I'm in Carbondale, Illinois today delivering a talk at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute on "Envisioning the Gigabit City - Collaboration and the Creative Power of Diversity." It is an honor to return to Southern Illinois University, since I received an MBA from SIU.

At today’s luncheon, there will be an opportunity to meet and talk about community visioning with leaders working to turn Carbondale into a Gigabit City. Two Carbondale leaders, Gary Williams, the Economic Development Coordinator for the City of Carbondale and Steve Mitchell with Connect SI, participated in the Gigabit City Summit that The Brainzooming Group co-developed in January 2015. They had the opportunity to hear, via a Brainzooming workshop at the event, how we help foster community visioning for cities, organizations, and institutions.

In the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute talk, we’ll cover some of the same themes on community visioning with a specific emphasis on what it means in trying to build a creative economy.

You can follow the conversation on Twitter today at #CarbondaleGigabit, plus dive deeper into the content incorporated into the talk via links below:

"Envisioning the Gigabit City - Collaboration and the Creative Power of Diversity"

Appreciating Perspectives

• Creativity is key to economic growth in developing countries – London School of Economics
• Creative Quickie – A Squirrelly Story

Cultivating Diverse Ideas

• Google Fiber and Building the Gigabit City – A Brainzooming Strategic Thinking Event
• Strategic Thinking Perspectives – Three Strategic Voices to Include on Your Team
• Google Fiber in Kansas City – The Building the Gigabit City Report
• Community Visioning – Maximizing the Benefits of Challenger Voices

Creating Collaboration

• Strategic Thinking Exercises – Group Collaboration the Right Way
• A Career-Changing Business Quote – 10 Years Later

Exploiting Structure

• Creating Change and Change Management – 4 Strategy Options
• Strategic Thinking – Community Collaboration for Digital Inclusion
• Strategic Thinking Exercises – Creating Strategic Impact with a Twist

Crowd-Friendly Communication

• Google Fiber and Gigabit City – 11 Next Steps for Brainstorming Output
• Gigabit City Summit Idea: When Everything Is in the Cloud, What Does “Place” Mean?

"Measuring" the Return on Creative Ideas

• The Virtual Time Capsule – Identifying a Great Google Fiber Idea

Mike Brown

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