The Story of Our Team

The Innovation & Technology Team in the City of South Bend is a young department, created just a few years ago under the leadership of Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Last year, a report from Innovations for Successful Societies, a project out of Princeton University, wrote up a case study outlining telling the story of our team — why it was formed, how it was formed, and who made it happen. It neatly encompasses the mission behind our work. We encourage anyone interested in learning more about us to read it.

From the report:

One of the most important lessons from South Bend's experience during 2013-18 was that small and medium-size cities could benefit from innovation as much as large ones can. "We view our scale as very beneficial for successfully innovating," said Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who began a second four-year term in 2016 after winning reelection with 80% of the vote. "Because we're 100,000 people, because we're comparatively low income and very diverse, it means that we're a very good test bed for ideas. We're big enough that when you try something here, you'll hit the issues you would . . . experience in a big city. But we're a small city, so we can be more nimble, we can be more creative, and I think we can, in some ways, take more risks."

Read the whole report below or access it at this link.