2018 Towerside Forum

April 30, 2018 by towersideadmin

Innovation Matters. Innovation is essential to the future of our communities and economy, and the matters of Innovation are as diverse as the leaders making progress across the Twin Cities. On April 25th, Towerside Innovation District's member organizations and supporters gathered at University Enterprise Laboratories to learn about the latest projects and to hear the perspectives of five area stakeholders.

As Simon Sinek's mantra goes, we must start with Why. On April 25th Towerside’s members and community constituents gathered to take a momentary step back from the day-to-day WHAT and HOW of this work in order to engage with four stakeholder perspectives behind WHY Innovation Matters.

It matters because the origin of Towerside, it’s WHY, is grounded in the unmatched potential of it’s vision to produce some of the most significant community and economic development growth opportunities Saint Paul and Minneapolis will be able to claim for generations. The running theme throughout the morning was connectivity, and the things we share.

These four presentations demonstrated how a district-approach to redevelopment through systems change and policy change can dovetail projects and stack not only functions but their workflow and outcomes. Together, these origin stories put Towerside’s broader vision into context and highlighted how the district’s partnership of people and organizations have aligned themselves under a shared vision in order to work together and tackle shared challenges that create collective impacts.

Dakota Acknowledgement & Nibi Songs

Sharon Day, Anishinaabe Water Walker

State of Towerside

Alan Arthur, President & CEO, Aeon; Towerside Innovation District Board Chairperson

Stewardship of Community Assets

Dan Kalmon, Planning Principal & Bruce Jacobson, Consultant, MWMO

Enabling Entrepreneurship

Carrie & Tory Christensen, Owners & Partners, Wetland Habitat Restorations

Nurturing Place & Culture

Karl Reichert, Executive Director, Textile Center

Building National Models of Sustainable Districts

Rob Bennett, Executive Director &

Brionté McCorkle, Engagement Director, EcoDistricts