Urban Innovation

An event hosted by the Institute’s Center for Urban Innovation explored how digitalization and automation encourages new approaches to city governance.

The Institute along with The Atlantic and Bloomberg Philanthropies hosted the sixth annual CityLab: Urban Solutions to Global Challenges, a forum to highlight innovative urban strategies and leadership.

In October, the Socrates Program and the New Orleans Business Alliance partnered for a special Socrates Salon, “Change and Opportunity: The Future of Work and Learning.”

Behavioral science strategies like offering prizes are getting people into public transit.

Sidewalk Labs is building a prototype for the urban future on Toronto’s Eastern Waterfront. This project asks us to re-think relationships between governments, the private sector, and residents. Dan Doctoroff, Founder and CEO, Sidewalk Labs joins Jennifer Bradley, Executive Director, Center for Urban Innovation, The Aspen Institute at CityLab Detroit.

Alberto Ibargüen, President of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation sits down with Jennifer Bradley, Director of the Center for Urban Innovation, The Aspen Institute to discuss how technology is changing citizenship around the world at CityLab Detroit.

The Honorable Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, in conversation with Aspen Institute president and CEO Dan Porterfield as part of the McCloskey Speaker Series.

A More Inclusive Approach to Venture Capital: Action Steps for Venture Capitalists, Ecosystem Builders, and Philanthropies is a guide for creating a more inclusive venture capital ecosystem. The guide includes action steps, organized both by type of actor and by time frame for implementation, surfaced at a day-long, off-the-record convening focused on how the venture capital ecosystem can be more inclusive and accessible to a wide range of founders, and how venture funds dedicated to supporting women and people of color can be smarter about bolstering investment returns. 

Urban innovators share a commitment to using new approaches, and often new technologies, to tackle long-standing challenges that seem unsolvable to others and that affect a large number of cities.  Despite urban innovators’ insightful ideas on new ways to solve metropolitan areas’ most difficult challenges, many lack access to critical resources, tools, and funding.