Whether it’s black-and-gold-clad University of Iowa students swarming Kinnick Stadium, Frisbee games on the Pentacrest, or its lively downtown scene, Iowa City brims with the kind of vibrant energy that a growing number of communities are converting into innovative partnerships.
Those partnerships are the subject of a free conference that will be held in Iowa City Sept. 19-20. The Midwest Creative College Town Conference will feature business and cultural start-up leaders from Iowa City and two other Midwest college towns: East Lansing, Michigan, and Lincoln, Nebraska.
In a series of panel discussions featuring community, business, and university leaders, the conference will explore how college towns are becoming centers for co-working space where entrepreneurs can network and develop ideas and small businesses, making downtowns center of economic innovation.
College towns are also becoming places for cultural entrepreneurship, as Iowa City has seen with start-ups like FilmScene and the Mission Creek Festival.
“There’s a lot of new energy all the time,” says Lynn Allendorf, director of the University of Iowa’s John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center (JPEC). “New ideas, new opportunities. Every year we have a whole new crop of business ideas we’ve never heard of the year before.”
The UI School of Urban and Regional Planning in the Graduate College is hosting the conference to commemorate its 50th anniversary. For more information about the conference, visit http://urban.uiowa.edu/midwest-creative-college-town-conference#.
Co-sponsors include the following: the Iowa City Downtown District; the UI Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities; the UI Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development: the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies; the UI Office of Outreach and Engagement; the UI Public Policy Center; and the City of Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.
Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in these events, contact Pam Butler in the School of Urban and Regional Planning in advance at 319-335-0033.