Salt Lake City Ranks #37th “Most Innovative” City in America

A new ranking of the “most innovative” cities in the world lists Salt Lake City as #37 in the nation and #117 worldwide.

Global agency 2thinknow released their annual listing of most innovative cities. Silicon Valley came in #1 in world, followed by New York and Boston. Seattle is the 10th most innovative city in the nation.

The rankings are based on three factors:

• Cultural Assets: Measurable sources of ideas (e.g. designers, art galleries, sports, museums, dance, nature, etc)

• Human Infrastructure: Soft and hard infrastructure to implement innovation (transport, universities, business, venture capital, office space, government, technology, etc.)

• Networked Markets: Basic conditions and connections for innovation (location, military, economies of related entities etc)

The cities on the list are broken down into 5 classifications. Salt Lake City is considered a “Hub.”

• NEXUS: Critical nexus for multiple economic and social innovation segments
• HUB: Dominance or influence on key economic and social innovation segments , based on global trends
• NODE: Broad performance across many innovation segments, with key imbalances
• INFLUENCER: Competitive in some segments, potential or imbalanced
• UPSTART: Potential steps towards relative future performance in a few innovation segments.