Creating the Innovative City: How can we do it?

Cincinnati soon will join other vibrant cities like Boston, Austin, Memphis and Washington D.C. in bringing together some of the city’s most creative and innovate thinkers during its first ever URBANEXUS event, sponsored by Next American City magazine.

“Our goal with URBANEXUS is to generate conversation about cities. We love visiting new cities, hearing from locals about important issues facing their cities and then generating important and productive dialogue about moving forward. Our mission with Next American City is to promote sustainable economic growth and URBANEXUS is one hands-on way we are  forwarding that mission,” said Pooja Shah, Next American City associate publisher.

Next American City is published by a national non-profit of the same name, dedicated “to promoting socially and environmentally sustainable economic growth in America’s cities and examining how and why our built environment, economy, society and culture are changing.” The non-profit is based in Philadelphia.

Cincinnati’s URBANEXUS will be June 25, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Northern Kentucky University’s Student Union on the Highland Height’s campus. Themed, Creating the Innovative City, it will encompass a panel discussion on how the community "can tap Cincinnati’s internal innovative culture to inspire a broader civic culture that makes Cincinnati synonymous with creativity, ideas and energy." It’s free and open to the public.

There’ll be a meet and mingle before the panel at 5 p.m., also at the student union. Admission to that is free only for Next American City subscribers. Admission is $15 for non-subscribers in advance or $20 at the door, and includes a one-year subscription to the magazine.

“People who attend are invited to participate in a conversation about their city, to hear from locals who are engaged in the topic - innovation in Cincinnati - and learn about how they too can get involved,” Shah said.

Panelists who have confirmed so far include: Anne Chasser, associate vice president at the University of Cincinnati's Intellectual Property Office; Cincinnati City Manager Milton Dohoney; Doug Perry, College of Informatics Dean at NKU; Niki Robinson, director at Cincinnati Children’s Center for Technology Commercialization and Chad Reynolds from Fanattik.com, a web site that allows users to create customized school sportswear.

The event is being hosted with help from Soapbox Media, CincinnatiInnovates.com, Northern Kentucky Forum and Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation.

“Our goal is to begin conversation and we hope that bringing people together to talk about a topic so important to the city is just the starting point. On our end, we'd love to keep track of this dialogue via our Web site, americancity.org/urbanexus, and hopefully offer other cities a glimpse into Cincinnati,” Shah said.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: Pooja Shah, Next American City associate publisher