US Dept. of Education EdTech Director Rich Culatta Added to Agenda

Richard Culatta speaks at the Gigabit City Summit's EDU track on Tuesday, January 13. 

Exciting news has come to the Gigabit City Summit -- all the way from Washington D.C.

The Executive Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education, Richard Culatta, will be joining the already distinguished lineup for the Education Track of the conference, on Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 12:45 - 4:30 p.m. in the Bloch Executive Hall.

Mr. Culatta is a leader in the field of educational innovation. He has worked in K-12, higher education, corporate, and government learning environments. His current focus as Director of the Office of Educational Technology is on using data and learning analytics to create personalized learning experiences for all students.

Mr. Culatta will appear on the panel "Next Generation Learning" with his ed tech peers Erin Mote of the Brooklyn Lab School and Lev Gonick of OneCommunity. The panel will be moderated by former Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools Superintendent Ray Daniels.

After the panel, Mr. Culatta will stick around for a special Fireside Chat with teachers in the audience to answer their questions and provide insight to the future of ed tech from a national perspective. 

The GCS EDU track is free for those already attending the conference. Kansas City based educators may purchase a special EDU-pass for $49. 

Join Us for an After-Hours Meetup with Code for America

An exciting bonus event has been added to the Gigabit City Summit! If you have an interest in government innovation, civic hacking or open data, you'll want to join us after the conference sessions on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 8:00 p.m. for a special after-hours program with national and local leaders of Code for America. 

In 2014, Code for America brought together 4,500 volunteers, 500 government staff from 140 cities, 30 fellows, and a growing network of companies to help deliver more effective, efficient, and inclusive government services.

Through the Fellowship program, 103 talented technologists have taken a year from their careers to build 55 apps with 30 cities. In 2013, Code for America fellows Andrew Hyder and Ariel Kennan spent a year in the Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, communities meeting with civic leaders and community groups to diagnose a social problem and develop a technology tool to address it (read about the project). 

On Tuesday, Jan. 13, from 8-10pm, at Nick and Jake's (5031 Main St.), CfA stalwarts Catherine Bracy, Bradley Holt, Chris Whitaker and David Rowe will form a panel to discuss how this groundbreaking cause is making American government work better. You'll also hear from members of the local Code for KC Brigade team, who are working on a number of coding projects to benefit the city and its residents.

Admission is free to badge-holding attendees of the Gigabit City Summit. Others may purchase admission for $10. Free appetizers and a cash bar will be available. REGISTER HERE >

Gigabit City Summit Adds Education Track with Tom Vander Ark and Tynker

Smart cities and empowered leaders recognize that education is more a series of collected experiences than a place down the street.  Learning is a life-long pursuit filled with personal digital services that are engaging, personalized, mobile and flexible.  As Tom Vander Ark observes in his new book, Smart Cities That Work for Everyone: 7 Keys to Education & Employment, “For most young people, there will be a place called school, but learning will not be limited to what is offered there." 

Vander Ark believes that students young and old will increasingly learn based on their interest and needs, whenever and however they want, often inexpensively or even at no cost whatsoever.  And many times, their learning will impact the common good. 

At the Gigabit City Summit's EDU Track sponsored by Mozilla, we will hear, explore and openly discuss education’s role in driving the economic development agendas of smart, connected cities.  This special experience will take place Tuesday, January 13, 2015, from 12:45 - 3:45pm in the Block Executive Hall, room 324. It will feature speakers Tom Vander Ark of Getting Smart and Krishna Vendati of the STEM programming app maker Tynker.

Find out more details about the EDU Track agenda and how to register HERE.

Encounter Gigabit Adventurers in the Community Exhibits

One of the main reasons for attending the Gigabit City Summit is, of course, to find out what other cities are doing with their gigabit infrastructure.

Since landing gigabit internet, Kansas City has seen a steadily rising tide of creative uses for the gig. Some of the resulting projects are high-bandwidth apps, such as Fitnet, a mobile app for social fitness and videoconferencing with trainers. Others are community-coalescing initiatives, such as the Digital Inclusion Fund, which grants funding to projects that teach digital literacy skills. 

Whatever the application, people here are beginning to use ultrafast connectivity for all kinds of good things -- to drive business, empower education, boost healthcare, break through economic boundaries and make robots even cooler.

This January at the Summit, we are excited to show off some of our best and brightest gigabit pioneers in the COMMUNITY EXHIBITS portion of the program. Starting around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday of the conference, the Community Exhibits space will open in the Bloch Executive Hall.

This will provide attendees the opportunity to meet the local makers and community leaders who inspire us every day at KC Digital Drive. And chances are, if you've got a fiber network coming to your town, you've got folks back home capable of doing similarly amazing things with the infrastructure. 

The full lineup for Community Exhibits has not been finalized, but the gallery below shows a sampling of what you might encounter.

Click the image to advance the slides.

Gigabots

Hardware and software for bringing connected robotics and devices to classrooms.

1 Million Cups

Weekly showcase featuring entrepreneur pitches, now in 60+ cities.

Lean Lab

 An education nonprofit that trains teachers as entrepreneurs.

PlanIT Impact

3D modeling and mapping with data to help urban planners make smart decisions.

KC Startup Village

An entrepreneur-led startup community that sprang from the well of Google Fiber.

Sightdeck

A virtual telepresence tool that allows for live co-presentation over distance.

Software Lending Library

Enables libraries to check out high-quality software to patrons.

Sportsphotos.com

A photo-sharing platform that helps photographers market and sell.

Digistory Center

A digital storytelling foundation planning to refurbish Walt Disney's former studios.

Digital Inclusion Fund

More than $300,000 in funding to local nonprofits teaching digital literacy, like the Hispanic Economic Development Corporation.

Stay tuned here for a final list of participants. And if you're a Kansas City area developer, entrepreneur or nonprofit specialist with a project deserving of being showcased, please fill out this form. 

Featured in the gallery:

Gigabots - 1 Million Cups - The Lean Lab - PlanIT Impact - KCSV - Sightdeck - Software Lending Library (beta) - Sportsphotos.com - Digistory Center (planned) - Digital Inclusion Fund 

Register Now for GCS Webinar "Smart Cities: An Overview"

Seoul, South Korea - Charles Lam via Flickr

Registration is now live for our November 5 webinar "Smart Cities: An Overview, " featuring a conversation with Boyd Cohen and Gordon Feller. 

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 

Once signed up through the ticketing system, you'll receive a confirmation page and an email containing info on how to access the Cisco Webex meeting. 

Don't miss this unique opportunity to interface with two of the world's leading smart city thinkers, provided free of charge to anyone who's interested in attending the Gigabit City Summit in January. 

In this webinar, Cohen and Feller will provide an overview of the global "smart city" conversation that is still new to North America, but that has been going on in Europe, South America, and Asia for some time.

There are many different models, ranking systems and ideas to coordinate the spread of information around smart cities. To name just a few: the Intelligent Community Forum, Cohen's Smart Cities Wheel, the Smart City Expo, Legible Cities, Living Labs, Cisco's Smart + Connected Communities, the National League of Cities, the U.S. Mayors Conference… and many others.

This session won’t cover all of them but will give attendees a good frame of reference for this exciting movement in the U.S. and abroad. 

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About the Presenters:

Boyd Cohen, Ph.D., LEED AP, is an urban and climate strategist helping to lead communities, cities and companies on the journey towards the low carbon economy. Boyd is a writer, researcher, professor, consultant and entrepreneur with a focus on climate capitalism and resilient cities. He is creator of the Smart Cities Wheel, a framework for considering the key components of what makes a city smart. Twitter: @BoydCohen

Gordon Feller is a Director at Cisco Systems' headquarters in Silicon Valley. Feller is also Co-founder/Convenor of Meeting of the Minds, an annual leadership summit organized since 2007 by Urban Age Institute (UAI). Feller advises leaders on how advanced technologies enable leaders to solve complex problems — with a special focus on developing practical and forward-looking solutions where economics, technology, and sustainability intersect. (Follow on Twitter: @MeetoftheMinds)

VIDEO: Inside the Gigabit City Summit 2014

On July 29, 2014, KC Digital Drive gathered a group of regional civic innovators for a day of discussion and brainstorming at the Bloch Executive Hall. Dubbed the Gigabit City Summit - KC Region, the event identified a few key strategies for focus by area leaders in economic development, education, and other disciplines. This video highlights a few of the ways gigabit internet has benefited KC -- along with a few of the challenges it has brought.

If you're considering whether to attend the much bigger Gigabit City Summit - North America, this can serve as a mini-trailer. Enjoy.

Speakers from the 2014 (KC Regional) Gigabit City Summit talk about how gigabit connectivity has impacted Kansas City from an economic and social perspective. Registration is open for the 2015 Gigabit City Summit at www.gigabitcitysummit.com.

About the Registration Pricing Levels

UMKC Bloch Executive Hall Loby

The Gigabit City Summit North America is not just unique in that it's the first national gathering designed for leaders in gigabit cities -- that is, cities where a fiber-optic broadband network is available to residents or is in the planning stages.

It's also unique in that it's designed around collaboration. We want to ensure that when you leave this conference, you will have the beginnings of a customized plan for how your community can seize the gigabit opportunity.

It has been our experience in Kansas City that we have made the most progress in moving forward as a gigabit city when we have used the efforts and collaborative thinking of a cross-section of our stakeholders. This teamwork approach helped us create a playbook for success that we at KC Digital Drive refer to on a daily basis.

We are designing the Gigabit City Summit to assist cities and metropolitan areas in starting to build that collaborative, cross-functional team and plan. Our registration pricing strongly encourages that approach.

While we welcome individual registrations, we offer a significant discount (30%) for cities or metropolitan areas that plan to bring a delegation of at least five members. This is reflected in the "Metro Delegation" packaging of five or more attendees.

Moreover, with earlybird pricing in effect through November 15, this package is available at $2,095. You have the option of adding additional members at the rate of $419 each. Just go to the registration page and pick the number, 5 or greater, of people you want to send.

Pricing Breakdown:

Individual Registration: $695 / $549 until Nov. 15

Metro Delegation: $2,995 / $2,095 until Nov. 15

Purchase Registration Now

On November 15, the package price will increase to $2,995 (or $599 per member, still lower than the post-Earlybird individual rate of $699). That's a savings you don't want to miss.

But, you may be asking, how can I gather a delegation?

We encourage you to seek out others from your metro area who share similar interests. Whether it's making sure that center cities and suburbs are aligned or that community champions accompany city officials -- there is strength in numbers. 

The conference will feature activities specifically designed to allow metros to collaborate as teams. But if you'd rather come as an individual, there will be plenty of opportunities to meet and collaborate with like-minded members of other communities. In fact, our City Connection Dinners on the Monday evening before the conference is designed especially for cross-pollination, so be register here. 

If you need help filling out your registration, contact Jason Harper at jharper@kcdigitaldrive.org or 816-695-8770.

Your Field Guide to the Gigabit City Summit 2015

The Country Club Plaza - Kansas City, MO

The Gigabit City Summit is officially open for business!

If you have a stake in a city or metro area where a fiber-to-the-home network is available or in the planning stages, this conference is for you.

You will learn how Kansas City has leveraged the gigabit opportunity, first brought about by the arrival of Google Fiber to the region three years ago. You'll find out how we amassed a large and diverse group of community stakeholders – mayors, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, educators and more – all interested in how this technology can be used for community good.

You'll also hear from leaders and innovators in other gigabit cities about their experiences, you'll learn from some of the world's foremost smart city experts whose ideas stand at the intersection of humanity and technology.

After all, as we say in Kansas City, innovation is 90% sociology and 10% technology.

You can read more about the conference and peruse the agenda on other parts of the site. For now, here are some details for getting around the conference and the city.

VENUES

The Gigabit City Summit will take part in a variety of venues. Shuttles will be provided to get you to each location.

Day 1 takes place at the University of Missouri Kansas City's elegant Henry W. Bloch Executive Hall for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Check out a video tour:

Day 2 starts at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. One of the most influential institutions working in the entrepreneurship space, the Kauffman Foundation advances the education and success of entrepreneurs all over the coutnry. It's also the originator of the nationwide startup-storytelling phenomenon 1 Million Cups – of which you'll get heaping dose at the Summit. The Summit then moves back to the Bloch Executive Hall for the remainder of the day.

Day 3 begins at the Intercontinental Hotel (where attendees receive a group discount - see below) with a keynote speech from Susan Crawford, noted telecom analyst who has served as President Obama's Barack Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. Then, attendees who are able to stay in town a few more hours will be treated to guided tours of local tech hubs that show the gigabit in action. We'll be taking you on a whirlwind tour of exciting places like the Google Fiber Space, KC Startup Village and the Sprint Accelerator. Please register for the free KC Tech Tour so we know how many buses to rent!

PURCHASING REGISTRATIONS

We offer two tiers of pricing: Individual Registration and Metro Delegation rate for parties of five or more. (Read about why there's a difference)

Earlybird pricing is available now through November 1st, offering a savings of 20% off Individual and 30% off Metro Delegation admission.

Individual Registration: $695 (Before Nov. 1: $549)

Metro Delegation of Five: $2,995 + $599 per additional member (Before Nov. 1: $2,095 + $419 per additional member)

View the Registration page to Purchase.

TRAVEL & ACCOMMODATIONS

Kansas City International Airport (MCI) is located about 25 miles north of town. Taxis, buses and airport shuttles are available to book separately from the conference. See a list of ground transportation options.

Discounted rooms are available through January 4, 2015, at the Intercontinental Hotel. Book your room online using the conference promo code or call 816-756-7500. 

We strongly recommend choosing the Intercontinental, as several activities will take place here. However there are many good hotels nearby, including those a 5-10 minute walk away at the Country Club Plaza. 

SPONSORSHIPS

A conference's quality often hinges on the generosity of its sponsors, and we are lucky to have some great ones. However, to ensure that the experience is a rich and valuable as possible to attendees, we are always looking for more.

If you know someone who would be interested in sponsoring the Gigabit City Summit, please send them our downloadable Sponsorship Packet (PDF) or have them contact KC Digital Drive Managing Director Aaron Deacon at adeacon@kcdigitaldrive.org or 913-475-9885.

We at KC Digital Drive look forward to welcoming you this January in Kansas City at the Gigabit City Summit.