Former Pittsburgh mayor headlines E2 Detroit Conference in October

The person giving the keynote speech at the E2 Detroit conference is also someone who knows what Detroit is going through these days - former Mayor of Pittsburgh Tom Murphy.

"Tom Murphy was instrumental in changing the face of Pittsburgh when it was losing the steel industry," says Judy Johncox, director of commercialization services at Wayne State and TechTown. "He knows all the dos and don’ts for helping a city facing challenges."

The conference will bring together entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors to speak about Metro Detroit's economic future. A lot of it will focus on the similarities between Metro Detroit today and what Pittsburgh faced in the early 1980s when the U.S. steel industry went belly up and the region faced high unemployment, big municipal deficits and struggling neighborhoods.

Pittsburgh has since gone on to become a model of refurbishing its neighborhoods, reinventing its economy and transforming the stereotypical Rustbelt town into a vibrant 21st Century metropolis rooted in the new economy. Murphy played a major role in making this happen, serving as the mayor of Pittsburgh for three terms. He is now the senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute.

The conference will take place on Oct. 15. For information on the conference, click here.

Source: Judy Johncox, director of commercialization services at Wayne State and TechTown
Writer: Jon Zemke