“You can’t just say let’s have all this macroeconomic growth and not focus on every district . . . Make sure that you understand that it is a bad thing for America that my district has $10 trillion of company value and other districts are totally in despair.”

– US Congressman Ro Khanna, Democrat representing Silicon Valley district.

Ahh, the digital economy. Supercharged with opportunities your city, county or region can't afford to miss. Software companies. Gaming companies. Silicon chip foundries. Silicon chip designers. Software-as-a-service companies. Makers of computers, tablets, phone and smart watches. Social media companies. Ecommerce companies. Video streaming companies. It’s a vast digital wave washing across the world.

Connectivity by itself adds little value – it is what people do with it that counts. Learn from communities that have leveraged their broadband assets for business retention and attraction, market differentiation, talent attraction for remote work and regional partnerships.

Economic developers from municipalities and counties discuss the changing nature of investment attraction, business stimulation and support, and the collaboration with other agencies and sectors needed to develop the economy of an Intelligent Community in a world being restructured by digital technologies. Moderated by John Jung, Co-Founder, ICF.

As a 25-year resident of Hudson, Jim Stifler has chosen to perform his encore career as the City of Hudson’s Chief Economic Officer. After a successful 33-year career as a Wall Street executive, Jim is able to showcase his extensive private sector experiences and use his strong ties in the community to move the City forward.