The
Annual Meeting of Mayors was held in Boston over this past weekend. ~250 mayors attended. We heard from mayors of Atlanta, Boston, Miami, Dallas, LA, New Orleans, Austin, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Niagara Falls, Dayton, Metro Detroit and others.
Issues covered included the environment, public private partnerships, smart cities, cyber security, infrastructure, traffic including bikes and autonomous cars, immigration, opioids, inclusive employment, education, pharma, gun violence, poverty, affordable housing, homelessness, water quality and energy.
There was a "shark tank" conducted for civic-tech companies where mayors acted as judges. Aging in Place was a winning idea. Joe Coughlin's students who founded Nesterly and inter-generation home sharing company, won a prize (
https://www.nesterly.io). They are already operational in Boston.
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| Mayoral Shark Tank |
We had a conversation with the mayors Benjamin of Columbia SC and Walsh of Boston on Public Private Partnerships in cities.
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| Our conversation on Public Private Partnerships |
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| Mayor of Dallas and NFL player Emmitt Smith on promoting entrepreneurship |
My childhood friend Dave Mayer, who is mayor of Gloucester township won an award for most innovative program to deal with the opioid crisis.
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| Mayor Dave Mayer |
The conference was an excellent opportunity to see how our enterprise engages with civic leadership. And a chance to see our issues framed in the overall context of civic priorities.
