Techonomy and the Future of Cities: What I Learned

I spent a fascinating day this week at the Techonomy conference in Detroit, and came away with a new appreciation for why I should get out of Washington more than I do. The conference, the brainchild of Techonomy founder David Kirkpatrick and co-hosted by the Detroit Economic Club, was a fascinating and inspiring look at some of the efforts under way to revitalize a city that has probably been hit harder than any other in the country by, among other things, international trade competition, technology that has shed workers, poor governance, and the exodus to the suburbs. The focus of the conference was the current, accelerating wave of technological change and how it can be made to work in revitalizing American cities.

Here’s what I learned:

For a policy wonk, there were plenty of eye-opening, gee-whiz moments at the conference. If you haven’t yet, check out Ben Kaufman’s Quirky.com to see crowd-sourced product innovation in action, or MIT’s Senseable City Lab for the ways in which big data could transform urban living. But most of all, there was a much-needed commodity – a sense of hope and optimism that even one of the most troubled cities in America may have a much brighter future on the way.