by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | March 28th, 2013 12:35am CDT | 2 Comments
From Memphis magazine: At a time when more than 60 percent of a city’s economic success is linked to its percentage of college-educated workers, Memphis has to step up its pace in the race for talent if it is to jump start a stronger economy. Few topics have been discussed as much in the past [...]
by SCM (RSS) Talent, Trends and Issues | March 18th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From The Atlantic: The first National Women’s Day was celebrated on March 8, 1909, a day designated by the Socialist Party of America to honor of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York. From there, the day expanded internationally to include women’s movements agitating for the right to vote, work, and hold public office. [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Education, Talent | March 18th, 2013 12:20am CDT | Comments Off
Memphis has to do a lot right at the same time if it is to succeed in an economy where winners and losers are often determined by talent and connectivity. It’s the obstacle to connectivity caused by high airfares that led us to create the Facebook group, Delta Does Memphis, as a way to give [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Talent | March 14th, 2013 12:16am CDT | Comments Off
Addendum: We received the following email regarding Volunteer Odyssey so here’s your chance to sign up: As many of you know, I’ve started on a new adventure called Volunteer Odyssey and I’m recruiting bloggers! Maybe you know the perfect person! Volunteer Odyssey is a 7-day volunteering/blogging tour of the Memphis nonprofit scene, specifically designed for [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Talent, Taxation | February 25th, 2013 12:55am CDT | 1 Comment
We’ve written often about the dangers of Memphis blindly pursuing cheapness as our chief competitive strategy for the future. We’ve seen it play out in our economic development behavior for two decades as we watched cities boom that invested in quality. Meanwhile, the chase here for cheapness produced almost $100 million in city and county [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | February 20th, 2013 12:44am CDT | 1 Comment
All cities are working hard to answer challenges that face them, but the trick is to make sure the right questions are asked in the first place. Last month, People First, the human capital development campaign of the Memphis Fast Forward initiative and the Early Success Coalition co-sponsored a symposium. The first featured speaker was Robin [...]
by Gwyn Fisher (RSS) Talent | February 19th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | 1 Comment
We’ve all had it happen before. Some poor, well-meaning soul learns you’ve just gone through a break up, and with a genuine “bless your heart” expression, pats you on the head and says, “Cheer up honey. There’s plenty of fish in the sea!” My muscles tense, my plastic smile immediately appears, and I calmly reply [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Leadership, Talent | February 13th, 2013 12:46am CDT | 18 Comments
Memphis is struggling, our challenges are daunting, and maybe, just maybe, we should acknowledge those facts in making a pitch for the 25-34 year-old college-educated talent that we need to compete in today’s economy. It’s a compelling offer that we have to make. A sizable number of this demographic are not only looking for jobs [...]
by Gwyn Fisher (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | February 6th, 2013 2:00pm CDT | 13 Comments
We were talking to our friend Gwyn Fisher about talent and the conversation that was stimulated by our recent posts. She was generous enough to send in a post of her own. Ms. Fisher has worked on talent issues for years and knows firsthand the potential and the challenges, and we are proud to post [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | February 6th, 2013 12:55am CDT | 4 Comments
Continued from the previous post… No longer dependent on “artist development” from record companies managing the modern equivalent of the company store, musicians now have the ability to create their own success, build their own value, maintain control of their own careers, and follow their muse. In a sense, when the changes are complete, the [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | January 30th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Brookings Institution:As another college graduation season draws to a close, New York Times reports the results of a small analysis we conducted on college degree attainment rates in metropolitan areas. We examined the share of adults age 25 and over in the 100 largest U.S. metro areas who held at least a bachelor’s degree [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Talent | January 30th, 2013 12:21am CDT | 5 Comments
Note: The comments on this blog following our post last week about Memphis losing the race for talent have been important and enlightening. We have received emails from people connected with several prominent local organizations who have asked what we should do regarding talent. We have sent all of them the link to these comments [...]
From Chronicle of Higher Education: Improving college-completion rates is “an economic and moral imperative,” a national higher-education commission said on Wednesday in an open letter to college and university leaders. The letter, which takes the form of a report subtitled “College Completion Must Be Our Priority,” summarizes a yearlong effort by the National Commission on [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | January 25th, 2013 3:00pm CDT | Comments Off
From Texas CEO magazine: Jim Russell is an economic geographer. The job description of an economic geographer is not exactly part of the mainstream lexicon – economic geographers study the relationship between the economy and the movement of people. In San Antonio, economic geography means the relationship between economic growth and the recent in-migration of [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | January 21st, 2013 12:40am CDT | 31 Comments
The Memphis metro continues to lose the battle for the talented workers that drive the knowledge economy. Sometimes, in our region, we think that being busy is the same as being effective. Data show how our region is paying the price for talking a lot about talent without following up with the hard work of [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Education, Talent | December 10th, 2012 3:07pm CDT | Comments Off
From Columbia Journalism Review: On July 28, 2011, Senator Chuck Schumer, a democrat from New York, opened a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on high-skill immigration with a call to staple a green card to the diploma of every foreign student who earns a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math—known collectively as a STEM degree—in [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) City of Memphis Government, Economic Development, Neighborhoods, Parks and Greening, Talent, Taxation | November 26th, 2012 12:59am CDT | 1 Comment
After years of lethargy and self-doubt, Memphis is getting its rhetoric right and activities taking place below the radar and away from the usual suspects are the best reasons for optimism. The challenge now is to back up the words and the momentum with a major infusion of investment in Memphis and its neighborhoods. For [...]
by Scott L. Newstok (RSS) Arts and Culture, Talent | October 4th, 2012 2:59pm CDT | Comments Off
To see Symposium poster, click here. “Globalization” has now been a buzzword for over half a century. Whether one valorizes or villifies the notion, it’s often presumed that the process of globalization is moving us inexorably toward world-wide interconnectedness. But as the University of Memphis’ Wanda Rushing has argued, globalization is rarely uniform. Instead, it [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Education, Poverty, Talent | September 13th, 2012 12:27am CDT | 2 Comments
There is much to celebrate in Memphis these days and there is a new willingness to take risks and it has produced a new momentum for change. The challenge now is to take the lessons we’ve learned and channel them to now tackle the toughest problems facing the [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Economic Development, Education, Talent | September 4th, 2012 12:29am CDT | Comments Off
There’s so much talk out of Nashville these days about state government’s big plans for economic growth and new jobs, and yet, there are fewer investments that could yield bigger returns than higher education but Tennessee’s universities are getting more conversation than cash. There’s no place in our state [...]
by SCM (RSS) Economic Development, Talent | July 16th, 2012 3:00pm CDT | Comments Off
By Richard Florida on Atlantic Cities: Tolerance—the third of my 3Ts of economic development—provides a critical source of economic advantage that works alongside Technology and Talent. Places that are open to new ideas attract creative people from around the globe, broadening both their technology and talent capabilities, gaining a substantial economic edge. (Click the map [...]
by Smart City Memphis (RSS) Arts and Culture, Downtown Revitalization, Economic Development, Livability, Neighborhoods, Parks and Greening, Planning and Urban Design, Politics and Government, Talent, Transportation, Trends and Issues | July 13th, 2012 12:42am CDT | 5 Comments
Five years or so ago, we were talking here about what a smart city looks like, and we wrote down statements that we thought described one. After compiling our list, we then added more than 200 questions to form what we called “Smart City Diagnostics.” It’s an assessment tool which allows for [...]
by Bill Day. Memphian Bill Day is two-time winner of the RFK Journalism Award in Cartooning. His cartoons are syndicated internationally by Cagle Cartoons. Cartoons Archive →
Photograph by Amie Vanderford
This ongoing series of photographs is intended to show the daily lives of these single mothers in order to invoke recognition of their similarities to all mothers, along with understanding and empathy from the viewer of the strengths that these single mothers possess within the challenging situations they face. My hope is that newfound empathy with these mothers’ lives will give people some pause before they condemn single mothers when discussing issues such as welfare and other politically charged hot buttons.
