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Sustainability, Technology Summit Hits Cleveland This Fall

Meeting of the Minds is set to hold its annual summit in Ohio this year.

(TNS) -- CLEVELAND, Ohio - Meeting of the Minds, which invites sustainability and technology leaders to discuss solutions to urban problems, will hold its annual summit in Cleveland in October.

The organization, based in San Francisco, expects as many as 400 "opinion-shapers, policy-makers, leading thinkers and innovators" from more than 20 countries to attend sessions at the Global Center for Health Innovation Oct. 23-25.

Officials, including County Executive Armond Budish, attended last year's summit and pitched the city for the 2017 meeting.

Lev Gonick, co-founder and chief executive of DigitalC, a nonprofit trying to help Cleveland connect and compute, was also instrumental in attracting the summit. His company is the local partner.

"Cleveland is an excellent choice for the annual summit because it knows how to build economic clusters and is embarking on an exciting new urban revitalization and smart city strategy across an ecosystem of partners from technology, public sector, philanthropy, academic, and community organizations," said Meeting of the Minds executive director Jessie Feller Hahn. "Cleveland is not only home to major healthcare systems such as the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth but Ohio is also the third largest modern manufacturing state in the country."

Budish gave a presentation last year at the summit in Richmond, California. Conversations between Cuyahoga County public officials and event organizers before, during, and after the summit led to a January site visit and selection of Cleveland and the Global Center for the 2017 summit.

"Hosting this event for innovation leaders around the globe will further enhance our standing as center for innovative leadership," Budish said in a statement. "Much has already been accomplished but, similar to other cities and counties around the world, there are major challenges ahead - challenges we are tackling head on."

Meeting of the Minds focuses on urban solutions in eight areas: environment, economy, technology, governance, society, resources, infrastructure and mobility.

Through its blog, magazine, monthly webinars, monthly meetups, workshops, roundtables, and the annual summit, Meeting of the Minds invites leaders from the public, private, non-profit, academic and philanthropic sectors to identify innovations that can be scaled, replicated and transferred from city-to-city and across sectors.

©2017 Advance Ohio Media, Cleveland Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.