Urban innovation as economic development strategy

Berlin is home to one of the richest and fastest-growing urban tech ecosystems in Europe. With the opening of the new Brandenburg Airport, the city's old Tegel Airport is being redeveloped as an "innovation park focuses on technologies, which keep 21st century metropolises going. This will be the place where urban technologies are researched, developed, produced, tested, and exported." This is the latest in a growing number of large real estate projects—including Sidewalk Toronto's now-defunct Quayside campus—where urban innovation is itself seen as the target industry for a new district.

This points towards a future where local economic development goals of creating jobs in urban innovation itself, and creating neighborhoods attractive to urban tech workers and companies, and where government can establish protocols amenable to technology experiments will become an important industry enabler.