Day 3

Friday, April 9th

8:30 – 9:00am
Farhad Rezaei, pianist
Thoughts from first two days and business illustration overview with Michelle Malott

9:00 – 9:45am Keynote Charles Landry
Founder, COMEDIA & author of The Art of City Making

Charles Landry helps cities transform their thinking so that they look at the potential more imaginatively and can plan and act with originality. He assesses the interplay and impacts of deeper global trends and attempts to ground these in practical initiatives that cities can emulate and learn from. Drawing on his global experience, he is able to showcase global best practices and thinking in planning, place making, social and cultural development. He inspires, stimulates, challenges and facilitates transformation.

Charles is a global authority on creativity and its uses and city futures are shaped by paying attention to the culture of a place. His recent book, The Art of City Making has been highly acclaimed. It focuses on how cities can be more “creative for the world” so that the energies of individuals and organizations can be brought in alignment with their global responsibilities. This builds upon his seminal work, The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators, which has been reprinted 10 times.

9:45 –10:30am Panel Discussion with Rebecca Ryan & Charles Landry

These two global experts on community vitality will discuss what it takes to make dynamic communities that attract and retain talent and share examples from all over the world of new and innovative practices that your community can learn from.  Moderated by Peter Kageyama.

10:30 – 11:00am Break

11:00 – 12:00pm Breakout Session Three

Small Towns and the Creative Rural Economy
Smaller cities, towns and rural communities have a unique dynamism that distinguishes them from the urban mega-regions that enjoy so much attention. They also face enormous challenges as their best and brightest leave and industries that have sustained them in the past are disappearing. Rather than surrendering, there are many that are figuring out how to play the talent game on their own terms and compete and win in the global economy. For everyone who loves their small town, this session is a rallying cry for new hope in these cities.
Featuring:
Kim Huston, Author Small Town Sexy & Economic Development Director for Bardstown, KY
Dan Taylor, Economic Development Office, Prince Edward County, Canada

Using Art to Change Cities
Most cities support traditional notions of arts and culture, the symphony, opera, ballet and museums. Beyond those traditional bastions of culture there are artists and entrepreneurs that are actively using art to change their communities for the better. Public art is more than just the statue in front of the building and can be beautifully integrated into projects for startling results. Guerrilla art interventions, some legal, some illegal, can provoke dialog and action where before there was gridlock. And art can be used to change our very notions of fundamental things like healthcare and education to astounding results. This eclectic panel will attack this issue from their unique perspectives and is not the traditional arts and cultural conversation.
Featuring:
Justin Langlois, Broken City Lab, Windsor, Canada
Michael Karpf M.D., Executive Vice President Health Affairs, University of Kentucky
Jim Butler, City of Austin, Texas
Moderator:  David Mohney, Curry Stone Design Prize Secretary & Dean Emeritus and Professor of Architecture, University of Kentucky College of Design

Fighting Back – Messages from Detroit
No city in America has been harder hit in the economic crisis than Detroit.  Some have said that Detroit is a lost cause.  But not these panelists from our most troubled city.  In the midst of this crisis, there are pockets of hope and resistance that refuse to let the city die and for hope to fail. Hear the battlefront stories of these community champions and the work that is going on right now in the Motor City from urban gardening to film and digital media training for displaced workers to building by building restoration in the heart of the city. Detroit is in many ways the psychological epicenter of our recovery and how it goes represents how we all may fare in the 21st century.  After you hear these stories you too will believe it is possible to reinvent the city.

Moderator:  Sean Mann, Michigan Municipal League & Founder Let’s Save Michigan
Karen Gagnon, Michigan State Housing Development Authority, Cool Cities
Eric Cedo, Unity Studios
Phillip Cooley, Los Pistoleros
Mark Covington, Georgia Street Community Collective
Claire Nelson,  Open City

Next Generation Female Entrepreneurs
Globally, more women than every before are starting businesses. In developing nations, it is female entrepreneurship that is leading the way to sustainability. In the developed world, women are have unprecedented levels of educational attainment and business participation yet still only make of 3% of the Fortune 500 CEOs. Eight million women owned businesses employ 23 million workers or 16% of total US jobs. Hear what it specifically takes to turn more women into entrepreneurs.
Featuring:
Adelaide Lancaster, co-founder, In Good Company Workplaces

12:00 – 1:30pm
Mecca Dance

Lunch and Keynote Bill Strickland
President & CEO, Manchester Bidwell Corp. & author Making the Impossible Possible
featuring  Raleigh Daily on piano

Jeff Skoll, the first President of eBay once said about Strickland, “Bill is a genius, because he sees the inherent genius in everyone. Bill’s ability to inspire hope is powerful, universal, and world changing.” At 19, Bill Strickland, an African-American from Pittsburgh’s inner city, established what became Manchester-Bidwell, the now famous arts and job-training center for disadvantaged kids and adults. Strickland has created a national model for adult retraining and job placement by working directly with the major employers in the region to produce workers with industry ready skills. These jobs provide “a living wage” and offer are entry level, career pathway positions.

Strickland overseas a new 40,000 square foot production greenhouse created for agricultural training; a 70,000 square foot medical technology complex; a 350 seat music/lecture hall; library, arts studios and labs, dinning and meeting rooms, state-of-the-art, award winning audio and video recording studios.

1:30 – 1:45pm Wrap Up & What’s Next?

2:00pm Buses to Keeneland for the afternoon