COLUMBUS, OHIO — Serendipity Labs Coworking has signed two new leases for its coworking office space concept in Columbus. The first location is slated to open this summer in the Fifth Third Center at 21 E. State St. and consists of 14,000 square feet. The second location includes the new construction of 22,000 square feet at 900 N. High St. Renascent Hospitality, owned by Columbus natives Trevor Warner and Scott Somerville, will own and manage the Serendipity Labs in Columbus.

Dr. Arishi Abdulaziz put on a headset, moved his hands slightly and immersed himself into a virtual world.

But this was no video game. Abdulaziz was "standing" in a trauma bay at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, amid a medical team treating a car crash victim.

Columbus is bolstering its Smart City efforts with a new point person to lead the multimillion-dollar initiative, and giving its staffers a new home in up-and-coming Franklinton.

Mayor Andrew Ginther announced during a recent press conference that Mike Stevens, a former deputy director of the Columbus Department of Development, would return to the city as Columbus' first chief innovation officer to lead the Smart City effort. He has been CEO of Lake County Partners, a nonprofit economic-development organization outside Chicago, since leaving the city in 2012.

Developments in recent months at the city of Columbus, Ohio, provide prominent examples of ways in which the utility industry has been playing an increasingly important role in facilitating smart-city related improvements and related that revitalize more than infrastructure—they revitalize the quality of life for people who live in urban areas.

Like many, Dublin’s Tristan Stover, a Columbus State student who rides the bus to and from school every day, wants online access all the time.

That can be difficult for those who don’t pay extra for unlimited internet access on their smart phone or other devices and for those who ride public buses.

Columbus, Ohio, is the state capital of one of the states that border Lake Erie in the Great Lakes region of the United States. It has the highest metropolitan concentration of Fortune 1000 companies in America and is the home of one of the best research schools, Ohio State University (OSU). It is also home of Battelle, the world’s biggest private research institute. On the other hand, Columbus also has a large, low-income population stranded by the decline of low-skilled factory employment and was ranked 46th out of the 50 largest U.S. cities for upward mobility. As a result, average per-capita income is among the lowest in the U.S, employers in the Columbus region struggle to find qualified staff and the struggles associated with unemployment and low-wage jobs afflict too many of its citizens. Nevertheless, community-wide leadership and collaboration among organizations are working to turn this around by leading a regional approach to economic development with surrounding communities. Columbus is now one of a handful of US regions that turned the exodus of newly minted grads to instead become a magnet for talent. In 2013, Columbus was named one of the top 10 cities in the US for new college grads and employment growth in skilled manufacturing has exceeded 35% over the past decade.

Amazon.com Inc.'s three Central Ohio data centers for cloud computing and storage are operational as of this week, the company and state officials said Monday.

The Amazon Web Services centers in Dublin, Hilliard and New Albany are among 38 data center campuses – Amazon calls them "availability zones" consisting of one or more buildings – in 14 geographic regions globally; four more regions are set for launch this year.

National management and IT consulting firm CapTech announced today that it has expanded its presence in the Midwest with the opening of a new office in Columbus, Ohio. CapTech is now located in 11 major markets across the United States.

Over the past ten years, the company, who employs more than 600 consultants enterprise-wide, has quadrupled in size. In Columbus, they are creating jobs for top technology and management consulting talent, and expect to add over twenty-five new positions over the next two years. Consulting Magazine currently ranks CapTech #6 on their list of Best Firms to Work For.

Columbus has become a nearly recession-proof hub of Ohio. Ohio State University, state and local government, insurance and retail are the central spokes of the city's economy, which at a glance looks remarkable.

"In a service economy Columbus was destined to do better, much better than places with smokestack industry," says David Stebenne, a professor of history and law at Ohio State. Columbus has a set of built-in advantages, including a countercyclical set of employers — insurance, government and the university. "Even in bad times insurance is insurance," he says.

As the first hurricane-force storm sits just off from the Atlantic Ocean’s shores, the American Northeast Summer draws to a close. During its rapid course, I took some hours to look back on the ICF Summit in June, celebrate its highlights and to consider what it means as our movement goes forward into the next Awards cycle, with its conclusion this time on the big stage of New York.