Philadelphia is one of five target cities selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies for new social innovation competition on a citywide level. Just launched in 2013, the new Fast Forward project seeks to rewrite the rules on how entrepreneurs engage with city governments.

Food for thought in this session:

1) Philadelphia’s Fast Forward project changes the innovation ecosystem by enabling commercial solutions - but supported by public players.

2) Collaboration on a multiple stakeholder level (community engagement, government, police, entrepreneurs, markets, etc.) derisks investment opportunities. Collaboration is not a zero sum exercise; the Fast Forward project seeks to create new solutions to problems that are not being addressed currently.

3) Open data and open government will facilitate social innovation on a city-level.

4) Innovation may be the easy part. Many cities are not flexible; implementation is the hard part.

Special SOCAP13 Volunteer Post from Grace Chang

Tags: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Grace Chang, Urban Innovation