiers, a leading Canadian auto analyst, will launch the event by focusing on the economic “Big Picture” of the industry and its transformation on March 29.

The conference is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration (EDA) and offered in collaboration with the Original Equipment Suppliers Association (OESA), the Detroit Regional Chamber, and the Institute for Labor, Employment and the Economy at the University of Michigan. It is offered through CAR’s Automotive Communities Partnership.

Other speakers include Dave Andrea, OESA; Sandy Baruah, Detroit Regional Chamber; C. Robert Sawyer, United States Department of Commerce Economic Development Association; Mark Sweeney, McCallum Sweeney Consulting; and Matt Ward, Mayors Automotive Coalition.

For more information or to register, visit www.cargroup.org.