What’s next for Pittsburgh?
Take an active role in shaping our city’s future by joining us for the next Social innovation eXchange (SiX) on Monday, September 24th at 6 pm at the New Hazlett Theater. Register here.
The Event
The year is 2015. What makes the news? You create the headline. As newsmakers for the night, you’ll sit on editorial boards and tell the story of social innovation in Pittsburgh through headlines about the people, places and projects creating change in our region. The issue can be as diverse as placemaking, health care, the arts, education and social justice. The future is ours to shape; be a part of it!
Here are some sample headlines to get you started: “Homewood leads the way in green right-sizing” or “Southside anti-litter campaign serves as model for other cities” or “Pittsburgh lauded nationally as a model community for learning in the 21st century.” Join the conversation about this event at Engage! Pop City and post your headline now if you’d like. This is your chance to make your idea heard.
How does this work?
Social innovation requires us to think differently about how to solve tough social problems; it’s getting different people together around the table, from techies and artists to business folks to those already working on the issues, to work collaboratively in finding new solutions. So each editorial board will choose one idea from their group to work on and with the benefit of diverse individuals from various sectors, shape that idea to make it more dynamic and viable.
But it’s not just coming up with ideas. It’s putting good ideas to work.
At the end of the session, we’ll hear from each group in brief but powerful presentations that announce the headline and the who/what/when/where/why back story. The Sprout Fund will then announce an RFP of $15,000 to fund one of the ideas. And Pop City will follow up with news and stories about the best ideas from the event to help get the word out. We’ll even rally the support of the online community through our recently launched Engage! Pop City where anyone can join the conversation and help find solutions.
To kick things off at our event, Josh McManus of Little Big Things, an innovation lab “translating pressing problems into transformative opportunities in cities,” will give us tools to help our work in social innovation. (See his bio below.) So you’ll not only learn more about social innovation but you’ll also learn how to get involved to get things done. Josh will introduce you to exciting projects that have been transformative in other cities. And you’ll have the chance to work with other smart, engaged people in thinking through ways to get things done in Pittsburgh.
Register now since we expect the event to sell out shortly. Please note a limit of two people per organization (for orgs of 15 people or fewer).
The Social innovation eXchange, otherwise known as SiX, is an event series brought to you by The Pittsburgh Foundation in concert with Pop City and The Sprout Fund and sponsored in part by the Benedum Foundation, the Buhl Foundation and an anonymous foundation.
Josh McManus’ bio: His current projects include the D:hive, a place-based talent retention and attraction storefront in Detroit, Michigan, Haile’s Kitchen, a foundation innovation model in Cincinnati, Ohio, and PlaceMarket, an open-source platform for city idea exchange. Josh co-founded CreateHere, a place-based talent retention and cultural change project in Chattanooga, that sparked over 300 creative enterprises and over $4 million in real estate purchases, and retained and attracted thousands of individuals to the city along with championing the world’s largest community visioning process with 26,263 surveys collected.
Josh is a constant advocate for using design theory to advance social, cultural and economic progress. In his personal time, he likes to build catalytic cultural projects like Track 29, a performance venue for up to 2,000 people and Bring it Together, a project that can makeover a public school in a weeks time.