Forward Cities Conference: Notes

9 min readJun 15, 2019

Below is a summary of my conclusions, ideas, and questions from the Forward Cities Conference.

This week, I had the opportunity to attend the Forward Cities Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Forward Cities is a national capacity-building and learning network working within and between cities and micropolitans to create more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem development. Learn more about the conference here.

I was able to attend with a group from New Haven (see above — just missing Drew Alden!). Thank you to the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven for the opportunity to attend!

Summary

My core thesis and conclusion from the conference.

After attending Forward Cities, it is very clear the foundational role of accessible entrepreneurship in the inclusive economic growth of New Haven. In an evolving economy that needs to focus on lifelong learning skills, entrepreneurship is a critical career path.

For mid-sized cities across the country, their leading accessible entrepreneurship work centers two core activities:

Bringing together stakeholders around the work — in a way that is deeply led by the community.
Building a local, culturally-sensitive, inclusive accelerator.

Our next step is answering: What does it actually cost (in time, funding, and resources) to support underserved entrepreneurs on a path to success? And then we commit to shifting resources into this kind of skill-building and into these entrepreneurs.

Conclusions

Here is more detail on my core conclusions from the conference — at a systems-level, organization-level, and personal-level.

Systems-level: I have increased confidence about the role of accessible entrepreneurship in the inclusive economic growth of New Haven.

Often times, we are still preparing people for jobs that will be replaced. Instead, we ought to be investing in and teaching the lifelong learning skills that entrepreneurship prepares us for. Entrepreneurship is part of the 4th industrial age. Therefore, we need to socialize entrepreneurship as a career path. Inspired by Rodney Sampson of Opportunity Hub’s Keynote.

“Entrepreneurship is the fastest vehicle to uplift communities economically.” — Gabriel Munoz, Kansas City, MO Forward Cities Director

When Circles PGH surveyed their community, they asked the question: What are your wealth-building goals? Overwhelmingly, the answer was entrepreneurship. Inspired by Circles PGH Executive Director, Tammy Thompson.
And, more generally, the conference included 33 member cities from across the country that are deeply investing in this work — most postindustrial, most mid-sized. New Haven could be part of a building movement of knowledge-sharing, across-city accountability, towards racial and gender equity.

Systems-level: I recognize that, in order to do this work, we need more people/partners aligned in New Haven. And that alignment ought to focus on a community-led, culturally conscious model.

Organizations need to build pathways for underserved entrepreneurs and individuals to not just participate, but lead these inclusive growth efforts.
Individuals and institutions need to invest in implicit bias and undoing racism training in order to do this work effectively.
Alignment groups include community members, activists, local politicians, the Chamber of Commerce, Yale and the hospital, city government, and more.
Patience will be required to change internal cultures, as well as to build relationships and understanding across cultures. Inspired by LISC.
In particular, in moving towards alignment, we need to shift from more than a “community-engaged/aware” model to a “community-led” model — where power is truly shared. Inspired by PittCEC and LISC.

Organization-level: I have increased confidence in the role of accelerators and believe we ought to work to calculate the level of investment it will truly take to support entrepreneurs of color.

In the Forward Cities work on community convenings in their member cities, the solutions offered by community members were consistently building a local, culturally-sensitive inclusive incubator. Inspired by the CEA snapshots presentations.
Let’s answer what it actually costs to support an entrepreneur of color, woman entrepreneur, or immigrant entrepreneur and set them on the path to success. Once we do that, let’s think about shifting resources into this kind of skill-building and into these entrepreneurs. Inspired by the Rodney Sampson Keynote.

Personal level: As a Yale alum, I have a role and responsibility to work with others to support a healthy, transformative relationship between Yale and New Haven.

Like anchor institutions across the country, Yale needs inclusive economic growth to be an institutional priority — which means going deep and forming long-standing, mutual relationships around investment in neighborhoods.
The New Haven and Yale relationship has been a focus since I was a freshman at school. Collab was born out of a shared focus between Margaret and me on building spaces with student and residents could build power together. I recently finished New Haven and Yale — a collection of stories about the New Haven and Yale relationship. Forward Cities left me with case studies, policy ideas, and more models for what New Haven and Yale could do together, for each other, with each other.

Ideas

Here are some concrete ideas from the conference.

For Collab

Event: Organize a small business tour where we invite service providers, the city, etc. to visit small businesses to ask how they can support. Inspired by Kansas City, MO.
Marketing: Start an Inclusive Entrepreneurship Campaign, including a video series with entrepreneurs talking about issues including confidence, ownership. Inspired by Pittsburgh, PA.
Internal: Take implicit bias training, Undoing Racism Workshops — and invite others to attend and participate as well.
Resources/Marketing: Do a photoshoot with our ventures to provide them with headshots for their business cards, websites, etc. Inspired by 1HoodMedia, that does a photoshoot every year with their artists.
Metrics/Language: Not only focus on big data, but “thick” data — which includes a blend of quantitative and qualitative data.
Internal: Manchester Bidwell, for each of their focus-areas has an Advisory Board. Should we have an advisory board/mentor board for each industry?
Language: Instead of “free”, let’s consider saying “at no cost”. Inspired by Manchester Bidwell Corporation.
Partnership: Talked with Kim Harris about a partnership in Newhallville where we have a Collab station/office hours/program contributing to a “Newhallville University of Entrepreneurship” providing back office support, classes, and a storefront to Newhallville entrepreneurs that are currently running legal/illegal side hustles.
Partnership: Work with New Haven Promise to provide entrepreneurship programming to scholars.
Partnership: Work with the city or developers to have a retail space in commercial district for entrepreneurs. Circles PGH leases space in East Liberty neighborhood for less than 1% the cost (which is $15-$20k).
Partnership: Identify and work with black-owned accounting, legal, and marketing firms to work with our entrepreneurs — to support their businesses.
Annual Report: Include our challenges/failures, as well as letters/personal statements from Co-Directors.

For friends

Anthony Allen — Look into Voodoo Brewing started in Pennsylvania; craft breweries are the 5th largest employer in PA. Also check out FreshFest, a black-owned brewing festival.
Elizabeth Nearing — A different framing of the question you ask a lot: How can people be their authentic selves during the planning process in cities?
Will Viederman/Sarah Locke — Thoughts on Rodney Sampson’s “Policy as products”?

For New Haven

New Haven could look into building something like the August Wilson Center — a black-centered history and events center.
Start a survey campaign to ask New Haven kids: What do you want to be when you grow up in New Haven? This could give us a sense of the state of economic health, progress in city.
Inclusive growth’s goals in New Haven could be similar to Forward Cities, which uses the language of: “Build awareness (racial equity, asset based community) and alignment (entrepreneurs, ESOs, local governments).

For Anchor Institutions (mainly local colleges/universities)

Yale/other colleges and universities could create an Associates in Commercial Real Estate to empower people of color to become developers. Inspired by Marquette University.
Create an impact loan fund for small businesses and entrepreneurs rooted in the community. Inspired by Promedica in Toledo, OH.
Commit to spend on local businesses and contract with national vendors in exchange for local hiring commitments. Inspired by John Hopkins.
Have many public-facing senior leadership. Inspired by PittCEC.
Establish clear, concrete, and shared performance metrics to build a culture of accountability.
Focus on real power-sharing and decentralizing power — anchor cannot center solutions. Inspired by PittCEC.
Build a Neighborhood Advisory Council that shares decision-making. Inspired by PittCEC.

Quotes

Here are some statements that stuck with me.

“If it’s not for all, than it’s not for us.” — Bill Peduto, Mayor of Pittsburgh

“Entrepreneurs are largely under-connected, under-resourced, under-valued, and under-invested.” -Kim Louis, New Kensington, PA Forward Cities Director

“Entrepreneurship is the fastest vehicle to uplift communities economically.” — Gabriel Munoz, Kansas City, MO Forward Cities Director

“We cannot achieve our full potential if we leave people behind. If we do not act, economic growth in the region will lead to widening wealth/income inequality.” Wasi Mohamed, Pittsburgh, PA Forward Cities Director

“There’s plenty to do. I just picked something and got started.” -Khamil Scantling, Cocoapreneur

“I never wanted to be a person that walled through a door and closed it shut behind me” -Jasiri X, 1HoodMedia

“The only type of capital for the under-served is debt.” — Rodney Sampson, Opportunity Hub

“There is a powerful economic argument for inclusion.” PittCEC

Questions

Here are some questions I am leaving Forward Cities with, many I had the opportunity to ask.

What does collective impact around inclusive growth look like in New Haven? Especially when the leadership of the ESOs, funders, and anchor institutions aren’t often representative of New Haven.
We ought to examine not just expanding who gets funding/resources but also expanding who gets to decide who gets funding/resources. When we talk about bringing grassroots and grass tops together, it needs to be more than equity in voice, but also equity in power. What is the internal work organizations need to do to provide pathways for communities/residents to not just participate and gain resources but lead the decision-making in this work?
What does it actually cost to support under-served entrepreneurs and build the pathway to their success?
Can our vision of equity truly materialize in a capitalist economic system?
Building off the idea of identifying shared value among stakeholders, I believe the world we want requires massive redistribution of wealth and power that will sometimes feel like sacrifice to those that hold wealth and power. How do we work through tension between finding mutual benefit and the actual policies required from transformative change?
What are some of the possible risks with opportunity zones? And what values do we need to mitigate those risks?