Kansas City, MO -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/11/2014 -- Ultrafast internet will change the way cities work, making towns smarter, faster, and ultimately better places to live. It's already demonstrating a measurable impact on GDP. While 143 U.S. communities have gigabit access, most of these cities lack metro-wide plans for how their local governments, nonprofits, schools, entrepreneurship labs, and other civic stakeholders will use fiber-optic technology to advance their communities.

This critical gap between opportunity and economic benefit is the focus of the first Gigabit City Summit - North America conference, scheduled for January 13-15, 2015 in Kansas City, MO and produced by KC Digital Drive.

The Gigabit City Summit invites mayors, city managers, council members, urban planners, nonprofit leaders and others invested in their community’s prosperity to come to Kansas City for a three-day experience that will equip them with the tools to develop and execute plans to leverage this powerful new technology.

“When Google Fiber announced it would deploy in Kansas City in 2012, we had more than a year to organize,” says KC Digital Drive’s Aaron Deacon. “That window gave us time to craft a community technology playbook that has value whether or not all the underlying infrastructure is in place.”

“Now, with the era of the fiber-connected city in full swing,” Deacon adds, “we want to help civic leaders develop plans to ensure their communities are successfully adapting to technology changes.”

Adapting to change -- and staying ahead of it -- is what the Gigabit City Summit is designed for.

Attendees will discover what Kansas City did to seize the gigabit opportunity. They will also hear from more than a dozen national civic innovators from places such as Chattanooga, Austin and Burlington who have on-the-ground experience translating technology infrastructure into social impact.

The lineup of gigabit city leaders and civically minded technology advocates speaking in the two days’ worth of panel sessions includes:

- Joe Reardon, former mayor of Kansas City, Kan., who negotiated the first Google Fiber agreement, lawyer with McAnany Van Cleave & Phillips

- Rondella Hawkins, Telecommunications & Regulatory Affairs Officer for the City of Austin, Tex.

- Catherine Bracy, Director of Community Organizing for Code for America

- Glenn Ricart, Founder and CTO of U.S. Ignite

- Ken Hays, President of the Enterprise Center of Chattanooga, Ten., and former Head of Staff to the Mayor

The Gigabit City Summit also features keynotes from internationally renowned smart city writers and thinkers, including*:

- Blair Levin, Senior Fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute, former Executive Director for President Barack Obama's Broadband Plan

- Boyd Cohen, Researcher and Professor of Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Smart Cities at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile, and developer of the Smart Cities Wheel

- Susan Crawford, Law Professor at Harvard University, co-Director of the Berkman Center and author of The Responsive City: Engaging Communities through Data-Smart Governance

In addition to these great sessions, the conference offers group activities tailored especially for cities that send delegations of multiple members. That’s why the conference pricing structure features a significant package discount to parties of five or more.

The Gigabit City Summit will provide firsthand accounts of the gigabit infrastructure’s power to boost areas of civic life from the economy, to education, to healthcare and beyond. Attendees will come with questions -- and leave with answers for how fiber-optic broadband can enhance their own communities.

To learn more and purchase registration, visit gigabitcitysummit.com

*Event agenda subject to change.

About the 2015 Gigabit City Summit - North America
Taking place January 13-15, 2015, in Kansas City, Missouri, the Gigabit City Summit is produced by KC Digital Drive. It is the first conference designed especially for leaders in gigabit cities, i.e. cities where a fiber-optic community broadband network is available or in the planning stages. Its purpose is to equip leaders with an understanding of the real-world potential of community fiber-optic broadband, and then help them create a plan for using this powerful technology to benefit their metro/community.

About the Event Organizer, KC Digital Drive
KC Digital Drive is the only non-profit organization chartered to drive positive civic outcomes from next-generation technology networks. We work closely with local city governments and economic development organizations, educators, healthcare professionals, artists, makers, entrepreneurs and other civic partners looking to make the most of Kansas City’s technology infrastructure.

Thanks to These Generous Sponsors

Google Fiber - The Kauffman Foundation - US Ignite - Mozilla - Launch KC