A meeting asking for the input of close to 200,000 people drew quite the crowd Tuesday night.

It’s called vibrant communities an initiative in Elkhart County to improve  towns and cities for residents in order to spark economic development.

593 people voluntarily spent their Tuesday night at the Lerner Theater talking with neighbors about how they can work together to build a better county.

The first half of the kick off event included a presentation from key note speaker Peter Kageyama author of for the love of cities.

Kageyama explained how other communities had transformed their cities into places residents loved.

The second half of the vibrant communities meeting was spent reflecting on the importance of defining quality of place.

Co-chair of the steering committee, Gina Leichty,  described this vibrant communities initiative as step one in the process that will continue with individual cities coming up with action agendas.

“This initiative is really a process. We had this kick off meeting tonight but there are still plenty of opportunities for people in the community to get involved. for every city in the community in Elkhart county we are encouraging people to think of little things they would like to see within their community but also to think big,” says Leichty.

The individual city meetings will start in February.

To find out when your city is meeting click here.