Model D Speaker Series: Focus on future of Detroit business

Bringing together Detroit’s most creative and innovative entrepreneurs and business minds to showcase projects and ideas fueling the city’s revitalization, this Model D Speaker Series event is sure to engage speakers and conference participants in a fast-paced, TED-style dialogue on Detroit business practice and promise.

On Thursday Jan. 20 at 6 p.m, an opening reception will introduce Detroit Impact Projects — mixed media presented
throughout the College for Creative Studies’ A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education (460 W. Baltimore Ave., Detroit’s New Center). Team members will be available
to answer questions about their projects. Dinner provided by Slows Bar
BQ at 7:30 p.m. At 8:30 p.m., keynote speaker Phil Cooley (co-owner of Slows, of course) will kick off the conference by leading a discussion on Detroit in a transformational time in the city’s history.

The next day (Jan. 21) the series heads to the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, (701 Tappan St., Ann Arbor).

Tom Stephens, vice chairman of General Motors, provides opening remarks and Execute Chairman of the Board for Ford Motor Company, William C. Ford Jr., delivers the keynote address.

Panels will include (pictured left, in order beneath Ford Jr.): Austin Black II, founder of City Living Detroit; a full-service
real estate brokerage headquartered in Detroit’s
Midtown; internationally recognized muralist Charles “Chazz” Miller; Torya Blanchard, a creative social entrepreneur also in Midtown and other Detroit locations; and Cooley.

The impressive list goes on. All speakers, panelists and a full agenda can be found here.

The program is moderated by Model D editor Walter Wasacz.

Conference admission is $15. Register here. Each day requires separate registration.