During his 2014 campaign for Lieutenant Governor, Cambridge City Councilor Leland Cheung had a lot of interesting things to say about what Massachusetts can do to thrive in the innovation economy of the 21^st century.

Leland Cheung

While Cheung was unsuccessful in the political arena, he hasn’t stopped talking and thinking about innovation.  A recent email explained what he’s been doing since the September primary election:

After the election last year, while chatting with some entrepreneurs and innovators, I realized I don’t actually need to be in office to help affect regional cooperation and the growth of the innovation economy that I talked about during the campaign. So I’ve gotten together with a coalition of entrepreneurs, thought-leaders, and job-creators who are committed to growing the innovation economy across ALL of Massachusetts. We’re also committed to strengthening the ties within it.

The newly-formed Innovate MA Coalition is collaboratively developing a grassroots, non-partisan, ‘innovation agenda’ to promote policies that support job creation, workforce readiness, and economic competitiveness for the Commonwealth.

To better understand what is already working and to hear what innovative-minded people are thinking, Cheung and his colleagues from the Innovate Massachusetts Alliance are embarking on a listening tour around the Commonwealth.  They will be in Lowell on Wednesday, January 28 at 6 pm at Entrepreneurship for All (formerly Merrimack Valley Sandbox) at 175 Cabot St #100 in Lowell (which is the Wannalancit Mills complex).

I plan to attend the event and I hope many of our readers will too.  It should be a very interesting evening.  If you’d like to attend, just go to the Facebook event page and click “join.”  See you on the 28^th.