BNMC Joins Steering Committee with Global Innovation District Leaders, Highlighted in Research Brief

For more than 15 years, we have been working together with our partners to create a collaborative and inclusive innovation district. In 2014, a paper by the Brookings Institution on the rise of innovation districts supported our efforts in this area and gave a name to the anchors and innovators plus model that we had been creating.

The BNMC is proud to be a part of the steering committee for the Global Institute on Innovation Districts (GIID), global leaders working together to network innovation districts, and to be featured in a new research brief released today by GIID, “The Evolution of Innovation Districts: The New Geography of Global Innovation,” written by Julie Wagner, Bruce Katz, and Thomas Osha.

More than 100 innovation districts exist around the world today with 200 more poised to come online soon, as stated in the report. The authors note: “Roughly twenty districts have reached a high level of sophistication, concentrating in close proximity a mix of research institutions, mature companies, start-ups and scale-ups, co-working spaces, and supportive intermediaries.” We are proud to be one of these 20 districts leading this new form of economic development as we seek to create a national model to rebuild communities using social design through our MutualCity methodology.

According to the authors, “Districts, by their nature, are living labs where creativity and experimentation intersect with the precision of science. Districts are places that fan the flames of organic, evolutionary growth but also drive intentional, deliberate change.”

This perfectly describes what we have been doing here in Buffalo through MutualCity. MutualCity is a practical manual for urban change—from crafting a vision to managing the inevitable conflicts and challenges. We develop this playbook through the principles of mutual understanding, connection, action, collaboration, investment, adaptiveness, and continually asking “what if?”

We operate through a collaborative model that brings diverse stakeholders together under a shared vision to leverage opportunities and challenges faced by our community to create a better future for all. We have successfully implemented this model throughout the past 15 years. And while this process takes time and is not a silver bullet, we believe working together is the only way to enact real change.

We look forward to being a part of the new Global Institute, to both learn from our peers around the world and to continue to play a leadership role in building this vital and inspiring economic driver for our region.