Carol Coletta is president and CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership. She is leading the relaunch of a nonprofit to develop, manage and program six miles of riverfront and five park districts along the Mississippi River. She is on loan from The Kresge Foundation where she is a senior fellow in the foundation’s American Cities Practice. She leads a $50+ million collaboration of national and local foundations, local nonprofits and governments to Reimagine the Civic Commons in five cities. It is planned as the first comprehensive demonstration of how a connected set of civic assets – a civic commons – can yield increased and more widely share prosperity for cities and neighborhoods. She was formerly vice president of Community and National Initiatives for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation where she managed a portfolio of more than $60 million annually in grants and a team of 18 in 26 communities to drive success in cities. Carol led the two-year start-up of ArtPlace, a unique public-private collaboration to accelerate creative placemaking in communities across the U.S. and was president and CEO of CEOs for Cities for seven years. Previously, she served as executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts, U.S. Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation. She also ran a Memphis-based public affairs consulting firm, Coletta & Company, where she served business, foundations, nonprofits and government on the broadest range of civic issues. For nine years, she was host and producer of the nationally syndicated weekly public radio show Smart City, where she interviewed more than 900 international leaders in business, the arts, and cities. She continues producing conversations with urban leaders as a regular podcast, “Talking about Cities.”

Maria Contreras-Sweet is an expert in economic growth, job creation and competitiveness. Internationally acclaimed for her insights on growth and innovation, she is also sought after for her tactical insights for American businesses from a financial and economic standpoint. Maria was widely praised for doing this on a national level when she served in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet as Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Recognized for her creative leadership and forward thinking economic solutions, Maria’s drive to bring the SBA into the digital age, and expand into broader domestic and global markets, yielded record results in lending and contracting for American businesses. A longtime advocate for America’s business owners and entrepreneurs, and respected champion for diversity and inclusion, job creation, economic innovation, and equal opportunity, Maria’s achievements in bringing efficiencies and modernization to organizations have earned her international acclaim. An entrepreneur and business executive herself, her extensive career includes serving as Secretary of the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency, the founding chairwoman of ProAmérica Bank, and vice president, public affairs for Westinghouse’s 7-Up / RC Bottling Company.

Hailed as an expert on the future of travel, technology and urbanism by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and CNN, Greg Lindsay is a journalist, futurist and established authority on globalization and innovation. Described as “intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking,” the two-time Jeopardy! champion (and only human to go undefeated against IBM’s Watson) has been invited to share his insights at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the U.S. State Department and with several Fortune 100 companies, including Google, Intel, Boeing and FedEx. With more than a decade of writing and research on globalization, urbanism, innovation and adaptability, Lindsay has produced groundbreaking insight featured in leading outlets, including Harvard Business Review,Bloomberg Business, McKinsey Quarterly, World Policy Journal, and on NPR and the BBC. Lindsay is a senior fellow at NewCities and the director of strategy of its offshoot LA CoMotion — an annual urban mobility festival in the Arts District of Los Angeles, a visiting scholar at NYU and a contributing writer for Fast Company. He received critical acclaim as co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, hailed as an essential guide to the 21st century. Recognized for his sharp intellect, quick wit and brilliant perspective, Lindsay engages audiences with mind-blowing insights on globalization, offering fascinating visions of our interconnected future, the potential challenges and opportunities, and unique perspectives on everything from office cubes to advancing technologies changing human behavior.

Tony Cho is founder and CEO of Metro 1, a forward-thinking real estate brokerage, management and development firm focused on shaping neighborhoods and developing sustainable cities in South Florida and beyond. The company has completed over $2.5 billion in real estate transactions since 2005 and has been recognized every year since 2011 as one of the top 25 commercial real estate firms by South Florida Business Journal. As an entrepreneur and early pioneer in Wynwood, Mr. Cho served as a founding member of the Wynwood Business Improvement District (BID), and championed the progressive rezoning of the area—known as the Wynwood NRD (Neighborhood Redevelopment Plan)—which transformed blighted streets into a diverse, 24-hour mixed-use arts and innovation district. Metro 1 is responsible for bringing favorite local businesses— including Zak the Baker and Junior and Hatter— into the neighborhood, and in 2012, he developed the Wynwood Gateway Complex, the one of the area’s most visible commercial developments. Recently, Metro 1 Development, the development arm of the company, partnered with The Related Group of Florida to co-develop the first ever mixed-use micro-condo building in Miami targeting millennials and creatives. This innovative project will be located in Wynwood. Metro 1 is also in the final permitting stages of a dual-branded mixed use Marriott AC & Element Hotels in Brickell with Robert Finvarb Companies in front of the first phase of The Underline, as well as additional projects throughout Florida. Mr. Cho is a co-founder of the Magic City Innovation District, which is transforming 18 acres of industrial warehouses and land in Little Haiti into a center for innovation, jobs and creativity. The multi-year, mixed-use project will help spur economic, social, and cultural growth while providing an access point for jobs in an underserved community. Cho was also a principal in the recently completed Rail 71 Project, an adaptive reuse warehouse project in Miami’s Little River District. In 2011, Tony was awarded the prestigious Young Leader of the Year Award from the Urban Land Institute for his role in the redevelopment of Miami’s urban core neighborhoods.