As border war continues, Kansas City region builds a bridge (Rachel Barker, Marek Gootman, Brookings)

For many regions, collaborating on common economic goals—rather than competing against each other for firms and deals—is a major challenge. That struggle is exacerbated in multistate regions like the Washington, D.C., and New York metropolitan areas, where state leaders willing to sign over millions in tax incentives to move jobs across a state border can add another layer of competition.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/10/13/as-border-war-continues-kansas-city-region-builds-a-bridge/

The making of global cities: Stories from the Global Cities Exchange (Rachel Barker, Amy Liu, Marek Gootman, Brookings)

Over the last two years, enterprising software engineers and coders representing a dozen startups hailing from as far as Ireland, Brazil, and Germany have arrived in Des Moines, Iowa, for a 100-day sprint to take their innovations to market. Organized by the region’s Global Insurance Accelerator, these entrepreneurs are equipped with $40,000 in seed capital and trained in sales, business development, marketing, and other business essentials. Insurance carriers, who each invested $100,000 in the accelerator, serve as mentors and experts, providing real-world insights while also getting a first look at emerging startups and innovations. Participants conclude the program by pitching their ideas to the hundreds of industry leaders from around the world that attend Des Moines’ annual Global Insurance Symposium.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-making-of-global-cities-stories-from-the-global-cities-exchange/

Atlanta links international disputes and airport as runway to global services economy (Marek Gootman, Rachel Barker, Brookings)

Scanning the departures and arrivals board on the way home from launching metro Atlanta’s new foreign direct investment strategy under the Global Cities Initiative, it was easy to understand why local leaders remain focused on finding strategies to better leverage their airport as a unique infrastructure asset for global economic opportunities

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2016/05/25-atlanta-airport-global-services-gootman-barker

Paris bets big on science and technology with new mega-university (Joseph Parilla, Marek Gootman, Brookings)

When asked how to create a great city, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said: “Create a great university and wait 200 years.” It would be an understatement, then, to say that the fall 2015 launch of the University of Paris-Saclay—which merges 18 French academic and research institutions in one sprawling 30-square-mile research campus—heeds Moynihan’s words. As part of a Global Cities Initiative research effort to benchmark the Paris region’s global competitiveness, we visited the Paris-Saclay cluster to better understand this transformative investment.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2016/05/11-paris-mega-university-parilla-gootman

Greater Charlotte in the global economy: Benchmarking the region's global competitiveness assets (Marek Gootman, Joseph Parilla, Brookings)

This benchmarking study, developed by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, provides the Greater Charlotte region with a framework and data to better understand its performance and position in the global economy, offering information and insights to help leaders more actively shape the region’s economic strategy.

http://www.brookings.edu/research/presentations/2016/03/23-greater-charlotte-global-economy-parilla