On September 26, 2018, Meeting of the Minds partners with DigitalC and Cuyahoga County to convene thought leaders in Cleveland for the second of two networking and thought leadership event. The event will feature a panel discussion with local and national leaders, followed by an interactive Q&A session with the audience. These conversations are designed to provoke a dynamic discussion about the future of the greater Cleveland-Akron-Columbus region and to pinpoint key strategies that will help catalyze the area’s innovation and sustainability agendas.

Program
As innovation becomes more central to Cleveland’s future, strategic anchor organizations – universities, healthcare organizations, philanthropies, and other established companies – are looking to startups to create a new economic engine in the city. The success of Cleveland’s 21st-century urban economy will depend, to a growing degree, on the interactions between the larger and older institutions with younger and smaller innovators.

This event will seek to identify the essential ingredients when linking large institutions with the start-up and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Like other cities, Cleveland leaders have the opportunity, when addressing urban problems, to use new partnership models and tools. Can such partnerships — linking old and young institutions — help to ensure that we fill some of the region’s policy, technology, energy, job and equity gaps?

Moderator: Jessie Feller Hahn, Executive Director, Meeting of the Minds

Panelists:

• Pete O’Neill, Executive Director, Cleveland Clinic Innovations
• Chantel Moody, Director of Corporate Partnerships, Plug and Play Cleveland
• Damion Chatmon, Senior Director Emerging Technologies, Cavaliers Operating Company
• TBA, AEP Ohio
• TBA

Who Attends

• 90% SVP Level or Higher
• 60% local
• 40% extra-local