Jon Gruber: Jump-Starting Rochester

An evening with MIT professor Jon Gruber, co-author of Jump-Starting America, which identifies Rochester as the #1 city with ingredients for economic growth. The evening’s events include a panel discussion with Gruber, Robert Duffy, president of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce; Staci Henning, vice president and chief marketing officer of the Greater Rochester Enterprise; and James Senall, president of Nextcorps.

The American economy is growing slowly, and economic opportunities are concentrated in a few superstar cities on the coasts of the country. A return to broader prosperity should begin with a lesson from our own past. Over the two decades after World War II, the federal government invested massively in science and technology, resulting not only in the inventions that changed our lives, but a broad and highly paid middle class. Without this kind of significant public investment, private enterprise will not build the scientific foundation needed for the cutting edge industries – and good jobs – of tomorrow. We lay out a plan for developing the new American growth engine, identifying over a hundred communities – Rochester primary among them – that could build a more innovative and dynamic future.

Introductions by Rob Clark. There will be a book signing following the panel discussion.