A week ago, nearly 100 people packed into the sixth floor of a building in New York City’s Flatiron District to hear a panel discussion about tech. But the topic wasn’t the debut of a new app or gadget.
Instead the conversation, moderated by NAC Executive Director Diana Lind, took on the city’s plan to turn Roosevelt Island into a hotbed for the tech industry — Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s own compact Silicon Valley, if you will. On hand were such heavyweights as Seth Pinsky, president of the NYC Economic Development Corporation, and the Brookings Institution’s Jennifer Bradley, who is also a previous Forefront writer. Joining them were Josh Sirefman of Cornell University and Jed Alpert, chief executive officer of the company Mobile Commons.
For a comprehensive read detailing the plans for the Roosevelt Island tech campus, see Nancy Scola’s recent Forefront article. (Unlike most Forefront stories, it’s free.)
For those of you who couldn’t make it last week’s panel, the Van Alen Institute, which hosted along with NAC, has provided an edited video of the panel. Check it out below.