We’re proud of our leader, Brent Penner who’s off in New York with 29 other selected International Downtown Association members for the Emerging Leader Fellowship program. We look forward to supporting all his learnings he’ll bring back to our community!
IDA’s 2019 Emerging Leaders Fellowship Program Attracts Top Urban Champions
Fellows to learn essential leadership and place management skills in New York City
SASKATOON – June 17, 2019 – The International Downtown Association (IDA) selected 30 of the industry’s brightest professionals for the 2019 Emerging Leaders Fellowship (ELF) program. These senior staff members hail from 3 countries and 17 provinces or states, including Newcastle, UK; Vancouver, BC, Canada; Saskatoon, SK, Canada; Milwaukee, WI; San Francisco, CA; Austin, TX; New Haven, CT; Jacksonville, FL; and Denver, CO.
Alumni of the IDA Emerging Leaders Fellowship program, launched in 2016, are fast becoming sought-after leaders for the future of city building worldwide. “The success of our Fellowship program underscores how critical this training is to our growing industry,” said David Downey, President and CEO of IDA. “This is the only program of its kind created specifically for urban place management professionals. IDA is looking to further illustrate the importance of our industry by elevating leaders with the necessary skills to champion inclusive city building. Professional development remains a hallmark of IDA.”
The Emerging Leader Fellowship is a week-long experiential program bringing together a cohort of IDA professionals from within the urban district management industry. The fellows learn essential leadership and place management skills and gain practical tools in the areas of place-based economic development, the live-work-play experience, and public-private partnerships.
Downtown Saskatoon’s own Brent Penner, Executive Director, is eager to have been selected. “I look forward to participating in such a program with 29 colleagues representing diverse cities throughout Canada, the United States, and United Kingdom. I’m excited to be the fourth Saskatchewan BID representative to take part in the Fellowship, joining two colleagues from Regina and one from Saskatoon who have previously attended.”
“The International Downtown Association is looking to build the future of our industry, and these accomplished executives are the rising stars of our profession,” said Downey. “With this program, we’re educating and inspiring the next generation of leaders.”
The program takes place June 16-21, 2019 in New York City featuring intensive instruction delivered by IDA partners at Baruch College, City University of New York, Times Square Alliance and Coro New York Leadership Center. Professionals from several business improvement district organizations across the city provide technical in-the-field training. The event takes place at various locations throughout Manhattan with field visits provided by several local BID leaders.
Through a series of three leadership training sessions, Coro will provide participants in IDA’s Fellowship with a set of frameworks and strategies to help them develop best practices for leading change. Focusing on the personal, interpersonal and systems-level, each session will examine change-making from a different lens and provide new tools, along with experiential activities to test out these new ideas in action.
About Downtown Saskatoon
Formed in 1986, the Downtown Saskatoon Business Improvement District strives to promote, shape, and enhance Saskatoon’s Downtown as a destination for residential, retail, cultural, and business development. We continuously work to build strong connections and partnerships that enrich the district through animation and events, and lead efforts to ensure the district is clean and safe.
About the International Downtown Association
The International Downtown Association is the premier organization for urban place professionals who are shaping and activating dynamic city center districts. Our members are downtown champions who bring urban centers to life, bridging the gap between the public and private sectors. We represent an industry of more than 2,500 place management organizations, employing 100,000 people throughout North America and growing rapidly around the world. Founded in 1954, IDA is a resource center for ideas and innovative best practices in urban place management. For more information, visit www.downtown.org.
About the Coro New York Leadership Center
Coro New York Leadership Center is New York’s premier leadership training organization and a community of over 2,300 alumni across business, government, schools, and non-profits that is shaping our city’s future. Coro training helps individuals hone their visions for change and learn how to exercise leadership with greater self-awareness, intention, and effectiveness. We work with leaders, both seasoned and emerging, from many different fields who come to Coro to discover how cities really work and how policy is shaped, while also learning how to collaborate across differences, build culture and community, and make progress on shared challenges. From commissioners and city councilmembers to activists, executives, and entrepreneurs, those who come to Coro build the skills, knowledge, and networks to help them pursue their visions for change with greater effectiveness and impact.
