CityTalk this Monday Nov. 18: Join Zita Cobb, Richard Florida, Bruce Katz and Jacqueline Lu to talk localism!

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Subject: CityTalk this Monday Nov. 18: Join Zita Cobb, Richard Florida, Bruce Katz and Jacqueline Lu to talk localism!

What are the Challenges and Opportunities for Localism in times of geo-political change?

Monday, November 18 | 12 p.m. ET | Live Zoom Webinar

With political transitions across North America, what are the opportunities for localism – unique place-based approaches – to build more economic, social, environmental and cultural resilience?

Join us on Monday, November 18th, at 12 p.m. ET for a dynamic panel discussion with Zita Cobb, Founder and CEO of Shorefast, Richard Florida, world-renowned Urbanist & best-selling Author; CUI Fellow & Author Bruce Katz, and Jacqueline Lu, Founder of Helpful Places.

Read about our distinguished panelists below!

Check out our speakers

Zita Cobb

Founder & CEO | Shorefast

Zita Cobb is an eighth-generation Fogo Islander, Founder and CEO of the registered Canadian charity Shorefast, and Innkeeper of the award-winning Fogo Island Inn. Zita graduated high school on Fogo Island before studying business in Ottawa, Canada. Following a successful career in high-tech, Zita returned to Fogo Island and established Shorefast and its set of social enterprises and programs to put another leg on the Island’s economy, to complement its ever-important fishery. Zita has been a Member of the Order of Canada since 2016 and was a 2020 inductee to Canada’s Business Hall of Fame. She holds honorary doctorates from McGill University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, the University of Ottawa, and Carleton University. She volunteers her full time and energy for Shorefast’s charitable initiatives and community businesses. With an enduring commitment to Fogo Island, Shorefast has expanded its scope to help activate a growing network of local economies. In 2024, Zita and Shorefast launched The Shorefast Network for Place-Based Economies with the goal to share learnings and engage with other enterprising communities in developing resources, tools, and opportunities that bring together the key pillars of society — business, government, community, and philanthropy. With this latest initiative, Shorefast applies its economic development practices to help benefit more people in more places.

Richard Florida

Urbanist and Author | Creative Class

Richard Florida is one of the world’s leading urbanists and international best-selling author of The Rise of the Creative Class. He is Visiting Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt University and University Professor at the University of Toronto and serves as Kresge Foundation Visiting Senior Fellow. He previously taught at Carnegie Mellon University and NYU and has been a visiting professor at Harvard and MIT. He is co-founder of CityLab, the leading publication devoted to cities and urbanism. He provides strategic advice to companies, foundations, and governments worldwide, and serves on the boards of several real estate development firms, venture capital firms, and investment funds.

Bruce Katz

Director, Nowak Metro Finance Lab | Drexel University

Bruce J. Katz is an American lawyer, urban policy expert and author. He is currently the Director of the Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University, having formerly served as the inaugural Centennial Scholar and Vice President at the Brookings Institution. Katz advises federal, state, and local leaders on shifting demographic and market trends as well as on policies that are critical to metropolitan prosperity (e.g., innovation, human capital, infrastructure, housing) and new forms of metropolitan governance. After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, Katz co-led the housing and urban transition team and served as a senior advisor to Shaun Donovan, the new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, for the first 100 days of the Obama administration.

Jacqueline Lu

President & CEO | Helpful Places

Jacqueline advances technology transparency and legibility for people-centered smart(er) cities. She leads Helpful Places, a social impact enterprise advancing the adoption and stewardship of Digital Trust for Places and Routines (DTPR.io), an open-source visual language and nutrition label standard designed to increase transparency and legibility for urban technology so that collaborative pathways for emerging technology can be possible. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Data Equity, Council for the Connected World and a working group member and contributor to the G20 Smart Cities Alliance. Jacqueline’s experience spans public, private and non-profit sectors. As Data Lead at Mozilla Foundation, Jacqueline led the development and implementation of their data strategy. As Director of Digital Integration at Sidewalk Labs, she led incorporating innovation objectives, technology policy and data ethics into the company’s approach to urban development projects. As the inaugural Director of Data Analytics at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, she developed the agency’s data strategy, developed the open data program and founded its first data science team. Jacqueline also spearheaded the largest participatory street tree mapping project in U.S. history, culminating in the NYC Tree Map, a digital platform for the collaborative management of NYC’s urban forest.

CityTalk Live Nov 20

Why Infrastructure Matters for the Future of Canada

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Subject: CityTalk this Monday Nov. 18: Join Zita Cobb, Richard Florida, Bruce Katz and Jacqueline Lu to talk localism!