Reports

Young and Restless Reports

Working with Joe Cortright of Impresa, Inc., in Portland, Oregon, Smart City Consulting has co-produced a first-of-its-kind study on where talented 25-34 year-old workers are moving in America and why. Their movement is a critical factor in a city’s ability to succeed in the Knowledge Economy.

Young and Restless reports track the movement of young workers, identifies the factors attracting them to a city, identifies the policy implications and recommends specific ways that a city can win in the competition for these workers.

This research is vital to civic and business leaders and others involved in economic development and growth. The Young and Restless reports inspired a continuing national discussion about talent and put strategies for attracting and retaining these workers on every city’s agenda. The reports have been spotlighted in national media coverage, including a front page article in the New York Times about how Atlanta’s Young and Restless report became the basis for a new marketing campaign by the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce.

Download the reports here: (PDF)
Tampa (1.5 MB) | Portland (2.3 MB) | Providence (4.6 MB)
Richmond (2.3 MB) | Atlanta (3.7 MB) | Philadelphia (2.0 MB)

*Reports appear in the Adobe PDF format and can be viewed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The Memphis Manifesto: The Call to Action for Cities

Smart City Consulting conceived, organized and co-hosted the first meeting of the “creative class” to develop a call to action for cities of North America.

Convening the Creative 100 from 48 cities in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, and 25 of their Memphis counterparts, Smart City Consulting led the development of 10 principles – The Memphis Manifesto -- that should guide the policies and priorities of cities. Drawing on a dozen of our colleagues from academia, economic development, the arts, media, consulting, and more, Smart City Consulting facilitated a process that inspired spirited discussion and the creation of the seminal Memphis Manifesto in just three days.

As creator of the Memphis Manifesto Summit, Smart City Consulting has a deep understanding of the spirit and impact of its principles.

Smart City Consulting can help your city understand and integrate these strategies into its civic fabric. Our unique diagnostic approach and our creative, action-oriented recommendations can instill creativity as a force in your city.

The principles and details about the Summit are available at www.memphismanifesto.com.

Cultural Development in Creative Communities.

The monograph, Smart City Consulting founder Carol Coletta co-authored for Americans for the Arts on the role that culture can play in the development of creative communities is the basis for the firm's consulting work with cities on the how cultural development can be used for economic and community development. The monograph reviewed the history of links between arts and place making and economic development; used Portland, Oregon, as a case study for best practices; listed the implications for community cultural development and planning and actions that can be taken by cities; and capturing creative capital to become civic capital.

The monograph for Americans for the Arts was written with Bill Bulick of Creative Planning as principal writer; Andrew Taylor, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration; Colin Jackson, president of EPCOR Center for the Performing Arts in Calgary; and Steven A. Wolff, founding principal of AMS Planning & Research Corp.

Read the monograph here.

The Talent Magnet Project: Attracting and Retaining Creative Workers for Your City.

Huntsville Talent Magnet Report
(Adobe PDF, 680 KB)

Conceived and developed by Smart City Consulting, the Memphis Talent Magnet Project was the first time Dr. Richard Florida’s groundbreaking research on the “creative class” was applied to a city. Working with the support of Florida, Smart City Consulting produced a report for Memphis that used focus groups, interviews, research and analysis to recommend specific actions for Memphis to attract and retain the young, mobile professionals fueling the Creative Economy.

The report is the definitive document of its kind, and its impact on cities has been featured in the New York Times.

Smart City Consulting was recently commissioned by the City of Huntsville to produce that city’s own Talent Magnet Report. You can read it here. Smart City Consulting uses its unique approach and experience to evaluate your city and recommend actions that will attract and retain the talent needed for your city’s competitiveness. Click here to read the first Talent Magnet Report for Memphis.

Smart City Scenarios

Making good decisions is increasingly challenging. Why? Information overload, a galloping rate of change, rising uncertainty, and few historical precedents are just some of the factors that complicate decision-making.

But some of the biggest organizational failures of our time can be blamed squarely on a failure of imagination. There can be no conception without pre-conception. You see what you expect to see. Assumptions filter what gets through, and weak signals are filtered out because they don't fit expectations or the existing frame of reference.

To imagine possible new futures, organizations must force the creation of new frames of reference. One effective way to do that is with scenarios. Scenarios are not forecasts. Instead, they describe alternative futures relevant to your organization. Scenarios acknowledge developing trends, then use the power of storytelling to challenge assumptions and pose the question of "What if?"

Smart City Consulting can help your organization imagine a broader set of possibilities for the future by developing a set of scenarios tailor-made for you.

Excerpts from recent scenarios developed for local government are available here. Soon, we will post excerpts from our work on "The Future of Cities."

To find out how your organization can use scenarios to help see the future, contact us at info@smartcityconsulting.com or call us at 901.528.0800.