Charles Landry is an international authority on the creative use of culture in urban revitalization.Ê His firm, Comedia, is based in the UK and has worked in more than 30 countries to maximize their cultural resources.Ê His book, ÒThe Creative City,Ó is a toolkit for urban innovators, intended to get an ideas factory going that turns urban innovations into reality.

Henry Beer is a partner in Communication Arts, a Boulder, CO, design firm.Ê He believes that powerful design incorporates and recognizes the context and culture it serves Ð and that makes him a skeptic of the themed environments popping up all over American cities.Ê Recently, he wowed the Urban Land InstituteÕs Entertainment Development Council with his speech challenging some of their favorite urban entertainment projects.

Juan Enriquez is the director of the Life Sciences Project at Harvard Business School where he is building an interdisciplinary center focusing on how business will change as a result of the life sciences revolution.Ê Earlier in his career, he was the CEO of Mexico CityÕs Urban Development Corporation and an outspoken advocate of the need to reform MexicoÕs economic and political structure. Juan, author of "As the Future Catches You,"Êconcludes that the dominant language and economic driver of the next century will be genetics.Ê The cities and companies that understand that will prosper.Ê The others will be left behind Ð way behind.

Paul Grogan is founder and president of CEOs for Cities, a new national organization that believes in cities. In his recent book, ÒComeback Cities,Ó Paul finds signs of life in cities and neighborhoods that had been left for dead.Ê As the long-time head of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, Paul can legitimately claim to be one big reason behind the urban renaissance, having invested more than $3 billion of private capital in inner city revitalization efforts while at LISC.

Sir Peter Hall is the Chair of Planning at the Bartlett School of Planning at University College, London. Knighted in 1998 for his intellectual contributions, he is the only urban planner in the last fifty years to have such an honor bestowed. His writings total nearly thirty authored and edited books and include studies of American-style suburbanization in Europe, planning disasters, and economic development issues. Most recently, he examined the great cities of history in "Cities in Civilization: Culture, Technology, and Urban Order" (1998), looking at creativity in cities as a reflection of developments in their cultures, civilizations, and political systems.

Mary Jo WaitsÊis a professor at the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University, and she is doing ground-breaking research on the role of downtowns in the New Economy.

Neal Peirce is the foremost writer, among American journalists, on cities and metropolitan regions Ñ their political and economic dynamics, their emerging national and global roles. With Curtis Johnson, he has co-authored the Peirce Reports on compelling issues of metropolitan futures for leading media in 20 regions across the nation. In 1975, Neal began Ñ and continues today Ñ the United States' first national column focused on state and local government themes. He was one fo the founders and then a contributing editorof National Journal, and was active in theÊ1960s as political editor of Congressional Quarterly.

Ben Starrett is a Collins Fellow at FloridaÕs Collins Center for Public Policy, founder of the Funders Network on Smart Growth and Livable Communities, and a Knight Fellow in Community Building at the University of Florida.Ê But for Ben, all of these jobs are the means to the same end:Ê Solving the problems of South Florida and creating a better future for the people who call Miami home.Ê

Alex Marshall writes about urban design for The New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, George, Metropolis, Planning and other national publications.Ê In his new book, ÒHow Cities WorkÓ Alex takes a comprehensive look at why sprawl has become the dominant urban pattern in America today and what can be done to change it.Ê

Larry Keeley is a strategic planner who believes that most strategies are unforgivably dull and uninspiring, and for no good reason.Ê About strategy, Larry says, "A great strategy can usually be diagrammed on the back of my business card, and has a single major point: It says what you are going to do to constructively alter the daily lives of millions of people. Unfortunately, the people who craft strategy usually aren't curious enough about peoples' everyday lives. Yet this is always the best starting place for true breakthroughs." He is obsessed about the use of design to transform strategy into a more potent force.Ê Since 1979, Larry and his Chicago-based firm, Doblin, have worked with Aetna, Amoco, Apple, Hallmark, McDonald's, Motorola, Steelcase, Texas Instruments, and Xerox.Ê Larry is the president of Doblin.

Charleston, S.C. Mayor Joe Riley is widely considered to be one of AmericaÕs great place-makers and a guru of livability.Ê The city he leads is a magnet for tourists and residents who want to experience the charm and power of an authentic place. Charleston, S.C. is on everyoneÕs list of great American cities.Ê Yet, the city has no NFL team, no NBA team, no major league baseball.Ê ItÕs not a center of high tech.Ê What Charleston does have is great place-making.Ê From its beautifully preserved historic center to its plans for a greenbelt system to manage its growth, Charleston is a city for others to envy.Ê Mayor Riley is one of AmericaÕs foremost experts on how to make cities livable.