Smart Cities, Creative Spaces the Focus for Midwinter Civic Innovation Session

Smart cities and creative spaces will be the focus of the “Libraries Transform – Civic Innovation” plenary session, Monday morning February 12^th from 8:30 – 10:00 am, at the Colorado Convention Center, Room 405/407. Part of the Symposium on the Future of Libraries at the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver, the civic innovation session offers attendees a chance to learn with experts about the future of cities and communities.

Featured speakers Margaret Hunt of the Colorado Creative Industries Division and Jake Rishavy of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance will be joined by PLA President Pam Sandlian Smith, Director of Anythink Libraries.

As Director of Colorado Creative Industries and Space to Create in the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Margaret Hunt oversees a division responsible for advancing statewide creative economy strategies, including the state’s nationally recognized Creative District Program and Space to Create. The Creative District Program helps communities attract artists and creative entrepreneurs to infuse new energy and innovation and enhance economic and civic capital in specific geographic areas. Space to Create helps support affordable live/work spaces for the creative industries workforce and artists in rural communities.

Jake Rishavy is the VP of Innovation for the Denver South Economic Development Partnership and Co-Founder of the Colorado Smart Cities Alliance. The Denver South Economic Development Partnership works with business and citizen leaders, public officials and community stakeholders to build a vibrant, innovative, and diversified economy in the South Metro Denver region that advances business, entrepreneurship, and education in the region. The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance is a statewide collaboration of public, private, and academic leaders committed to accelerating the adoption of smart cities projects and initiatives to benefit citizens and businesses by enhancing quality of life through citizen-centered design and public policy and through the deployment of 21st century technology and infrastructure.

Pam Sandlian Smith is the Director of Anythink Libraries in Adams County, Colorado, just north of Denver. Through her leadership, the public library system went from being the worst funded system in the state of Colorado to one of the most recognized library brands nationwide, winning the 2010 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the 2011 John Cotton Dana Award for Outstanding Public Relations, 2011 Library Journal Landmark Libraries award, and a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a learning labs project. Sandlian Smith was the 2010 Colorado Librarian of the Year and the recipient of the 2012 Charlie Robinson Award for innovation and risk taking.

The Symposium on the Future of Libraries, organized by the ALA Center for the Future of Libraries, is included with 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting and Exhibits full registration. In addition to plenary sessions, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in three days of sessions exploring the many futures for academic, public, school and special libraries.