Velocity 2009

[joeDowntown]

Looks like Velocity 2009 (in GR) had an incredible lineup of participants yet I don't know of a single soul who was invited. What is the scoop?

http://www.ceosforcities.org/velocity

Joe

[RenZone]

Its my understanding that this is a national organization that was looking for cities to meet in and they landed on GR. It had nothing to with GR per se, but I heard they will be touring the city. appears to be a think tank of emerging and established biz leaders. would be fun to be fly on wall at those session. Agree though, would probably have benefited the group to have a GR rep involved. Perhaps there is and we just dont know?

[Gorath]

Story in the press;

http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michiga...and_rapids.html

Apparently 40 people, called experts in their respective fields, and which includes the mayor of Flint.

Hard for me to get excited about a group that considers the mayor of Flint being an expert on effective city government.

[GRDadof3]

Were these people Illuminati?

[joeDowntown]

I don't know, there were people from IDEO, Good Magazine, etc. It looked like a pretty impressive group to me!

Some of the people taking part in Velocity, an urban visioning effort by Chicago-based non-profit CEOs for Cities:

[GRDadof3]

I don't know, there were people from IDEO, Good Magazine, etc. It looked like a pretty impressive group to me!

Some of the people taking part in Velocity, an urban visioning effort by Chicago-based non-profit CEOs for Cities:

• Zach Frechette, editor-in-chief of Los Angeles-based Good magazine

• Mark Hamm, vice president of innovation for Memphis, Tenn.-based Federal Express

• Polly LaBarre, founding member of New York-based Fast Company magazine and author of the best-selling book, "Mavericks at Work"

• John Norquist, former Milwaukee mayor and current president of Chicago-based non-profit Congress for the New Urbanism

• Gordon Pennington, founder and managing director of New York-based Burning Media Group

Joe

[fotoman311]

I don't mean to be a jerk Joe but I can't get it out of my head of what a joke this event was. Why bring all these "thought-leaders" in town, and then not have them meet with local Grand Rapids officials, or business leaders, or community leaders, or even the public? So that people here could learn some things? It's a BIG hit and a miss in my opinion. The fact that they met here is somewhat interesting, but keep a "private" meeting "private" then. Don't send out press releases to all the local media outlets asking for coverage of a closed door event.

<end rant>

[joeDowntown]

Sorry- Late to the game. I agree too, so many interesting people, but they didn't spread out into the community. There could have been some excellent presentations that would have benefited the public at large, that is why I posted "what's up?!" in the first place. Heard AIGA may have had some someone speak at their event. Anyone know if it happened?

Joe