Speaker James Chung: Rebuilding Toward Deeper Resiliency

(GREATER DES MOINES, IOWA) Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020 — Much has changed in the world since James Chung was here in 2018 to discuss the many ways Greater Des Moines is a statistical overachiever. Two years later – amid the global pandemic, a wounded economy and a national reckoning over racial inequities – Chung is returning to the Tomorrow Plan Speaker Series on a virtual stage to reassess the region’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities.

Chung is the president of Reach Advisors, a strategy, research and predictive analytics firm. Among his clients are U.S. cities wanting to peer deep into his datasets – he says he extracts data even the U.S. government doesn’t have – to help them gain competitive advantages over other cities.

During his last visit, Chung described Greater Des Moines outperforming its peers whenever compared to his client cities around the country. Chung said at the time that Greater Des Moines could break out as a city known nationally for talent and opportunity – if the region continued with its intentional planning and a willingness to take on big initiatives. A video of his previous talk is available at tomorrowplanspeakerseries.com/james-chung/.

For his upcoming visit, Chung is digging deep into data specific to Greater Des Moines to diagnose the region's condition in the altered economy. His research leads to several challenging questions that Chung will pose to regional leaders: How much of a competitive advantage has Greater Des Moines retained and has it changed? What helped its recovery from the last recession and could those strategies work again? Can the regional economy become more equitable? How can the region maintain its momentum?

Details
Wednesday, September 23
7:30-8:30 a.m. — Keynote with Chung
8:30-9 a.m. — Q&A with Chung

Virtual Location
Please register to join us via Zoom: tomorrowplanspeakerseries.org/james-chung/

About The Tomorrow Plan Speaker Series

The Tomorrow Plan Speaker Series is an implementation strategy of The Tomorrow Plan, a plan for the sustainable development of Greater Des Moines.