Why Innovation is a Tool for the Civic Arena | Mayor of San Mateo, California David Lim

You're all about innovation. You're all about becoming the next greatest batch of entrepreneurs that are going to help transform not only our country and our communities, but the world. And so you deserve something a little bit better than just dry statistics about, you know, what's the population of San Mateo and what do we do and that sort of stuff. So you're going to get a little bit of that because I want you to know a little bit about our city because we're very proud of our city. But I wanted to hit on the theme of innovation as a tool to promote civic responsibility and social justice. Because I've read all about you, Tim can't stop talking about all of you, I know what a great group of individuals you all are. I know that you are all working to be the next great superheroes, the next great group of innovators in the business community and in our larger community. And I want to tell you a story. When Tim first came to the City of San Mateo and was going through the planning process, there were some bumps in the road. Mm-hmm. And Tim and I sat down and we had a discussion about how we could help make his vision a reality. And I was very pleased early on to be very supportive of his vision. And through the work of him and his staff, working with city staff and ultimately the city council, we were able to get his vision realized. And we hope in a way that is meaningful and acceptable to him and the city, because we really are in partnership. But I got a lot of comments from my fellow city council colleagues and other people in government. And they said, gee, you're taking an awful risk. Boy, we really admire the fact that you're really willing to get out there, willing to go out there and take a risk on this idea of Draper University. And I've got to be honest with you. I sort of scratched my head because I did not see this as much of a challenge. To me, I saw this as a continuation of the reason why I got into public service as to the type of attitude we want all our leaders to have. And to me, I don't make a distinction between leaders who are forward-thinking, whether they be in the private sector or public sector. So for me, I've never understood that mindset. And part of what I want to discuss today is the use of innovation and entrepreneurship as a tool to promote civic responsibility and social justice. Because at the risk of sounding conceited, I consider myself an innovator. I consider myself a forward thinker. I just very early in my career decided to take a path in public service. But I don't begrudge my friends, my colleagues who decided to take that path and become the Tim Drapers of the world. You know, I have friends that work at Facebook, who work at Google, who work at Yahoo, who work at startups. You know, I have a friend who for 20 years has been just working on innovating the newest and best technologies up in his house in San Francisco. I can't even begin to tell you what he does. But we are all innovators in our own way, and what I really want to take the time to do is tell you about why innovation should be and can be a tool to promote social justice in the civic arena, in the public arena.