• Industrial is hot: Tim Conder, VP/Development, Northpoint Development LLC says it will have completed 6 million SF and $800 million in development.
• A Homecoming Success: How Detroit expats – and Detroit Homecoming investors – built a portfolio of $170 million in refurbished multi-family rental housing units in the city in less than 10 years.
• Big Bets – Downtown, Midtown and Corktown – are changing the real estate landscape, but will office workers return?

Plus: Tours of a mix of projects (residential, Corktown, etc.)

Generations: A conversation with members of key and diverse families with a big impact on Detroit. (Motown’s Robin Terry and Ethan Davidson, William Davidson Foundation)

DETROIT’S INNOVATION FUTURE:

When Homecoming began in 2014, Detroit was in the midst of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. It would have been difficult to predict that less than a decade later, two major initiatives were poised to usher Detroit into a new age of innovation:

• Ford Motor Co’s Michigan Central project in Corktown
• The Detroit Innovation Center, a partnership between the University of Michigan, Olympia Development and Related Companies.

How can Detroit leverage these “big bets?” What can we learn from cities that have invested in similar projects?
Speaker include:

• Lance Collins Sr., dean of engineering at Virginia Tech
• Fernando Gomez-Baquero, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, NYC

DETROIT’S INNOVATION FUTURE:

Mike Cagney – Downriver native and founder of SoFi (originally Social Finance Inc.), now one of the country’s most valuable fintech companies and among the largest refinancers of student loans.

Can Detroit build a bigger fintech ecosystem? Mike, now founder and CEO of Figure, a fintech blockchain company, will chat about his Detroit roots and his perspectives with Willie Newman, CEO of HomePoint Financial, the region’s third-largest mortgage company.

TALENT & INNOVATION:

How does Detroit ensure that this Innovative Future is inclusive and Detroiters are part of it?

Michigan State University President Sam Stanley led a partnership to create the first-ever Apple Academy in Detroit, training residents in coding for a future in tech.

Mother-son duo who graduated this spring in the first cohort of Apple Academy, then conversation broadens.

Tammy Golden, Executive Director Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, General Motors Co.

Moderator: Expat Ebbie Parsons, managing partner, Yardstick Management, Atlanta

INNOVATION IN LEGACY INDUSTRIES:

Three principals in innovations in Mobility and Construction show 2-3 slides (or video) about their innovation.

Meet the Founders:

Where will Detroit’s own SoFi come from? Meet the newest cohort of TechStars Detroit. Director Monica Wheat tees up TWO of the 12 companies just inducted into TechStars’ Detroit cohort.

Innovation in Equity:

Ebbie Parsons on the advice he gave Netflix that led to millions of dollars deposited in black-owned or led banks.

Closing Sessions:

Detroit Youth Panel – What do young people, home-grown talent, say about the city’s future and what they’re hearing at Detroit Homecoming? Members of Youth panels from Skillman Foundation, the Community Foundation for SE Michigan and the STEAM project at Engineering Society of Detroit weigh in.

YOUTH MEMBERS will be on hand for LUNCH … before breaking to the Tours and Experiences

LUNCH:
Members of the Youth Panel, the TechStar founders and other speakers will be set up at various tables for Lunch before Guests leave for Experiences/Field Trips.

THURSDAY AFTERNOON EXPERIENCE OPTIONS:

• Arts & Culture
• Auto Show VIP
• Detroit Riverfront/Belle Isle

Friday, September 16

Closing Day

The National Spotlight Shines on Detroit:
Even TIME Magazine is noticing! We speak with people from Sports, the Arts and more about how Detroit is suddenly recognized for the cool factor we knew waDesign in Detroit.

• Sean Mann, Detroit City Football Club
• Claude Molinari, NFL Draft
• Yuval Sharon, Detroit Opera
• The Detroit Institute of Arts “Van Gogh in America”
• Grant Gilbert – bringing authentic subcultures to life with media startup Auditorium

Hometown Heroes:

5 minute pitches from “Grassroots Doers”

Black Designers in the D:

D’Wayne Edwards, brings his footwear design school  to Detroit to create the new Pensole Lewis College of Business initiative at CCS –

CLOSING SESSION: Future Forward – Homecoming’s 10th anniversary in 2023.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON EXPERIENCE OPTIONS:

• Fashion/Design
• Cool Companies–Factory Zero and StockX
• Black History