We’re back after the long Labor Day weekend with part two of a roundup of recent Michigan innovation news. To see part one, click here.
—CityLab, a global summit organized by The Atlantic magazine, the Aspen Institute, and Bloomberg Philanthropies to address urgent urban issues, has chosen Detroit as the location of its 2018 conference. The event, which includes mayors, city innovators, urban experts, artists, and activists from around the world, will be held Oct. 28-30 at the Book Cadillac Hotel downtown. While the conference is invitation-only, the sessions will be livestreamed at theatlantic.com.
— The University of Michigan has created a free, downloadable social studies curriculum for teachers nationwide. Called Read.Inquire.Write, the program, designed for eighth graders, uses what it calls an inquiry approach—questions to drive learning and analytical thinking. Read.Inquire.Write is free to download.
—Last month, Quicken Loans and 1XRun partnered on the Small Business Murals Project, in which local artists created six new murals on the sides of buildings owned by Detroit entrepreneurs. More than 30 Quicken Loans employees pitched in and helped complete the projects over 10 days in the Southwest Detroit, North End, and Grandmont Rosedale neighborhoods. All of the businesses in the Small Business Murals project are graduates of ProsperUs, a local entrepreneurial training and development program. To watch a video with more about the murals and artists, click here.
—The Detroit Center of Design + Technology is hosting two installments of its DCDT Talk series in September. On Sept. 12, the topic will be the intersection of creative technology and the future of business; on Sept. 26, the topic will be “Growing Up Creative in Detroit.” Both events are free, open to the public, and will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 4219 Woodward Ave. For more information about DCDT Talk events, click here.
—TiECon Detroit, an annual conference sponsored by a national organization working to advance entrepreneurship through education and mentorship, will be held Oct. 5-6 at the Suburban Showplace in Novi. Day one will be devoted to an entrepreneurial bootcamp and corresponding breakout sessions. Day two features a startup competition for companies working in the realm of artificial intelligence. To register for the event, click here.
—Detroit Fintech Bay, a co-working hub and incubator for financial technology innovation, has announced the first ecosystem partner for the North American Fintech Hub: Kyyba Innovations, an entrepreneurial service organization and host of the Detroit Fintech Challenge. Ecosystem and founding partners from the FinTech Consortium’s other locations in Singapore and Bahrain include Microsoft, American Express, Cisco, and Amazon Web Services.
