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Speakers

Clarence Anthony
President, Anthony Government Solutions, Inc
Topic of Presentation: Leading Local, Thinking Global

When it comes to the concepts of leading, learning and governing, public officials usually compare themselves with other U.S. cities and states. But our competition is truly Global. Through its 21c3 program, the League has shared the eight assets necessary to be successful communities in the 21st century.  Mr. Anthony will expound upon those assets from a global view, and share additional techniques that local leaders need to have in their tool box to build world-class competitive communities.

Bio: Clarence Anthony, Mayor for the lakeside city of South Bay, Florida, is a vocal "champion for the voiceless" in his 20 years tenure of the small city. Despite being mayor for a relatively small community, he has also emerged as a city leader of national and international standing. Mayor Anthony's accolades include the Ebony Magazine Future Leader, Outstanding Young Men in America and Outstanding Community Leaders in America awards, as well as the Florida Junior Chamber of Commerce Mayor of the Year. However, it was with his election as 75th president of the National League of Cities for 1999 (only the second from a small city) that his arrival as a city leader on the national stage arrived. This was later augmented with his 2007 election as treasurer and first vice president of the United Cities and Local Governments organization.

Jeff DeGraff
Professor of Management and Organizations, Ross School of Business, University of MIchigan
Topic of Presentation: Making Stone Soup-How to Really Make Collaborative Innovation Happen

Municipalities are designed to run efficiently by using standards and policies that eliminate unwanted variation. But those conventional “one-size-fits-all” structures and processes are being replaced by boundless new affiliations and connect-the-dots collaboration. So what happens when your best people aren’t your people at all? Let the innovation experts show you how to throw away your checklist, sync your strategies and practices, and create new solutions in new ways that will help your community grow.

Bio: Jeff DeGraff teaches popular MBA and Executive Education courses on leading creativity and innovation. Jeff’s research and writing focuses on syncing up creativity and innovation strategy, competency and culture development, practices and methods, and leadership. He is the founder and director of the Certified Professional Innovator Certificate Program. He has co-authored several books on innovation and runs a leading innovation institute, Innovatrium (www.innovatrium.org).

Jennifer H. Goulet
President & CEO, ArtServe Michigan
Topic of Presentation: Creative State MI: The Arts and Creativity as a Strategy for Michigan Communities

The arts, culture and creative industries are a powerful asset in Michigan’s reinvention – creating vibrant places across our state that attract talent and business, contributing jobs and spending to our economy, strengthening Michigan’s tourism industry, and generating a creative “vibe” that fuels innovation, growth and promise for the future.  Learn how you can put the arts and creativity to work in your community’s future, through the experiences of local arts leaders whose organizations engaged community partners and stakeholders in shaping visions and strategies for how the arts, culture and creative industries will define a “sense of place”, fuel economic growth, and transform community life.  This session will feature two leading initiatives --  the Washtenaw County Cultural Master Plan and Art Works:  Creative Invention/Reinvention -- A Collaborative Cultural Economic Development Plan for Greater Lansing’s Urban Center.

Bio: Jennifer H. Goulet is the President of ArtServe Michigan, providing leadership, vision and management for the organization's work in advocacy, capacity building and strategic communications. She joined ArtServe's staff in 2007 as its Director of Development, was promoted to the position of Director of Organizational Advancement in 2008, and assumed the role of President and CEO in February 2009. As a former Board member for the Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies, Goulet served on the merger negotiations team for the ArtServe/MACAA merger that was effective in October 2006 and ArtServe Michigan's post-merger transitional Board and Executive Committee.

Chris Leinberger
President, LOCUS; Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow
Welcome to the Future: The Rise of Walkable Urbanism
The convergence of the two largest generations in American history—baby boomers and millennials—is creating a profound structural shift in demographics and real estate. Both are driving market demand for walkable urban centers in core cities and inner-ring suburbs. Christopher Leinberger—author, developer, president of LOCUS, visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and professor of urban and regional planning—will  present a compelling case for what Michigan must do to take advantage of this shift, while growing the economy and creating jobs.

BIO: Chris Leinberger is president of Locus, Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors; the Charles Bendit Distinguished Scholar and Research Professor, George Washington University School of Business; Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution in Washington DC; and a founding partner of Arcadia Land Company, a New Urbanism and transitoriented development firm. His most recent book is "The Option of Urbanism, Investing in a New American Dream." He is an Op-Ed contributor to the The New York Times, writes regularly for The Atlantic
Monthly and numerous other magazines. CNN, National Public Radio, Atlantic Cities Channel, Washington Post, among others, have profiled him. Leinberger was voted one of the “Top 100 Urban Thinkers” in a 2009 poll conducted by Planetizen, the international urban planning website. He was the 2010 William H. Whyte Urbanism Award winner by Partners for Livable Communities.

Chuck Marohn
Executive Director, Strong Towns
Topic of Presentation: Physical Design & Sustainability
An author of Curbside Chat: a candid talk about the future of America’s cities, towns, and neighborhoods, Chuck Marohn will challenge our collective beliefs on growth and development.  Chuck will share Strong Town’s Principles of Placemaking which help build resilient communities, and concepts that everyone concerned with Michigan’s cities and villages should know and understand.

Bio: Charles Marohn, known as "Chuck" to friends and colleagues, is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He has a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Click here to watch a video of Marohn discussing the difference between streets and roads.

Josh McManus
Lead Inventor, Little Things Labs
Topic of Presentation: Civic Engagement: Putting People into Place

We’ve all heard that attracting and keeping talent is the creative lifeblood of any city seeking to grow into the 21st century and beyond.  But placemaking can’t work without people—and that means connecting people quickly to the other bright people, places and work they’re passionate about. As the founder of the D:hive and CreateHere, Josh McManus will share his own real-world examples of bringing new talent together to bring new ideas, new businesses, new uses of existing infrastructure, and new tax bases to any city.

Bio: Josh McManus is Curator of Little Things Laboratories, an independent innovation laboratory that identifies and acts on pressing problems and emerging opportunities in mid-sized and post-industrial cities. Current projects include the D:hive, a place-based talent retention and attraction storefront in Detroit, Michigan, Haile’s Kitchen, a foundation innovation model in Cincinnati, Ohio. Josh also co-founded CreateHere, a watershed place-based talent retention and cultural change project in Chattanooga, Tennessee that sparked over 300 creative enterprises, stimulated over $4 million in real estate purchases, retained and attracted thousands of individuals to the city along with championing the world’s largest community visioning process with 26,263 surveys collected and is Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Ashoka in Washington, D.C.

Click here to see the full agenda.