J. Walker Smith

J. Walker Smith, is president of Yankelovich Partners, Inc., a marketing services consultancy specializing in lifestyle trends and marketing productivity solutions. Walker is co-author of Rocking the Ages: The Yankelovich Report on Generational Marketing (1997), a highly regarded assessment of generational marketing strategies, and Life Is Not Work, Work Is Not Life: Simple Reminders for Finding Balance in a 24/7 World (2001), a collection of short essays and personal reflections on work/life balance picked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the ten best work-life books of 2001. His new book is Coming to Concurrence: Addressable Attitudes and the New Model for Marketing Productivity (2005), excerpts of which have been published, among other places, in BrandWeek, DIRECT, and AdAge POINT.

Described by Fortune magazine as "one of America's leading analysts on consumer trends," Walker is a much sought after speaker and authority on social trends in America whose quotable insights appear regularly in the national media and business press. He does a weekly commentary called "City Views" for Smart City, a nationally-syndicated public radio show about cities and community life, as well as regular columns in Marketing Management magazine and in Media magazine. Walker and his ideas and insights have been prominently featured and profiled in many publications including a May 1998 American Demographics cover story about him.

Otis White

Otis White, White is president of Civic Strategies, Inc., a research and consulting firm specializing in civic leadership issues. Civic Strategies helps governments, companies and non-profit organizations understand the forces shaping metropolitan areas and thrive in these changing environments. Otis is considered one of the country’s foremost civic leadership analysts. He has conducted in-depth analyses of numerous metro areas, from Boston to Los Angeles, San Josse to Nashville.

His firm produces a twice-monthly electronic newsletter about civic news and trends called the Civic Strategies E-Letter, and he writes a column about cities for Governing magazine. He’s also a regular commentator on the nationally syndicated public radio show, Smart City and a contributor to magazines and newspapers on civic leadership trends. Before becoming a consultant, Otis was a business journalist and magazine executive. He is former editor and publisher of Georgia Trend magazine, an award-winning business magazine, and vice president of Trend Magazines, Inc. In 1982, he won the prestigious Alicia Patterson Fellowship, allowing him to spend a year studying how computers were changing work in America.

Stephen Goldsmith

Stephen Goldsmith, is the Daniel Paul Professor of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Stephen is also the Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service and of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Civic Innovation.

Stephen previously served two terms as Mayor of Indianapolis, America’s 12th largest city. As mayor, he reduced government spending, cut the city's bureaucracy, held the line on taxes, eliminated counterproductive regulations, and identified more than $400 million in savings. He reinvested the savings by leading a transformation of downtown Indianapolis that has been held up as a national model. Stephen was chief domestic policy advisor to the George W. Bush campaign in 2000 and was district attorney for Marion County, Indiana from 1979 to 1990. Stephen has written Governing By Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector, Putting Faith in Neighborhoods: Making Cities Work through Grassroots Citizenship and The Twenty-First Century City: Resurrecting Urban America.