Claire Nelson is the director of Urban Innovation Exchange and Matthew Lewis is the managing editor of Model D. Urban Innovation Exchange is supported by Knight Foundation. All photos by UIX Detroit.

What’s next for your city?

This is the question Urban Innovation Exchange (UIX) will be asking at its first national convening Sept.  24-26 in Detroit, bringing together innovators from cities across the U.S. to share catalytic small-scale projects that are transforming neighborhoods.

What kind of small-scale projects are we talking about? Makerspaces and incubators, art parks and pop-up markets, green alleys and urban farms. Places made by and for the people who live there.

Why are small projects a big deal for cities? Increasingly, more research and reporting suggest that the implementation of small-scale projects just might have a larger potential collective impact than any single top-down approach to revitalization.

This is the story UIX has been telling over the last three years as it chronicles the growing network of innovators driving change in Detroit. And this is the conversation UIX will open to more cities, including Philadelphia and St. Paul, Minn., to share ideas and lessons across communities.

Over the course of three days, participants will convene for meaningful exchanges on three subjects: “The Art of Place,” “The Future of Food” and “The Maker Movement.” Morning forums will showcase innovative projects and open dialogue between them; afternoon site visits will take guests inside local spaces and places in Detroit. For a schedule, click here.

If you’ve been curious about Detroit’s transformation, September is the time to dive in. The entire month is jam-packed with events, culminating with Detroit Design Festival (Sept. 23-28), North America’s festival of independent design; Dlectricity (Sept. 26-27), Detroit’s nighttime exhibition of art and light presented by DTE Energy; and Meeting of the Minds (Sept. 30-Oct. 2), a global convening on the future of urban sustainability and technology.

Knight Foundation supports UIX and Detroit Design Festival, and Dlectricity is a 2013 Knight Arts Challenge winner.

UIX participants will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in Detroit Design Festival happenings throughout the week — including Hip Hop Architecture at University of Detroit Mercy (Sept. 24), Eastern Market After Dark (Sept. 25), and a conversation with Knight’s Alberto Ibargüen and Carol Coletta titled “Designing Cities to Accelerate Talent, Opportunity and Engagement” (Sept. 26).

Some of the people and projects you will learn about at UIX:

• John Fetterman, mayor of Braddock, Penn., an industrial town with an audacious motto: “Reinvention is the only option”

• Eve Picker, founder of cityLAB in Pittsburgh and new real estate crowdfunding platform smallchange.com

• Ryan Myers-Johnson, founder of Sidewalk Festival of the Arts, an outdoor celebration of Detroit landscape, architecture and culture through site-specific performance

• Jen Guarino, American Made evangelist, co-founder of The Makers Coalition in Minneapolis, Minn., and current VP of leather goods at Shinola in Detroit

• Kim Bartmann, owner of the new Tiny Diner and Farm in Minneapolis, “a small place with big ideas”

• Philip Cooley, founder of creative incubator Ponyride and co-owner of Slow’s BBQ in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood

• Dwayne Wharton of The Food Trust in Philadelphia, ranked the No. 2 high-impact nonprofit in America for its work in child nutrition and health

• Hunter Franks, artist, GOOD 100 innovator and Knight grantee for his work with the League of Creative Interventionists and Neighborhood Postcard Project

• Devita Davison, community food advocate and co-leader of Detroit Kitchen Connect and FoodLab Detroit

• Joan Vorderbruggen, multidisciplinary artist and founder of Artists in Storefronts and Made Here in Minneapolis

• Jeff Sturges, founder of Detroit’s Mt. Elliott Makerspace and Director’s Fellow at MIT Media Lab

• Bobby Fry, founder of Food Revolution Pittsburgh and co-owner of Bar Marco and The Livermore

• Sara Blumenstein, co-founder of Pittsburgh Canning Exchange and contributor to cityLAB experiments Tiny Houses and Garfield Night Market

Urban Innovation Exchange is free and open to the public, with advance registration and fees for select site visits. For more information and registration, visit http://UIXDetroit.com/events.

Follow Urban Innovation Exchange for news and updates on Twitter @UIXDetroit and #UIXDET.