Next Century Cities is hosting an event in DC. It will also be made available online. AND the Blandin Foundation is going to host a remote viewing party in St Paul.

Here’s info on the event in DC…

Location: Google’s DC Office, 25 Massachusetts Avenue NW #900, Washington, DC 20001

Register now to join Next Century Cities, the American Action Forum, and Public Knowledge for a bipartisan discussion about tech policy priorities for the new Congress in Washington, DC from 8:30am-12:30pm on January 15, 2019.

Opportunities for Bipartisan Tech Policy will be a half day event bringing together members of Congress, community leaders, and policy experts. Keynote conversations and panel discussions will work to determine key policy goals and action steps for the new Congress, with a specific focus on rural broadband and digital privacy legislation.

Please register for the event here. We look forward to seeing you at this important discussion!

And info on participating in St Paul…

Blandin Foundation and the League of Minnesota Cities will be hosting an opportunity to participate virtually in a tech policy discussion being hosted that morning at Google’s DC headquarters by Next Century Cities, Public Knowledge, and the American Action Forum.

Blandin and LMC are inviting interested Minnesotans to come together for a shared viewing and discussion of the meeting proceedings.  We will gather in a room at the LMC offices.  Further details about the event will be forthcoming in the new year.

Please RSVP if you’re interested!

I will absolutely post more info when I get it. We’re working on creating ties with what’s happening on a national level and how that impacts MN and how MN impact the national scene.

Last week I wrote about the Thriving by Design conference. Hosted by Growth & Justice and One Minnesota, this meeting was part of a process to find out what are the top policy concerns and hopes for Minnesota residents. It was very interactive session where we looked at priorities and policy intersections – or policies that had an impact of other policy concerns. It was fascinating.

Spoiler alert: broadband came out on top. I won’t go into the value of the numbers but broadband had top priority and interconnectedness scores. Not necessarily the top for either – but combined, it was the top. (And I did not tip the scales!)

I remember being in the room in the nascent days of the Minnesota Broadband Coalition. Many organizations were interested enough to join the meeting but when asked to rank their top policy concern, broadband came up second, third or farther down the line. So it’s interesting to see how the Thriving by Design team has been able to quantify and embrace the interconnectedness as part of its importance.

Broadband is problem for those who don’t have it – and an answer to many questions for those who do. Having broadband solves more than the issue or not having it, it opens the door to better opportunities for education, healthcare, civic engagement and economic development. It is a priority because of its interconnectedness.

To learn more mark your calendar for January 14, that’s the morning Thriving by Design will hold a press conference at the Minnesota State Capitol.

Also – and only because someone asked while I was there. There was distribution of rural/urban/suburban folks in the room. Not everyone left a zip code – but for those who did here’s the break down:

• 22 from urban areas (TCs)
• 5 from suburban areas (most around TCs)
• 7 from large towns (think Mankato)
• 11 from rural areas (4 from New London!)

I’m doing something a little different today. I’m at the Growth & Justice Thriving by Design conference. The goal of the conference is to finesse a plan for the future to hand to Governor Walz. The process started last summer when 100 or more people from around Minnesota gather to talk about shared problems, shared goals and potential solutions.

We started the day talking about equity blueprint problem statements:

• Human Potential (green)
• Economic Development (blue)
• Physical Infrastructure (red)
• Environment & Natural Resources (yellow)
• Democracy & Civic Engagement (white dot)

Each problem was then divided into sub-statements – including broadband as a sub-statement under Physical Infrastructure. Attendees had an opportunity to create connections among the statements. It was done visually so that you placed a colored dot (representing the statements above) next to the sub-statement that connected with it. It sounds confusing and I may have more to report tomorrow when the conference continues but for now I think it’s interesting to see that broadband was a magnet for many attendees. I was one of the top draws.