The Innovative City

Bruce Katz

Urban Policy Expert and Author

Bruce Katz is the Co-Founder (with Jeremy Nowak) of New Localism Advisors. The mission of the firm is to help cities design, finance and deliver transformative initiatives that promote inclusive and sustainable growth.

Katz regularly advises global, national, state, regional and municipal leaders on public reforms and private innovations that advance the well-being of metropolitan areas and their countries.

Katz is the co-author of The New Localism: How Cities Can Thrive in the Age of Populism (Brookings Institution Press, 2018) and The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy (Brookings Institution Press, 2013). Both books focus on the rise of cities and city networks as the world’s leading problem solvers.

Chris Fair

CEO, Resonance Consultancy

A futurist, facilitator and strategist, Chris holds a Masters degree in Studies of the Future and has married his tourism, economic development, real estate and and marketing expertise with futures methodologies to help a wide variety of clients envision and create development strategies, plans and brands that shape the future of places around the world. As President of Resonance Consultancy, Chris leads a team that has completed more than 100 visioning, strategy, planning, and branding projects for developers and destinations in more than 30 destinations.

He has been featured in Fast Company magazine and is a frequent commentator on lifestyle and leisure trends for leading publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Globe & Mail, Los Angeles Times, The Economist and Worth magazine. In 2013, Chris was recognized as the “Place Branding Thought Leader of the Year” at the World Sense of Place Summit.

Dr Tim Moonen

Director, The Business of Cities

Dr Tim Moonen is Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Business of Cities, an urban intelligence firm based in London that works with leaders in 100 cities, 30 national governments, and 50 global companies and organisations. The co-author of World Cities and Nation States and Creating Great Australian Cities, Tim has been working for 15 years with partners such as the World Bank, OECD, Brookings Institution and Urban Land Institute on strategies for city leadership, long-term planning, city identity, performance benchmarking, and the innovation economy. Tim chairs senior advisory boards and stakeholder engagements on behalf of cities, businesses and places, and teaches executive-level city education for international companies and universities.

Emma Frost

Chair, UK Innovation Districts Group

Emma is highly experienced in delivering strategic integrated urban regeneration programmes. She has been working on the London Olympic and Paralympic Legacy since 2006 and has overseen all aspects of Innovation, sustainability, community and business development across Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (including stakeholder management, education, community development, youth engagement, consultation, enterprise and business development, volunteering and sports outreach). She now leads SHIFT – the inclusive innovation district at the Olympic Park.

Emma is passionate about enabling inclusive innovation – drawing on her sustainability and community skills as well as extensive urban and economic development experience. Emma is a Chair of the UK Innovation Districts Group, a teaching fellow as part of the London & Partners Open Innovation programme and an RSA fellow. She is also a co-founder of Echo , a board member for Kingston First BID and Trustee of the One Percent Scheme.

Greg Clark

Urbanist and Author

Prof Greg Clark CBE FAcSS is Chair of the Connected Places Catapult, a Board member of Transport For London and the London LE, and a former Group Advisor at HSBC. He is a Civic Leader, writer, Non-Executive Director, and Board Chair, working with Investors, Businesses, Governments, and Cities to help navigate this compelling century, inspire new collaborations, and forge new futures.

Steven Pedigo

Professor of Practice, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas

Steven is a professor of practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the director of the LBJ Urban Lab. He is also director of research and advising for the Creative Class Group and VP, Economic Development, at Resonance Consultancy.