Over 400 leaders from 75 US cities are descending upon Columbus this week for the CEOs for Cities annual meeting. The organization, which aims to bring together thought leaders from both the public and private sector, is hosting a series of speakers, panels, presentations and local group tours that will highlight not only national issues, but will also shine a spotlight on local accomplishments.
“Columbus is the ideal setting for leading doers making things happen in their communities and leading advocates for communities of opportunity, sustainability, and equity,” said Doug Kridler, President and CEO of The Columbus Foundation, who helped to spearhead the effort to bring the conference to Columbus.
Some of the national speakers at this year’s event include Angela Glover Blackwell, President and CEO of PolicyLink; Harvard Professor Jan W. Rivkin; Gabriel Metcalf, President and CEO of San Francisco-based SPUR; and Dr. Manual Pastor, author of Equity, Growth, and Community: What the Nation Can Learn from America’s Metro Areas and Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California.
Columbus Underground has participated in previous CEOs for Cities events held in Grand Rapids in 2013 and Indianapolis in 2015, both as media reporters and as entrepreneurial ambassadors and thought leaders. The placement of the event in Columbus seems like a natural fit, based on what CEOs for Cities CEO Lee Fisher told Columbus Underground in 2013:
“Occasionally I run into cities who think they know it all,” said Fisher, who also previously served as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio under Ted Strickland. “I’m not going to name names, but these are usually cities that are big and famous and they don’t think there’s anything new that they could possibly learn from a city like Columbus. Those cities are eventually not going to succeed. The cities that will succeed are the ones who continue to fight above their weight, because they don’t take anything for granted.”
The 2016 CEOs for Cities National Meeting takes place Tuesday, September 27th through Thursday, September 29th.
For more information, visit www.ceosforcitiesnationalmeeting.org.