Innovation America Innovation America Accelerating the growth of the GLOBAL entrepreneurial innovation economy
Founded by Rich Bendis

Ron Littlefield, a former mayor of Chattanooga, Tenn., is a senior fellow with the Governing Institute and its lead analyst on the City Accelerator initiative. A city planner by career, he also consults to government through Littlefield Associates.

Perhaps out of jealousy, perhaps out of awe, many city leaders and politicians find themselves wondering: What is it about Seattle that yields so much invention, innovation and creative activity? Maybe it’s the still-futuristic Space Needle, a legacy of the 1962 World’s Fair, which remains the city’s most recognizable landmark. Or maybe, as the birthplace of Starbucks, it's all that caffeine.