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Reverse Mission

What is it ?

Annually, each district of the Districts of Creativity Network sends delegates to attend a "Reverse Mission" at the host district, with the mission being to discover how innovation and entrepreneurial creativity helped shape the district.

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Overview

As defined by the DC Network, Reverse Missions are annual study visits to DC Network member regions.

Leading experts, entrepreneurs, public servants and policy makers from the DC network gather to explore a host region during a multi-day program that provides insights into the way the hosting region fosters creativity and innovation.

Business meetings, site visits, presentations and workshops are worked out with the aim to bring inspiration, best practices and loads of useful contacts that can be translated to the other DC regions.

Recent News

Oklahomans Study Innovative Urban Development and Placemaking as Economic Development Strategies in Three Cities in Germany

Jun 21, 2019

RSS DC News

2019 Reverse Mission:

Stuttgart, Germany

Oklahomans Study Innovative Urban Development and Placemaking as Economic Development Strategies in Three Cities in Germany

Two Oklahomans representing the nonprofit organization Creative Oklahoma traveled to three cities in Germany to study their significant successes in developing diverse and robust economies through improving community livability via urban place-making, investing in community-accessible high performance computing and strategically nurturing ecosystems that support growth in a wide variety of creative-based industries. Read More...

Download 2019 Powerpoint

Previous Reverse Missions

2019: Stuttgart, Germany
2017: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2016: Brabant, The Netherlands
2015: Oklahoma, United States
2015: Edinburgh, Scotland
2014: Lombardy, Italy
2013: Flanders, Belgium
2012: Aarhus, Denmark
2011: Tampere, Finland
2010: Catalonia, Spain
2009: Karnataka, India
2008: Baden-Württemberg, Germany

2019 Oklahoma Delegates

Meloyde Blancett, Creative Oklahoma
Executive Director

Meloyde Blancett

“The trip was very inspirational and provided us with new business relationships, collaborative project possibilities, and ideas for Oklahoma’s own urban development and high technology solutions. What’s so valuable in making these connections is that the cities we visited aren’t the world’s powerhouse cities like Paris or London; they are more like Oklahoma in terms of size and challenges, so their innovative solutions are extremely applicable to us. We can learn a great deal from them."

2019 - Reverse Mission participants talking to developers of Franklin Village, a 400-acre development project undertaken by the German city of Mannheim. The Village was a large decommissioned US military base that housed more than 15,000 residents at its peak.
Jane Jenkins, COK FY20 New Board Membe
FY 2020 Board Member

Jane Jenkins

“From small scale experiments to large urbanization projects, this Reverse Mission has shown the impact innovative solutions and creative industries can have on urban place-making throughout a range of impressive projects. I came away with a lot of ideas we can use here.”

Jane Jenkins, President/CEO - Downtown OKC, Inc., has 30 years of experience in downtown revitalization and management, Jane is an internationally recognized speaker and expert on urban issues. She is a former Chairman for the International Downtown Association Board of Directors and is also active in the International Economic Development Council, Urban Land Institute, and the American Institute of Architects.

In 2014, Jane earned accreditation from the Congress for New Urbanism and she was recently named a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Place Management in Manchester, England. She has been honored three times by the Oklahoma Journal-Record as one of “50 Women Making a Difference” in Oklahoma, and has twice been listed by Friday Magazine as one of the most powerful women in Oklahoma. Jane is a graduate of Leadership Oklahoma City and Leadership Oklahoma.

2019 - Jane Jenkins, President and CEO, Downtown OKC, Inc. (far left) and Meloyde Blancett, Executive Director, Creative Oklahoma, (second from left) visit with Katrin Shutz, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour and Housing of the State of Baden-Wütenberg, Germany and other European economic officials, as part of their economic development study trip to Germany with the International Districts of Creativity Network, of which Creative Oklahoma is a member.

Creative Oklahoma's Involvement

  • 2019

    Stuttgart, Germany

    Delegation

    • Meloyde Blancett, Executive Director - Creative Oklahoma
    • Jane Jenkins, President - Downtown OKC Partnerships

  • 2016
    April
    19-22

    Brabant, The Netherlands

    Delegation

    • Pageant Ferriabough, President & CEO of Busine$$’ Resource Unlimited
    • Susan McCalmont, President of Creative Oklahoma
    • Jonathon Stranger, Chef
    • Douglas Sorocco, Director, Dunlap Codding
    • Tommy Yi, Director/Co-Founder of the Project202/The 404

  • 2015
    March
    26-28

    Oklahoma, United States

    Oklahoma City hosted 2015's fact-finding Reverse Mission for the Districts of Creativity. Kiplinger put Oklahoma City on its 'Great Cities for Starting a Business list' and Forbes is keeping an eye on the city when it comes to start-ups and innovation. It's certainly no coincidence that this region is a member of the Districts of Creativity Network.

    From March 26 until 28, Oklahoma provided the opportunity for its international guests to meet the organizations and key players in this booming region that hosted the 2015 Creativity World Forum only a few days later, on March 31!

    Oklahoma City was honored to prepare such a one of a kind itinerary for its international guests.

  • 2015
    OCTOBER
    27-29

    Edinburgh, Scotland

    Delegation

    • Susan McCalmont, President of Creative Oklahoma
    • Pageant Ferriabough, President & CEO of Busine$$’ Resource Unlimited in Tulsa
    • Douglas Sorocco, Director, Dunlap Codding

    Tommy Yi, one of Oklahoma City’s entrepreneurs, stated:  “The partnership between Borders Crossings, a private initiative, and publicly funded organizations like Business Gateway further stressed the importance of understanding the landscape of local assets, the customer journey and utilizing design thinking methodologies as part of the innovation process to help new businesses grow and succeed. The Mission also stressed the importance of small businesses, which make up a large portion of employment and tax revenue for Scotland.”

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