John Hanke, CEO and founder of Niantic Labs and Sam Gill of the Knight Foundation will discuss the potential for Augmented Reality and other mobile technologies to engage communities in dialogue and activity around public spaces. Each have a unique approach towards connecting community members, such as Niantic’s mobile games Ingress and Pokemon GO and Knight Foundation projects such as the “Reimagining the Civic Commons” initiatives in cities like Detroit, Akron and Philadelphia and the wildly successful Open Streets events, which celebrate public spaces. John and Sam will look at ways that technology can pull people out of their homes and encourage them to “rediscover” public spaces, generating foot traffic, economic activity and cultural awareness in redeveloping neighborhoods.