Governor Pritzker Heads List of Notables to Launch Aurora's Ambitious "605 Innovation District"
AURORA, Ill., July 9, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Aurora, called the City of Lights because it was one of the first cities to deploy electric streetlights citywide, may soon be called the City of Tech. Governor JB Pritzker and Aurora Mayor Richard C. Irvin will lead a roster of notables this Thursday July 11th, at 4:00 pm, at an event called TechVibe in Aurora to launch the city's "605 Innovation District" - an ambitious new initiative designed to make Aurora the technology leader for the State of Illinois and beyond.
As a centerpiece of the new initiative, Aurora will partner with Smart City Capital to provide an array of digital smart city applications, potentially encompassing such critical areas as telecommunications, architecture and engineering.
A 2018 McKinsey Global Institute study found that cities that harness these smart city applications can improve "some [city] quality-of-life indicators by 10-30 percent."
Establishing a solid foundation for its technology leadership plans, Aurora has already laid over 137 miles of fiber optic cable to power high-speed digital networks. The city says that this advanced digital infrastructure combined with Aurora's geographic proximity to "an existing technology corridor regionally" and to the Chicago technology job market makes the city "uniquely suited" to realize its vision and innovation goals.
Michael Pegues, Chief Information Officer of the City of Aurora, and Jimi Allen, CEO of Bureau Gravity are directing the 605 Innovation District initiative, and are interacting with other smart cities, such as Kansas City, with the goal that best practices developed elsewhere will be adopted in Aurora.
Bureau Gravity: Headquarters for Aurora's 605 Innovation District
Bureau Gravity, a leading-edge communications company located in downtown Aurora for 20 years, will serve as headquarters for the 605 Innovation District and as its media hub and business intelligence epicenter. Bureau Gravity brings interested parties around the digital economy to solve today's problems together. At Bureau Gravity, ideas are envisioned, crafted, and made tangible.
Adjacent to the headquarters' complex, Bureau Gravity is preparing to build a network, research and development lab space known GigHub. Bureau Gravity is seeking the brightest minds to test here, operating at up to 100 gigabits and with 10-gigabit workstation ports available. GigHub's R&D activities will be integral to advancing the capability of today's networking technologies. This level of speed, paired with the vision and mission of the 605 Innovation District, will create a global attraction in Aurora.
For more information on the July 11th TechVibe event, please visit here.
About Bureau Gravity
While Bureau Gravity has been a communications company on Lasalle Street in downtown Aurora, IL for 20 years, in 2018, CEO Jimi Allen completed an 8-year redevelopment of a new, world-class facility that fuels, facilitates and nurtures businesses and entrepreneurs all day, every day. The new Bureau Gravity is a 17,000 square foot, three-story, tech-forward building that was painstakingly designed as a frictionless hub of connectivity and innovation. Bureau Gravity includes a state-of-the-art digital production facility, complete with broadcast capabilities that range from global events to private boardroom presentations, collaborative meeting and workspaces, a French Industrial themed event space that rivals the hippest buildings in any city in the world, a daytime coffee shop and evening lounge and a full-service marketing firm located on the second floor that's made up of a specially curated team of business development, marketing, branding, and communications experts who artfully blur all lines in the breathless pursuit of seamless, integrated, story & solutions for companies.
SOURCE Bureau Gravity
