Is Kansas City the New American City? You bet, says CityAge.
The Vancouver, BC-born, globetrotting conference CityAge returns to Kansas City, October 29-30, 2015. Alert city-tech watchers will remember this as one of the first conferences to be hosted by the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, back in the Google-Fiber-is-coming year of 2012.
This year’s visit, subtitled “The New American City,” lands at the Gallery in the Power & Light District (61 E. 14th St.). Tickets range from $295 to $695 depending on how many days you want to attend and whether you’re a public or private sector worker.
When CityAge first came to KC in the winter of 2012, we had secured Google Fiber’s investment and were buzzing with excitement over how the gigabit infrastructure might change our city. This excitement covered things like closing the digital divide, connecting classrooms, enabling entrepreneurs, and other community-benefit programs. But it also included how this fiber opportunity could lead to programs that would establish Kansas City as a technology leader on the global stage.
The return of CityAge to our community signals a positive step upward. Who would’ve held a talk on “the new American city” in the Kansas City of, say, 2009? Things like CityAge show that the KC of 2015 is seen as a place where we are actively using technology to make important, beneficial things happen. Things other cities want to know, too, which is why a dozen mayors are expected at this year’s conference, according to our own Mayor Sly James, who, it should be mentioned, has done a great deal toward building Kansas City’s innovative reputation.
CityAge isn’t the only spotlight-shiner, either — the national talent gathering around the homegrown Compute Midwest conference this week drives the point home further, as did TechWeek, which wrapped up barely a month ago and included cool sub-events like Big Data Summit and Capture. That’s three incredible tech conferences in six weeks of each other. (We’d also be remiss in not mentioning our own Gigabit City Summit, the 2016 version of which will be announced soon.)
Kansas City, we knew you when.
In any case, CityAge should be a great place to learn about trends and opportunities facing cities, their leaders, and those who do business with them. Panel discussion topics include urban redevelopment, cloud computing and data analytics, how to invest in infrastructure given budget constraints, how to build a skilled workforce, education, and more.
Check out the full agenda and get tickets here.