On July 27th, 2021, Start Co. hosted a virtual convening with experts on building and sustaining innovation districts. Innovation districts align public and private partners behind a shared effort to boost economic growth and improve residents’ quality of life.
The expert speakers were:
- Bruce Katz, Co-Founder of New Localism Advisors and the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University
- David Adams, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Cincinnati
- Michael Pegues, Chief Innovation Officer of the city of Aurora, IL
Andre Fowlkes, President of Start Co., moderated the session as speakers shared insights, lessons learned, and best practices in building communities around the world. Each speaker was given roughly ten minutes to share personal insights on how to advance successful place-based economic development strategies, such as Innovation Districts, through local collaboration and national engagement. This was followed by an engaging interactive discussion.
In Memphis, partners are coming together to build a special district called The Digital City, a model analogous to that of an Innovation District. The Digital City is facilitating cross-sector participation from government, businesses, and community leaders to invest time, expertise, and capital to activate technology and talent to drive inclusive economic growth. The effort is anchored in the heart of downtown Memphis, and its benefits will radiate throughout the region.
“The Digital City is trying to marry Smart City infrastructure with entrepreneurial ecosystem-building; doing it around corporate, government, and institutional anchors that are here for cluster-based innovation and entrepreneurship” – Andre Fowlkes
Highlights from the virtual convening are here with a link to the full program for viewing below:
Bruce Katz defined the common characteristics of Innovation Districts, giving the audience an exceptional overview of the topic. He noted their potential to challenge economic and social divides, to support economic recovery, and to attract firms, talent, and capital.
“The Federal Government is basically saying, for the country to compete, we’re going to have to harness all of our energies, particularly at a set of geographies, if we’re going to be at the lead of next-generation technologies, from AI to robotics to cyber, etc. If places aren’t able to cross the sectoral divide, then frankly I don’t think they’re going to be competitive for federal money, and the private side is going to be leveraging up public sector capital. We are about to see a certain kind of competition in the US, and a bunch of places that were able to get there act together though opportunity zones or market dynamics are going to have a jump here. If you haven’t really thought about how to leverage your natural economic assets, across multiple sectors, it’s a pretty damn good time to start, or else you’re going to miss out on what’s going to be a resetting of the spatial distribution in the US economy in some very interesting ways.” – Bruce Katz
David Adams provided an overview of the origin of the Cincinnati Innovation District, as well as lessons learned through that process in terms of acquiring partners, funding, assets, and talent. David noted the success of the Innovation District and gave actionable advice for other cities, including Memphis, in their Innovation District journey.
“We are squarely in the knowledge-economy and physical capital is no longer the restraint. Building more buildings and physical capital is not the restraint, it’s people. Talking to businesses today, we hear consistently, ‘we need access to talent.’ Whether it’s a high-school degree or a college-educated talent, we need it all. It’s not an OR conversation, it’s an AND conversation.” – David Adams
Michael Pegues spoke on two aligned initiatives in Aurora, IL: the 605 Innovation District and Smart Aurora, which aims to make the city a regional technology hub. Michael described the path for successfully launching the initiatives, their relation with one another, and their current status. He also shared details on how the city is tracking the success of these projects, and insights on how Memphis can do the same.
“The incentives are there for municipalities. It’s really just about having a conversation. Typically, municipalities aren’t talking to private equity companies on Wall Street. But, they should be. It’s a new way of doing business. The municipalities need to be innovative to be out front because policies that need to be implemented are not currently here. If you can set the standard, you can be the benchmark for those policies. You need that governance and framework.” – Michael Pegues
Contact Andre Fowlkes for more information on this convening and future events.