Our exchange of ideas is informed by leading-edge research, strategic insight and new capabilities.

Current research projects include:

Kids in Cities examines the emerging trend of young families remaining in cities, even as they raise their children. Boomtown is focused on a similar trend among baby boomers, who are increasingly shunning traditional retirement options in favor of city living. Our projects will explore the unexpressed needs of these valuable demographic groups and outline specific strategies for attracting and retaining them. We'll convene our network for Urban Innovation Labs this year to generate concepts from our findings and accelerate this trend.

Leveraging Anchor Institutions will revisit the study that launched CEOs for Cities by Professor Michael Porter on the contribution colleges and universities can make to urban revitalization, and ask how additional institutions can be transformed from urban amenities to urban assets. The opportunity to leverage the value of parks, libraries, performing arts centers, museums, schools, hospitals, and sports teams will be explored. We plan a National Meeting in San Jose, California, May 1-2, with CEOs for Cities members and leaders of these urban institutions to update Porter's recommendations with a new plan of action for cities.

Mapping Creative Clusters examines the concentration of creative workers and jobs in cities. In previous projects we have identified such concentrations as key to the health of metropolitan economies. Now, we will identify which cities have substantial concentrations and more thoroughly study their impact. Once our study is complete, we’ll hold an Urban Innovation Lab and work with our network to turn our research on talent concentrations into actionable strategies for city success.

City: The Remix is premised on the fact that enabling mass creativity is the new imperative for urban leaders. Whether in terms of education, healthcare, economic development, safety or welfare, it is increasingly difficult for cities to deliver services to their citizens that both fit with their lives and make a lasting impression on their life chances. Lasting solutions must motivate and enable people and communities to make their own changes. Fortunately, a new set of sensibilities and tools that are in a nascent stage of development can help urban leaders tackle issues with citizens, rather than for citizens. Over ten days in four cities, CEOs for Cities will co-host creative conversations with Charles Leadbeater, one of the world’s foremost authorities on mass creativity. Leadbeater will work with urban leaders to understand and help shape co-creation strategies to tackle intractable social and economic issues. Following the trip, he will summarize his findings and recommendations in a report to be published by CEOs for Cities later this year.

Making the Most for the Least explores evidence-based strategies for connecting low-wage workers to job opportunities, with a particular emphasis on system-level efforts that operate at scale and produce results in the short term. We are examining innovative approaches to helping individuals with the least developed human capital. Our study will show how urban leaders are taking advantage of current labor market trends to enhance the prospects of those at the lower end of the income distribution.

Developing a Strategy for U.S. Portal Neighborhoods Where do newcomers go when they first arrive in the country? What are their special needs? Who are the key players in their process of assimilation? Paul Brophy of Brophy & Reilly and Hank Webber of the University of Chicago are developing the agenda for a CEOs for Cities sponsored meeting in June of 2006 on portal neighborhoods.

Things Look Different Here According to Michael Porter, competitive advantage is built on difference. Yet, cities are rushing toward sameness, fueled by "best practices," business consolidations and the expansion of national and now global chains. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, Things Look Different Here will map the differences participating cities can use to build competitive advantage. The project will also extract general lessons for all cities on how to discover and use difference to gain advantage.