World Economic Forum Hosts Urban Transformation Summit

Metro21 Executive Director represented Carnegie Mellon University at the World Economic Forum's Urban Transformation Summit in Detroit, MI on December 9, 2021, where she met with mayors and city experts for a conversation about their plans and lessons learned from past experiences with federal stimulus funding.  

At the World Economic Forum's inaugural Urban Transformation Summit,  global leaders underscored the need for increased public-private collaboration to capitalize on new infrastructure funding and tackle growing urban challenges around the globe.

Eight cities in Latin America, Africa and Asia – Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Lagos, Dhaka, Jakarta, Kigali, Nairobi, and Rio de Janeiro – have designated neighbourhoods as urban testbeds for new businesses, products and services that can improve quality of life for local residents and mitigate social and environmental challenges associated with rapid urbanization.

Following a four-month review of key barriers to public-private collaboration in cities, the World Economic Forum and its partners announced plans to develop new resources and tools to help cities better coordinate place-based strategies and accelerate community partnerships.

Design Core Detroit will lead a participatory design process in collaboration with the Forum to design a Fellowship Program in Detroit. The design process will identify and map new opportunities to scale community-based solutions that will connect Forum business partners to contribute technical assistance towards achieving community-led goals.

Plans for the next edition of the Urban Transformation Summit have already been set in motion. The event will convene once again in Detroit, 11-13 October 2022.

View the sessions from the Urban Transformation Summit here.