Joe Cortright was a presenter at the Memphis Manifesto summit. We called him a guide. Joe is a Portland, Oregon based economist with Impresa Consulting. He was invited to speak at the summit not once but twice because of two stand-out pieces of work he has recently completed or has under way. The completed study is on the economic importance to cities of being different. The study tracks the movement of young adults in the U.S. during the decade of the 90s. Both were hot topics at the Summit.

We also talked with some summit attendees about the challenges their cities are facing. We talked with: Charles Shaw from Chicago, Dean Amhaus from Milwaukee, Neal Falgoust from Corpus Christi, Texas, Ed Bailey from Austin, Pamela Price from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Chim Nkemdirim from Calgary, Alberta Canada and Kate Harkin from Columbus, Ohio.

And we caught up with Brian Marston, another attendee of the summit, who is producer of the Commonspace (www.thecommonspace.org) an online magazine for creatives in St. Louis, which has now morphed into a physical space he calls the public living room.