This Week On Smart City: Lessons In Innovation

Cities have always been hotbeds of innovation. This week, our guests offer perspectives on innovation both from the past and the future.

Steel Cities were once the very embodiment of innovation. Dr. Kenneth Thompson, associate professor of psychiatry and public health at the University of Pittsburgh, is part of an international consortium of scholars and civic leaders who are attempting to understand the shared histories of Steel Cities and how they can draw on their histories to make a new future.

Larry Keeley is helping urban leaders invent their cities' futures. In a series of Urban Innovation Workshops staged earlier this year with CEOs for Cities, Larry taught the methods of innovation to leaders in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Columbus and Memphis/Shelby County. Larry is a frequent lecturer and teacher about frontiers of innovation and strategy and he has worked with such companies as Aetna, Apple, Citigroup, ExxonMobil, Hallmark, McDonald's, Motorola, and Pfizer. Larry is co-founder, president and Thought Leader at Doblin.

Smart City is a syndicated, weekly hour-long public radio talk show that takes an in-depth look at urban life: the people, places, ideas and trends that affect us all. Host Carol Coletta talks with national and international public policy experts, economists, business leaders, artists, developers, planners and others on the pulse of city life for a penetrating discussion on urban issues.

In Memphis, Smart City is broadcast on WKNO FM, 91.1, at 9 a.m. Sundays. It is also webcast and podcast at the Smart City website. For a listing of times in other cities and to sign up for a weekly newsletter, please click here.