Joseph Benesh | President and CEO, The Ingenuity Co.

The Idea: We need to maintain the intimacy of a small city, and make sure we keep our culture of direct access to our community leadership, which provides for the sustained growth and development of our emerging community leaders on an ongoing basis. What if we facilitated community meetings/forums around a specific topic facing Des Moines? The difference between this and what may be currently offered, is that these events would provide a forum to directly connect with leaders and explore what is important to them as it relates to the community, in order to find common ground, set up potential mentoring relationships, elevate and maintain the institutional record and oral history of our community, and give the underrepresented an opportunity to connect with those who are in a position of influence. These purposeful events could be held quarterly or monthly and would select topics based on community input. By lowering the access barrier as our community grows, we can avoid the increasing distance between those who wish to connect and grow and those who are in a position to help them positively contribute to the community. >