Business

Ex-Pats Will See And Taste A Changing Detroit This Week

September 15, 2014, 7:11 AM by  Alan Stamm

Unlike other fall homecoming events, a high-powered one in Detroit this week has no football game, campus tours or alumni cocktail parties.

This gathering, dubbed Detroit Homecoming, is a three-day pep rally aimed at challenging former Detroiters to support the city as it emerges from bankruptcy. 

Crain's Detroit Business, which is producing and managing the event with the nonprofit Downtown Detroit Partnership, calls it "a summit for America's successful Detroit natives." 

More than 150 successful "Detroit expatriates" — business executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, entertainers and sports figures with ties to Detroit — will participate in the inaugural Detroit Homecoming .


The event website also displays these themes for the Wednesday-Friday event: rebirth, recharge, reconnect, redesign, reinvest, renew, rethink and revitalize.

Part of the vision is that attendees will talk about Detroit improvements on social media and in conversations back in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities where they live and work. In addition to presentations, the agenda has tours and dinners.

"They’ll be unexpected, sometimes surprising stories with great punch lines," predicts Cindy Pasky, chair of the Downtown Partnership. "There will be plenty to share fast, far and wide."

In a Detroit Unspun post, Pasky adds:

The Detroit Homecoming is an emotional connection. Those attending are coming back home, often to where they spent their childhood. Together, they’ll learn about the new Detroit as well as experience and visit places that are often difficult for out-of-towners to get to on a quick trip home.

What they see will hopefully give them a sense of unity with those of us who live, work and play in Detroit every day. And, hopefully, it will encourage them to become part of the transformation -- to invest, engage and reshape our city. 

Invited guests -- none of whom are indentified publicly yet -- will hear Detroit's mayor, Michigan's governor, GM's chief executive and these Thursday presenters:

  • Chris Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings Inc., will sketch entertainment district plans.
  • Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans, will discuss his ongoing vision for the city.
  • Warren Buffett, the investor and philanthropist, joins Gilbert for a "Why I'm Bullish on Detroit" duet. 
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At Friday morning's closing session, five panelists moderated by Chuck Stokes of WXYZ will share views on "Diversity in Detroit's Rebound."

The "homecoming summit" idea came from Laura Trudeau, managing director for community development at the Kresge Foundation in Troy. The event co-directors are Crain's Publisher Mary Kramer and Jim Hayes, a former Fortune magazine publisher (1986-94) who worked at Detroit's Fisher Building from 1967-77 as a Sports Illustrated ad salesman and moved back to Metro Detroit last year.

Some sessions will be live-streamed by WXYZ and Crain's. The conference schedule is here


Read more:  Crain's Detroit Business


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