Exploring Innovation - Guest Post from Howard McAuliffe

The Exploring Innovation Conference on community development, hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, brought together grass roots practitioners and some of the top minds in the country to push for innovation. The conference was not a traditional one, where experts speak to an audience, but rather one where the audience participated as actively as the presenters, as insights were shared and information was exchanged. Among the highlights were presentations and dialogues with experts such as Alan Berube, president and chief executive officer of Opportunity Finance Network Mark Pinsky and Ray Boshara, vice president of the New America Foundation. Some other stand out presenters and organizations included Bill Strickland who uses the arts to motivate citizens in tough neighborhoods and Swamp Gravy, a theatre group that transformed a small Georgia town.