Light City U

We conceptualized and produced Light City U, a six-day sold-out innovation conference that brought together leading voices in healthcare, energy, the creative economy, and social innovation. As a core pillar of the broader Light City festival, the conference generated substantial sponsorship support and convened thought leaders, creators, and civic innovators for a citywide dialogue on creativity, community, and the future of innovation.

Light City U was more than a conference series. It became the civic brain of Light City: a six-day, fully sold-out gathering of innovators, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, artists, technologists, policymakers, and social impact visionaries.

Developed and produced by Brooke Hall and Justin Allen of What Works Studio, Light City U was designed to spark cross-sector collaboration and position Baltimore as a global hub of innovation.

The driving question behind The Light City U series of Innovation Conferences was: What are the latest innovations that can help us build a more responsible and equitable society? And we secured national and local thought-leaders to speak at the conferences to explore that question.

Each day explored a different vertical, health, sustainability, social innovation, creative industries, and the future of work, and every track was built around bold ideas, unexpected perspectives, and the belief that innovation should be inclusive and catalytic.

From the earliest development conversations, Light City U emerged as the component that most excited sponsors. Its focus on ideas, impact, and civic progress aligned closely with the priorities of corporate, philanthropic, and institutional partners. Sponsors saw the conference as the strategic engine of the festival, the place where thought leadership, innovation, and community transformation converged. Light City U ultimately became a primary driver of sponsorship interest and investment across the entire event.

The response from audiences was just as strong. All six days sold out.

Speakers included Ray Lewis, Andrew Yang, Debbie Millman, Jad Abumrad, Amy Webb, Thomas Dolby, Steve Case, and leaders from Johns Hopkins, Under Armour, TED, and national innovation labs. Panels blended with performances. Keynotes blended with immersive experiences. Attendees described the week as energizing, transformative, and unlike anything else on the East Coast. Brooke Hall was a featured speaker at the Social Innovation Conference, and she and Justin Allen co-hosted the Creative Innovation Conference, helping lead the dialogue that defined Light City U.

Light City U became a signature intellectual event for the region. It demonstrated that when a city brings diverse voices together around innovation, it can shift both narrative and possibility. It showed that an ideas conference, when thoughtfully designed, can ignite civic momentum and influence the way people imagine a city's future.

Although Light City continued to expand in later years, Light City U remained one of its most celebrated and high-impact components, a gathering that helped mobilize collaboration across sectors, attract national attention, secure significant sponsorship, and anchor Baltimore’s identity as a city of ideas.

Outcomes

• Conceived, developed, and produced a six-day sold-out innovation conference

• Served as a primary driver of festival-wide sponsorship interest and investment

• Crafted programming across five major verticals: social innovation, sustainability, health, creative industries, and the future of work

• Featured nationally recognized speakers including Ray Lewis, Andrew Yang, Debbie Millman, Steve Case, Amy Webb, Jad Abumrad, Thomas Dolby, and more

• Attracted diverse audiences from business, government, philanthropy, academia, and the creative and tech sectors

• Integrated performances, immersive experiences, and participatory elements into traditional conference formats

• Drove national attention and coverage for Baltimore’s innovation ecosystem

• Contributed to year one’s broader economic impact of $33.8 million

• Helped establish a multi-year event that ultimately generated $111.6 million in total economic impact

• Activated collaboration between city agencies, corporate partners, foundations, artists, and a production team of more than five hundred people