Saturday, June 23, 2007

This Week On Smart City: Jumpstarting Innovation

Innovation is now viewed as America's economic salvation. Every urban leader is trying to figure out how to get more of it. And they couldn't find a better adviser than Richard Lester. As founding director of the Industrial Performance Center at MIT, Richard has led major studies of regional innovation performance and he co-authored Innovation - The Missing Dimension on sources of creativity and innovation.

Also with us is innovator and serial entrepreneur Robin Chase, founder of ZipCar. Today, the hourly rental service has 50,000 users in 10 cities. With her latest company, GoLoco, Robin hopes to jumpstart ride sharing in America.

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, which also has a listing of broadcast times in other cities and the sign up for a weekly newsletter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Smartcity,
I know that you would just as soon demolish the Pyramid, but tell me if you think this idea makes any sense at all: turn the Pyramid into a museum of medical history. Instead of a monument to the life of a single individual,our Pyramid might be a monument to the art of healing throughout history, from the ancients to the modern (i.e., St. Jude). Thematically, it just made sense to me given the fact that the Pyramid directly faces the St. Jude medical complex (and given the importance of the bio-medical industry to our city). It may be a completely nutty idea, but I think that if the city is going to keep the structure in tact that whatever is housed there should be in keeping with the dignity of the area- that area includes the seat of county, city, state and federal government and St. Jude.

Smart City Consulting said...

Actually, this isn't so far away from something that we've suggested before, which is selling (or even giving) The Pyramid to St. Jude's. The inclinator could go to the apex where there is an interactive attraction on some theme related to healing and St. Jude's. As we've said, it was natural to think that the apex overlooked the river, but in truth, it overlooks St. Jude's just as dramatically.