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The Delray Beach Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the leadership and management of midsize cities. The Institute promotes and celebrates innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to community building through a series of dynamic conferences, salons and course work.

The Institute will serve as the premier venue for leaders to discuss innovative approaches to challenges and opportunities facing thousands of communities worldwide. The Institute will promote community innovation and civic entrepreneurship via annual conferences featuring renowned experts, a dynamic salon series, insightful seminars and a comprehensive website. The only institute of its kind in the United States, the Delray Beach Institute will provide the tools, knowledge and inspiration that leaders need to transform their cities.

Together We Will…

  • Inspire…elected officials, architects, urban planners, neighborhood leaders, city administrators and interested citizens to take chances and transform their communities.
  • Equip…our leaders with the tools, knowledge and strategies they need to make a lasting difference in their cities.
  • Share…best practices in the areas of redevelopment, urban design, sustainability, race relations, community policing, civic engagement, public information, municipal marketing, planning, visioning, et. al., enabling communities to learn from each other.
  • Educate…our communities on the opportunities and challenges facing our cities in the 21st century.

Your Chance to Leave a Legacy

The Delray Beach Institute offers several ways to be involved.

  • Sponsorship…Several levels of sponsorship are available.
  • Conferences…A chance to learn, to network, to bring back information to help your city
  • Salon Series…Discuss cutting-edge issues, interact with the experts, learn and grow.
  • Seminars and Classes…Real world information, tools you can put to use right away, taught by the best community builders and civic entrepreneurs in the nation.

You’re invited to make a difference, starting today.

 The Delray Idea
The vision is to create a world-class institute that will offer:

Education: The institute will be a place for urban explorers to study community building, resident-driven planning, leadership models, civic engagement, economic development, redevelopment, historic preservation, urban design, downtown revitalization, financial management etc. The Institute will brand Delray Beach as being on the cutting edge of civic entrepreneurship and innovation. The Institute and the city will become the premier place to test new ideas and network with the best urban thinkers in the world. Whereas other institutes focus on theory, the Delray Beach Institute will focus on reality. The goal of the Institute is to give leaders of all experience levels the tools they need to make an immediate and positive impact in their respective communities.

 Cultural and Civic Enhancement: The Institute will work to enhance the cultural and intellectual life of Delray Beach and other communities. By inviting world-class speakers to Delray, the Institute will enrich the lives of students and attract the creative class and its economic benefits to Delray Beach.

Civic Engagement for Youth: The Institute will offer educational programs for youth that will emphasize the importance of civic involvement. Programs will teach young people the importance of urban planning and how the built environment affects their lives. The Institute will expose students to political leaders, planners and others who will instill in them an awareness of how important it is be engaged in the design and future of their communities.

Programs and Functions
Not your typical conference - The Institute will host one major conference per year. The conference will feature renowned speakers and professionals and will draw national and international attention to Delray Beach. Again, the goal is to differentiate the Institute’s Conference from other conferences by focusing on giving leaders the tools they need to go home and make an immediate difference in their communities.

We believe that conference attendees should have a good time while they’re learning. We will focus on creating a fun and creative environment for policy makers and aspiring leaders to truly share and brainstorm. The Institute needs to be “inclusive” and “authentic”, bringing together experts and practitioners. Efforts should be made to offer scholarships to promising leaders who cannot afford to attend. An emphasis will be placed on the non-partisan nature of civic entrepreneurship, a welcome respite from the rampant polarization we are currently experiencing in America.

Openness and Accessibility
The Institute will also host a salon series focusing on local, state and national issues enabling visitors to enjoy intimate evenings and “brown bag lunches” with a variety of experts. The Salon experience should be interactive, giving attendees an opportunity to really connect with panelists.

Seminars and Website
Year-round seminars covering a variety of topics will be conducted in Delray Beach and in communities across the country. A team of Institute experts will travel to your hometown for in-depth analysis and consultation. Or cities can travel to Delray for help, support and advice.
We also envision a website with online courses, chat rooms, message boards and an e-commerce component where clients can purchase books and white papers.

In addition, a series of Leadership Seminars will be held in Delray Beach. Building and sustaining great cities isn’t possible without visionary leadership. The Institute will develop and host a series of seminars and courses designed to nurture promising leaders in politics, non-profit management, neighborhood associations, the business community etc.

The coursework will enable current and future leaders to learn what it’s really like to take a leadership role in a community. The Institute will invite top experts to share the latest theories of leadership and classes will explore what works and what doesn’t. Students will work with leaders in various fields who will share their real-life stories. The seminars will also be a place where local and regional disputes can be analyzed in a non-partisan, safe and secure environment.

The Benefits
There are internal and external benefits to having a successful Institute. The establishment of an institute will help brand Delray Beach as a community that has “done it right.” As a result, the progress that has been made over the past 20 years will be easier to sustain. Instead of being vulnerable to changing political tides, the presence of an institute will create momentum to keep the city moving on a progressive and innovative path.

In addition, by attracting the best minds to Delray Beach, the city will benefit by being able to find and implement new ideas. We can be a “living laboratory” where entrepreneurial ideas can be tested before being rolled out nationwide. The external benefits are also substantial.

In a polarized political climate, there is a widespread belief that our problems and challenges are impossible to overcome. By emphasizing a non-partisan, entrepreneurial approach to community building we will pioneer a new way of thinking. By focusing on challenges and opportunities, consensus building and team work we can be a catalyst for the nation’s cities.
Because the Institute is envisioned as an open and inclusive platform, we have an opportunity to make a major impact nationwide. After all, entrepreneurship is non-partisan.

The Need and The Niche
While there are scores of professional organizations and “think tanks” across the United States and the world, there is very little geared to the growth, management and revitalization of mid-size cities, i.e. 40,000 to 100,000 in size. Yet, there is a huge marketplace of those size cities and people interested in their welfare. The Institute’s curriculum will focus on the challenges and opportunities of mid-size cities and neighborhoods.

While other cities have institutes, the Delray Beach Institute will differ in many ways. For example, the Aspen Institute in Colorado focuses on global issues relating to business, culture, education, justice and environmental sustainability. It does not directly address urban issues, but it has branded Aspen as much more than a ski town. The Seaside Institute in Seaside, Florida is a strong proponent for new urbanism, but the Delray Beach Institute will differ by offering visitors a chance to study in a much more authentic atmosphere.
Seaside was created from scratch and was a blank canvas on which the vision of ideal new town was painted.

Delray Beach is different. This city is historic and real. It is a living entity, with economic and racial diversity, a “real” downtown, distinct neighborhoods, blight, crime, educational challenges and some suburban sprawl. There are more lessons to be learned from the Delray Beach experience than there is from the Seaside experiment. As a result, we have an opportunity and we should take advantage of our success, our challenges, our diversity, our location and our authenticity.
Target audiences for the Institute include members of the American Planning Association, National League of Cities, U.S. Conference of Mayors, Florida League of Cities, Planning Congress, American Institute of Architects, Urban Land Institute, Congress for New Urbanism, Florida Redevelopment Association, Florida Planning and Zoning Association, International Downtown Association, Florida Association of Realtors, National Home Builders Association, MainStreet organizations, historic preservation groups, et. al.


Revenue and Funding Sources
Foundations
Corporate Sponsors
Individual donors and members
Conference registration income
Sponsor booth income at conferences
Naming rights for programs and speaker series
E-commerce; books, white papers
Consulting
Speaker’s Bureau
Seminar income
Online curriculum income

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