The broader impact of the conference is to bring together national assets, institutional expertise, and regional momentum to offer unified approaches to yield transformative and wide-ranging impacts in the areas of innovation, economic development, and workforce transformation: The Conference will serve as a catalyst to bring together unmatched intellectual capital, national innovation infrastructure, and community commitment to help shape paradigms for innovation and economic development and workforce development among cross-representations of higher education, industry and government partners. The convening amplifies the role of regional institutions, mobilizes industry-government alignment, and through one-on-one, and roundtable sessions with subject matter experts, offers replicable frameworks for regions seeking to build competitive, resilient, and inclusive economies. To address the nation’s priorities, the conference will impact several critical issues, including: (1) addressing the gaps that exists in technology skills, and commercialization and aligning innovation efforts with national priorities in science and technology. Huntsville, Alabama, one of the nation's premier innovation hubs, provides an ideal setting for this conference, located within a region which exemplifies a unified approach which will yield transformative and wide-ranging impacts in the areas of innovation, economic development, and workforce transformation; (2) providing information on bes