The Talent Dividend Tour sponsored by the Lumina Foundation for Education has launched with four successful stops in Memphis, Atlanta, Grand Rapids and Chattanooga.  We gathered footage of the Atlanta conversation to offer a glimpse of what we're doing, who we're talking to and the discussions that are emerging. Check it out below:

For more information on the tour, visit the Talent Dividend Tour webpage by clicking here.

Presentations from panelists and speakers from last week's Strategy Session 2009 are available for download below.  Simply click on the file you'd like to view.  If you have questions or problems with any of the files, email Sheila Redick at sredick@ceosforcities.org.

Innovating Out of Scarcity

Chris Ronayne, University Circle Inc.
Terry Schwarz, Cleveland State Urban Design Collaborative/Shrinking Cities Institute

Designing for Civic Innovation

Casey Caplowe and Alissa Walker, GOOD Magazine

Scott Stowell, Open
Valerie Casey, IDEO
Dan Maginn, el dorado, inc

Teddy Cruz, UCSD

Organizing for Civic Innovation

Eli Singer, Entrinsic Design
Katy Locker, Hudson-Webber Foundation (View the video on Detroit from Katy's presentation here.)
Josh McManus, CreateHere

The City in 2050

Maureen McAvey, ULI

For context, you may read the archive of the live blogging of these events here.

Memphis   Atlanta   Chattanooga   Cincinnati   Columbus   New Orleans  Milwaukee   Indianapolis   Jackson   Miami   Baltimore   Billings   Chicago   Dallas   Denver   Detroit   Houston  Los Angeles  Phoenix   San Diego   San Francisco 
San Jose   Seattle   Tampa

More on the Talent Dividend   |   Recommended Reading

"[Vice President Biden] said the $125 billion allocated to education will pay dividends to municipalities. According to Biden, a 1% increase in the number of Chicago residents earning college degrees will produce $7.2 billion to the local economy." 

- The Wall Street Journal, 4.27.2009 (Reporting on Vice President Joe Biden's comments on the Talent Dividend during his keynote speech at the Richard J. Daley Forum)

Read more on the Vice President's speech on the CEOs for Cities blog.

We know that educational attainment is the biggest predictor of success for cities and metro areas today. The research is unassailable.

The more educated a city’s population, the more robust its economy will be.  In fact, in his speech to a joint session of Congress President Obama put the issue of talent squarely on the federal agenda when he said, "The… challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America. In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity – it is a pre-requisite.”

However, few urban leaders are focused on the relationship between education and the economy. In fact, producing more college-educated citizens is rarely found in any city’s economic development plan.

In a move to increase the political and civic will to produce more college graduates and thereby help cities capture real economic gains, CEOs for Cities has calculated the Talent Dividend. Increasing educational attainment, measured by raising the four-year college attainment rate by one percentage point in each of the 51 largest metropolitan areas, would be associated with an increase in per capita income of $124 billion per year for the nation. Monetizing these achievements serves as a powerful motivator to urban leaders to act urgently to achieve results.

What does the Talent Dividend mean for your city? What is the low-hanging fruit? How can you realize your Talent Dividend?

CEOs for Cities, in partnership with the Lumina Foundation for Education, will begin a national tour around the Talent Dividend in March to discuss these very questions.

Beginning March 31 in Memphis, we will launch our 24-city Talent Dividend Tour to engage in local conversations with cross-sector groups of urban leaders on the development strategies to move people up the education pipeline and ultimately increase the number of people who come out of it with a college degree.

Other tour cities include: Atlanta, Baltimore, Billings, Chattanooga, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jackson, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Tampa. Details on dates will be updated here.

More on the Talent Dividend

The Talent Dividend is part of CEOs for Cities latest research on the City Dividends.  The City Dividends calculates the monetary value to cities and the nation of increasing college attainment rates by one percentage point (Talent Dividend); reducing vehicle miles traveled by one mile per person per day (Green Dividend); and reducing poverty rates by one percentage point (Opportunity Dividend). 

If each of the top 51 metros achieved these modest improvements in each of the three dividends, there would be a combined national dividend of $166 billion each year. You can download the full City Dividends report here.

The Talent Dividend defined: Per capita income and college attainment rates are closely correlated. Using data from 2006, each additional percentage point improvement in aggregate adult four-year college attainment is associated with a $763 increase in annual per capita income. Raising the national median of the top 51 metro areas from 29.4 percent to 30.4 percent would be associated with an increase in income of $124 billion per year for the nation.

Watch the video below on the Talent Dividend:

Recommended Reading

Newsweek reported that layoffs are not being distributed equally.  With the national unemployment rate at 8.5 percent (and growing), the unemployment rate for those over 25 with a college degree was half that – 4.3 percent.   For anyone without a high-school diploma, the rate was 13.3 percent. 

Thomas Friedman writes in his New York Times column about a study from McKinsey that looked at the cost of the United States’ decline in K-12 education compared to other countries over the past 50 years.  “If America had closed the international achievement gap between 1983 and 1998 and had raised its performance to the level of such nations as Finland and South Korea, United States G.D.P. in 2008 would have been between $1.3 trillion and $2.3 trillion higher.” The dollar amounts go up when you close the achievement gaps among minorities and low-income students.

A recent Sunday New York Times Magazine piece, "The Big Fix," tells us that the answer to our economic woes is more college graduates.  Yes, that's right.  It's the Talent Dividend, exactly what we've been saying.  And it's worth $124 billion to the nation... every single year.

The Memphis Talent Dividend: $1B

CEOs for Cities kicked off its 24-city Talent Dividend Tour with its first stop in Memphis on Tuesday, March 31.

Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton convened the meeting of local urban leaders to begin to develop strategies on how the region can move from 23.7 percent college attainment to 24.7 percent to realize a "Talent Dividend" of $1 billion annually.  The increase would mean graduating an additional 8,002 people from a four-year institution.  Memphis is focusing on the 132,000 residents who have completed some college but have yet to get their degrees. 

Read local coverage of the meeting here.

The Atlanta Talent Dividend: $396M (in-town)

We held our second Talent Dividend Summit in Atlanta where we were joined by a number of VIPs including Mayor Shirley Franklin, Superintendent Beverly Hall, Penny McPhee of the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, John Ahmann of the Atlanta Committee for Progress and other community, corporate and civic leaders.   The meeting was convened by Peggy McCormick of the Atlanta Development Authority.

We had an active discussion around the partnership between economic development and education in Atlanta.

News about the event made front page Metro news in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.  Atlanta Development Authority President and CEOs for Cities partner Peggy McCormick penned this Opinion piece about Atlanta's Talent Dividend, which ran in the AJC.

Watch a short video about our visit to Atlanta below:

Chattanooga Talent Dividend: $345M

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Chancellor Roger Brown hosted the Talent Dividend Summit meeting for Chattanooga leaders on April 15.  Attendees included Pete Cooper, head of the Chattanooga Community Foundation, Bruce Clark of the Lyndhurst Foundation, Bob Greving of the Unum Group, Supt. of Hamilton County Schools Jim Scales and Chamber Preseident Tom Edd Wilson  The discussion centered around the connection between college attainment and economic success, citing the low percentage of four-year degree holders in the city as a sign that increasing educational attainment was not high enough on the priority list, and that it should be a primary part of the city's economic development strategy.

Cincinnati Talent Dividend: $1.6B

In Cincinnati, local leaders gathered to talk about ways in which current intitiaves such as Strive, Vision 2015, Agenda 360 and the Greater Cincinnati Workforce Network can leverage the Talent Dividend as a catalyst for their work.  The discussion also focused on alignment of goals and resources to achieve results. The meeting was hosted by Univeristy of Cincinnati President Nancy Zimpher and convened by Jeff Edmondson, Executive Director of Strive.  Attendees included Cincinnati Public Schools Supt. Mary Ronan, Haille/U.S. Bank Foundation President and CEO Tim Maloney, and Louise Hughes, head of Government Relations with Proctor & Gamble.

Cincinnati's Soap Box Media posted comprehensive coverage of the city's meeting.  Read it here.

GOOD Design Challenge Designers Announced

Three superstars from the world of design will join us in San Diego to present their solutions to three big civic challenges submitted by CEOs for Cities network partners. They are:

• Scott Stowell, winner of the 2008 National Design Award for Communication Design and owner of Open, a New York-based design studio that works across a range of media, including identity systems; print design, such as advertising, packaging, or publications; motion graphics; and Web design. Stowell has garnered acclaim for translating the ideas of a diverse set of clients into engaging campaigns that speak to a wide audience. Open’s clients include the PBS documentary series Art:21, Bravo, Good magazine, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New York Times, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Planet Green, and WNYC Radio. Stowell has served as Vice President of the New York Chapter of AIGA and teaches graphic design at Yale University and the School of Visual Arts.
  
  
• Dan Maginn, principal at el dorado inc, Kansas City's most progressive and innovative architecture firm. el dorado inc was founded in 1996 by five architects with a shared passion for architecture, fabrication and art. The firm is currently comprised of 14 architects and industrial designers working in a collaborative architectural studio and steel fabrication facility. el dorado inc characterizes its design and fabrication practice as "the development of a simple process and an actively shared language of detailing that results in elegant, well-crafted projects." Their award-winning work has been featured in Dwell, Metropolis, Metropolitan Home, and Art in America.
  
  
• Valerie Casey leads the digital experience practice at IDEO, with a client roster that includes HP, AT&T, Samsung, and Nike. She founded the Designers Accord, a global coalition of more than 150,000 designers and organizations from 100 countries focused on integrating sustainability into their practices. Valerie lectures on design throughout the international community. In 2008 she was named a Fast Company ‘Master of Design’ and one of Fortune magazine’s ‘Gurus You Should Know.’

Each of the designers is reviewing submissions from our network, and we will announce the challenges they will tackle next week.

Click here to read about the CEOs for Cities GOOD Design Challenge.

Chad Wick, President and CEO of the Knowledgeworks Foundation, discusses the role of two-year colleges in achieving the Talent Dividend.

Suburban Nation co-author and former NEA Design Director Jeff Speck talks about how to achieve the Green Dividend at a recent meeting of CEOs for Cities network partners.  Jeff is an urban planner based in D.C.

CEOs for Cities Announces Next National Meeting

Strategy Session 2009: The Upside of Down
San Diego, CA, March 18-20
Hosted by CEOs for Cities and the University of California San Diego

Hard times force us to re-consider everything.

What are the opportunities for your city to innovate now and emerge from these hard times stronger than before?  What are the new leadership models needed both to inform ideas for innovation and to carry them out?

Those questions and more will shape the CEOs for Cities Strategy Session 2009: The Upside of Down.

THIS MEETING IS FOR MEMBERS ONLY.

Join us for this critical conversation about the future of cities.

Download the latest agenda here.

Register now by clicking here.

Harriet Tregoning, head of the D.C. Office of Planning shares her insights on ways that cities can begin to think about capturing the Green Dividend.

The House Appropriations Committee has released information on the proposed economic stimulus package that has the following as its focus:

• Clean, Efficient, American Energy
• Transforming our Economy with Science and Technology
• Modernizing Roads, Bridges, Transit and Waterways
• Education for the 21st Century
• Tax Cuts to Make Work Pay and Create Jobs
• Lowering Healthcare Costs
• Helping Workers Hurt by the Economy
• Saving Public Sector Jobs and Protect Vital Services

As suspected, the pool of money for infrastructure is smaller than first anticipated, and much of that is being spent on construction of NEW highways.  Transit, however, is being funded at $10 billion (compared to $30 billion for highways).  Read the full summary here.

And if you really want to drill down on the details, click the links below:

Bill Report (76 pages)
Bill Text (258 pages)

Congress for the New Urbanism is proposing a measure to be added to the stimulus bill that focuses on opportunities to capitalize on the benefits of highly-connected networks of streets rather than individual roadways. "It recognizes the significant benefits that areas of highly-connected streets arranged in small blocks have in promoting mobility for all users, whether they are walking, bicycling, riding transit or driving automobiles and other motor vehicles." Read the full plan here.