Video: Keynote Address by Deb Socia

Day 1 — Keynote Address by Deb Socia

Coralette Hannon: I'm pleased to introduce Deb Socia. She is the president and CEO of The Enterprise Center, a nonprofit that nurtures innovation in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with the goal of connecting people to resources and building an inclusive community. Deb spent some time with us earlier and shared some of her important work.

After her prerecorded keynote presentation, she'll also join us here live to answer your questions. So before we hear from Before we hear her presentation, I want to remind everyone about the Slido platform. You should see the instructions on how to ask a question. You can either go to the Slido in your browser or enter the event code livable and enter the event code livable 2023 or just scan the QR code on the screen.

During the keynote, please ask your questions and we'll We'll address as many as we can after the presentation. Please enjoy this incredible keynote from Deb, which will last about 20 minutes. After her presentation, we'll have her here live for Q& A. Mike and I will see you on the other side. 

Deb Socia: Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to talk with you today, and thanks to AARP for inviting me. My name is Deb Socia, and I'm the president and CEO of The Enterprise Center. We're a nonprofit organization here in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and our mission is to unite people, organizations, and technology to build an advanced and inclusive future for our community. We lead a lot of local, regional, and statewide programs that include our signature digital equity work, as well as workforce development, civic engagement, smart communities efforts.

But today I'm going to talk to you about the rise of Chattanooga's Innovation District. Of course, the intent of this work was to impact economic growth and to build a thriving and innovative environment to encourage and build innovation. As an organization, we led the initial conversations regarding its establishment, and I'm going to talk to you about what we did, what we learned, our recommendations for other communities that are considering this work, and I'll weave in a few stories and anecdotes that may help to show the impact.

A few thoughts about the rise of Innovation District. We did a ton of research as part of our planning process, and one of the country's experts on this work is researcher Bruce Katz, who is formerly of the Brookings Foundation. And according to him, success required three things, and Chattanooga was well positioned and ready to respond to all three.

The first one was quality placemaking. As we started this process, we knew there was ample opportunity in our downtown area. A local government had a focus on improving what had been an ignored section of town and really wanted to have a thriving downtown as a high priority.

The second was unusual anchor institutions. We really embraced this challenge, understanding that thinking beyond the hospitals, the universities and the local government was essential. And so we really looked beyond them to neighborhood assets, nonprofits. libraries, schools, and local philanthropy.

The third was a highly collaborative innovation ecosystem.

Now, we had a strong set of organizations and programming in place, but we certainly had to build more if we were going to facilitate this effort. We really prepared by ensuring those assets were in place to not just build, but grow and fund organizations. So here in Chattanooga, we have Launch Tennessee, we have the Tennessee Small Business Development Center, the Kitchen Incubator, we have Angel Funders, we have CoLab, we have lots of opportunities for folks to engage based on their interests and based on their stage in their iteration.

So the goal, of course, of all of this was to create a synergistic environment so people, places, organizations and resources would naturally intersect and would create opportunities for ideas, businesses, and innovation to thrive. Some history about Chattanooga. As we investigated the idea of the Innovation District EPB and our local municipal utility, we were already competing a citywide gigabit symmetrical broadband access project.

So Chattanooga is legitimately the city, a citywide gigabit city. When our past mayor, Andy Burke, was elected to office in 2013, it came with a new focus on how our city could leverage the power of that gig network, along with its potential for entrepreneurs and large and small businesses, to leverage the asset to create and innovate.

In other words, we got it, what are we going to do with it? And so The Enterprise Center, already in existence, helped to lead this conversation. A variety of stakeholders participated in the planning process, not just politicians and business owners and developers.

The planners really thought about things. Like, what would make people want to relocate here? What would make people want to come and stay here? Not just the typical amenities, but the intangibles. What's our transportation like, our networking, our shared resources, our education, our diversity? All of this was part of the work. The plan gave residents an opportunity to think about how we animated our space but also revised our thinking about land use.

And it helped to inspire people to consider what aspects of our community are integral to making an innovation district successful. So, the group did seek a lot of advice from national experts like Bruce Katz, and interestingly, he talks a lot about the importance of neighborhood assets like coffee shops.

Now, who would have thought that there'd be a walk-to zone for coffee shops? That was important in an Innovation District, but it, there it is, and, and so we made sure we had coffee shops. Other opportunities and spaces that developed were really interesting and innovative. One of them is the Tomorrow Building.

It's a co-working and co-living space that was established right around this time, had very small apartments that were fully furnished and included all utilities including gigabit access. It had programming, common spaces and it really helped to promote connections and innovation. The Innovation District itself is a one-quarter-mile walk-to distance that includes about 140 acres.

You can see some of the assets listed here. It's ostensibly a circle, but with a couple of bump outs along the way. We didn't really want to use this perimeter to exclude anyone, but rather to focus our ability to support innovation and entrepreneurship. And of course, the bottom line, as always, is we wanted to spur economic growth and investment.

In fact, what happened as this work moved forward was about $400 million in private investment. This is initial investment in hotel rooms, apartments, and other neighborhood assets. And while the pandemic has shifted some of this, with some of our larger employers going remote, their buildings are being repurposed, we are still seeing a huge boom in the growth of new hotels, new residential units, restaurants, and new grocery stores. For this to be successful, we knew we needed to grow new startups and improve outcomes for small businesses and help them grow and scale. We had several great success stories here initially, and those have continued.

You'll see some listed here, but there were a lot more that moved on along. After this time, if you haven't bought chocolates from Coco Asante, I highly recommend you do that from one of our newer startups here. I don't really want to move on until I mention how important it was and is that diversity and inclusion are really central to this work.

The significance of this aspect of the plan really can't be overstated. We were not just looking to elevate some of our neighbors, but all of our neighbors, and our community as a whole. It's great to bring in new innovators and entrepreneurs, but we really also wanted to grow our own. Now I'd like to share information about another important physical space here in the Innovation District that came about as a result of this work, and that's the Edney Innovation Center.

The building is pretty central in the district and provides a wide range of resources to support innovation and smart solutions. On Floor 1, we have CoLab. Originally, they were here. They have now moved on to a new location. But it was part of that original effort. And CoLab is a nonprofit that helps to amplify really early stage startups.

They provided wayfinding to those who just had an idea, or maybe an emerging small business, or someone who really wanted to connect in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. You don't necessarily have to be an entrepreneur to work in a startup. So, how do we make all those connections? In addition, CoLab holds accelerators, and the one this fall is really interesting, and it's on sustainable mobility.

On Floor 2 is the University of Tennessee Chattanooga's downtown campus, and a lot of the folks on that floor are people who are working in AI, EV, smart infrastructure, and so forth. So, UTC is an active and necessary ingredient to Chattanooga's success. Then Floor 3 is the city's IT department.

Having easy access to city innovators and city collaborators is another essential ingredient to our success. The Enterprise Center, where I work, is located on Floor 5. That's where I am right now. We run an open and free event and conference and meeting space that allows startups, teachers, learners, and doers a place to work and meet and collaborate.

One of the most important aspects of this work is the opportunity to bump into each other. On the elevator, over lunch, at that coffee shop, to learn from each other and to find ways to collaborate. The space is active, accessible, and well known throughout the district and, in fact, through the city as a whole.

On floors 6 and 7, we have a co-working space called Society of Work, and it rents small offices with all amenities included. These have easy access to other people in the building, so it's a great place for startups and small businesses to flourish. One of the tenants, in fact, on Floor 6, is Pathway Lending, which is a CDFI.

They're mission driven, driven to help businesses grow. They're a wonderful asset to have for local startups nearby. More recently, we've had Qubitekk join the ADME. And you may have heard that our amazing utility, the Electric Power Board, has built the country's first commercially available quantum network.

You have got to keep that innovation wave going here. Qubitekk is collaborating on this project and the EDNI is literally connected to this quantum network. We're likely to see a lot more innovatives who work in the quantum industry building new opportunities here in the EDNI and certainly in Chattanooga in general.

Now to the unanticipated issues that surface. So first, just providing an opportunity to engage rarely results in the kind of engagement we hope to see. Opportunities are not outcomes. And if we're not getting the outcomes we desire, we need to reframe our strategy. Second, we really wanted to bring more diverse participation to the table.

It was more challenging than I think the original planners anticipated. And there are a bunch of factors at play here. The city of Chattanooga, like a lot of other cities, has been fairly segregated. And folks of color do not necessarily live in or regularly visit downtown Chattanooga. And there are unusual reasons, I mean, you really have to think about them for this happening, but in past generations, downtown was actually considered a dangerous place to be a young black man.

Those stories go from generation to generation, and so we are working against what I consider a very valid historical concern, and we have to acknowledge that and respond to it in an appropriate manner. Next, I really feel like representation matters. We need more women, more people of color in powerful positions so our young folks see a path forward.

And next, while there's a grand history of startups in our Black community here in Chattanooga, not all of them were licensed and on the books. Most of the participants in our Innovation District tended to be young, white, male and from middle- to upper-class families, and we really wanted to change that.

How we responded, we recognized the importance of trust. Our strategy is really to reach out to the communities that are already trusted, like faith-based folks, neighborhood associations, community anchor institutions. In essence, we're working to build trust by proxy. Next, we stopped telling folks what we could provide and started asking, what do you need?

We listened and learned and responded. I'll give you an example. During COVID, it became abundantly clear that many of our small businesses in our neighborhoods were cash only. They didn't have licenses, didn't have P&L statements, they weren't paying into unemployment. And so quickly, those sources of income for families disappeared because there's no PPP and there's no unemployment to tide folks over.

We created a somewhat complex web asset we call the Resiliency Checklist. To help small businesses and startups get their projects on the books. and help them see the value of having legit credentials, and really helping them to build a more sustainable model. And by the way, this web asset is free and available to anyone.

We give it away, so feel free to reach out to me if you're interested in recreating it for your community. Next, we built partnerships with organizations that have connections with our leaders in the communities of color and organizations that are already providing support to our Black and Latino and women entrepreneurs, for example, the Urban League.

Also, as many cities do, we have a lot of open tech positions, and we recognize this as an area we need to work on if we hope to remain competitive and we need to find ways to elevate our whole community. Who is not part of this wave? How do we support local folks to be involved? Typically, we're talking about women of, women, people of color, and those who are disabled.

So we help build workforce development opportunities, and an example of that is IMPACT, which helps folks receive Google certifications that can provide them with an opportunity to have a living wage in a help desk or tech support position. It really has been a powerful process for our community.

The trainings are typically meant to be self-paced, but those that are self-paced have a devastatingly low completion rate. We recreated our project to really remove some of the barriers to success. We provide a six-week in person training schedule that provides folks with a proctor and a cohort model of support.

We provided digital literacy training, a device, and home access up front to get folks started. We helped with childcare and transportation, both of which are huge barriers to participation. And then we importantly provided a stipend so folks could quit a low paying job to participate. It's pretty hard to engage in training if it prevents you from paying your rent.

Finally, our local community college, which has initiated and manages this program, Chattanooga State Community College, they provide 12 credits to all of the graduates. It's been a great project. One of our graduates recently got hired to be the IT director for a small local town. These are great projects that can help change the trajectory for our local folks.

We also helped to get something started here called Black in Tech. It is a national movement, but we now have a Black in Tech Chattanooga. And its mission is to increase representation and participation of Black folks in the industry. This was vitally important to us because we not only want to attract and grow folks, in this industry, but we also want to retrain, retain all the talent that we can.

We also started Networking and Neurodiversity, and this project brings together folks who are, who identify themselves as neurodiverse along with businesses to provide a comfortable and lower-stress opportunity to network, to seek employment, and to build a better future for themselves here in Chattanooga.

I don't want to give you the impression we have solved this issue. It is certainly a work in progress. So, here are my overall recommendations if you are considering implementing, uh, an innovation district. First, listen more than you tell. Work with community stakeholders to plan a responsive and inclusive project.

Ensure diverse participation. Seek suggestions on how to build a broader ecosystem that's welcoming to everyone. And create a plan that responds specifically to the needs of each community.

Two, build structures that focus on innovation and support those projects. For example, we started here in Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Smart Community Collaborative.

The Enterprise Center and UTC organize and facilitate conversations with a wide range of stakeholders. These include providing support to startups, those looking at what's next on the horizon, and those who seek to find ways. Use innovation to support the whole community.

Three, access the available expertise.

In Chattanooga, we have a wide variety of support available. Some are retired folks, some are associated with organizations that provide assistance pro bono, and some are paid to be guides. We're the next generation of entrepreneurs, but I'd like to stop and pause for a moment and talk about how entrepreneurship is not all about the product or the software or the hardware.

There's so much more to getting a product or service to market and as an older person I sometimes find folks assume I am neither an innovator nor an entrepreneur. I sincerely beg to differ. I may not be I don't have youth on my side, but I certainly have experience. Entrepreneurship is not just for the young, and to be honest, I'd argue it is unlikely that young folks alone will be successful.

With age and experience comes wisdom and clarity of focus. Rely on those in your community who have done this work before. Get their mentorship, seek their advice, pay them for their wise counsel. Old folks are the ones who get stuff done. And by the way, nothing makes me happier than when folks underestimate me.

If you tell me I can't, you better move aside and watch me make it happen. Next, build a collaborative network before you actually need that network. And I'm going to give you an example of that. When the pandemic hit, it became abundantly obvious that we could not support our students if we didn't find a way to provide high speed access in the home of every student who received free or reduced lunch.

Because the established network was strong, David Wade as the leader of the electric utility, the mayor, the superintendent, local philanthropy, our organizations, we all knew each other, trusted each other, had each other on speed dial. We could get together and create an opportunity for our children to be connected to the internet.

We actually connected over 16, 000 children to a minimum of 300 megabits symmetrical. At no cost to their family. We were able to work with the district to provide other assets as needed. The project EdConnect powered by EPB continues and will do so into the foreseeable future. And as an aside, you might think this would be easy with a municipal utility.

It wasn't. Our state legislature doesn't allow our utility to give away their service, so we really did have to raise multiple millions of dollars to make that work. It was challenging, but really rewarding. One of the best projects I have ever been engaged in. Next, create flexibility. The United Way of Greater Chattanooga wanted to be identified as part of the Innovation District, but they were just beyond the perimeter.

But who makes the rules? Tthink in terms of building stronger districts as opposed to holding the line. Next, build on what you know. In Chattanooga, we are currently quite focused on mobility, sustainability, logistics, smart solutions. It helps to focus primarily on one or two areas or goals. And last, be prepared for what's next.

If we are going to be an Innovation District, we can't sit back and wait for things to happen to us. We have to think like entrepreneurs. We need new ways to engage, to promote, to support, and to perpetuate our entrepreneurial ecosystem, and we must be creative and innovative to find those solutions.

I hope I have shared some helpful insights into Chattanooga's Innovation District Evolution, and I'd be really happy to take some questions.

[00:22:21]

Mike Watson: Welcome back, everyone. Now, I hope you enjoyed that video, and I'm really pleased to let you know that we have Deb Socia here with us to answer your questions. Deb, thank you so much for being with us today. Hello. How are you? Doing great. So great to see you. We all just spent the time watching your video. Now we have the opportunity to ask you questions.

So, I just want to remind everybody to please use Slido to ask your questions. I was looking at this earlier and we already have some great ones piling up. Deb, I think we're going to jump right in. And the first one that I saw, you said a line in your comments about old people are the folks who get things done.

And we're seeing lots of questions in here around the question of engagement. Lisa and others are asking this. So, how, what are the best ways that folks who are thinking about these projects can ensure that older adults are engaged, are heard, are part of the process, and you're setting things up so the communication channels are reaching them.

Deb Socia: I think there are challenges there, depending on your community. Here in Chattanooga, there are lots of ways that, that folks who are older and retired actually engage. Figuring out what organizations do they, do they tend to spend their time with? Are they part of the chamber? Are they part of Urban League?

Are they part of the faith-based community? Find where they tend to get together, communicate with one another and come and ask questions. The part that gets missed a lot is just asking for help. Folks are really willing to give you a hand.

Mike Watson: I love that. I think that's fantastic guidance. And you mentioned asking questions. There's a lot more rolling in, so I'm going to jump to the next one. We're also seeing a theme of questions in here around different community sizes. You talked about the work in Chattanooga. We're seeing several questions from Patrick and others asking about a community of 500, or 1,500, or a small rural community.  How can they apply what you just talked about to their work and build that site, that sort of district?

Deb Socia: I'll tell you, scale does matter. I think sometimes communities are too large, and it's really hard to wrap your head around how to connect to each other. Sometimes they're small, so it's hard to find the resources necessary. I would suggest, if you are a community of a thousand, that you look at who surrounds you.

Most certainly, we would engage, happily, and we do with the smaller communities that surround Chattanooga. I still would consider finding what our niche is, right? What is the thing that makes us special? And really trying to highlight that. It's really smart to do a really good marketing campaign about what you're good at, what you're interested in, highlighting for your community. I would highly recommend working on it that way.

Mike Watson: Love that. Find your niche, work with regional partners, and tell your story really effectively so people hear that. I think that's great guidance for everybody. One of the other kind of questions that we're seeing quite frequently pop up here is, you mentioned a few tools folks would love to know about. Where can they get access to the resiliency checklist you mentioned?

Deb Socia: It is actually on our website, TheEnterpriseCenter.org. You can either email me, Deb@TheEnterpriseCenter.org, or go ahead and look at the site.

Mike Watson: Fantastic. Thanks, and we'll be sure that our team here drops that into chat for everybody as well, so you can follow along.

Deb, one of the other questions that we're seeing in here, again, quite frequently, is around the topic of measurement. How, how do you measure success for a district like this? What are the ways that you actually track that over time?

Deb Socia: There are a few things we're doing. One of them is regarding the investment. We know what's being invested in our community in terms of dollars, particularly for development. Right now we've got a new hotel going in, we've got a 20-story building across from me, we've got a grocery store down the street, all in this neighborhood. So those we all consider successes.

I think the other piece for us has been really looking at outcomes. We have an incredibly low unemployment rate. How many open positions do we have? Are we bringing people into the community? The interesting thing is that when you are really successful at this, you also get new challenges. The cost of housing here has gone up. Planning in advance is really important.

Mike Watson: That's great, and actually, Deb, you kind of led in when you were talking about the challenges, one of the other consistent questions we've seen here. Last year we hosted a workshop on the topic of housing and some of the persistent challenges folks are seeing there. You mentioned housing. How, what has been the impact? Have units ended up being eliminated? I know you mentioned rents have gone up. How has the community had to respond? Have there been policies enacted or other programs put into place as a result?

Deb Socia: We actually have done a lot. Our current mayor has really worked hard at getting some housing built that is at a price all of our residents could afford. Because there have been some issues with that. When I moved here and bought my home, it was a much lower price than what I could sell it for today. There are challenges in part because our community has become a place where people like to work when they can work from home. We've got this great outdoors, we've got hiking trails and kayaking and so many other options.

We really had to think about that and make sure we were planning. I think carefully to ensure that when we are building units, we are including some that are low-income units. I think that challenge becomes problematic pretty quickly, and I think if we were at the beginning again, I probably would be working to plan on that. Of course, the pandemic also made it worse.

Mike Watson: That was a fantastic answer. I think again, a lot of the questions we saw were right in that theme. I know there's a community asking questions in the chat from Jackson, Tennessee, wanting to do the same thing and others around the area.

You've given them some great food for thought and all of us a lot of really good thoughts. Unfortunately, we're out of time for questions. So Deb, I want to thank you again so much for joining us. And for bringing together our Day 1 elements, the built environment and digital connections. Thank you so much.

Deb Socia: It was wonderful to be here.

Mike Watson: Thank you again. We appreciate you taking the time to be here. This has been great.