An audio recording of Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri's State of the City address on 6.10.15 at the MVCC auditorium. Recorded from a periscope feed.

Utica NY State of the City Address

On Thursday I had a conversation with Caitlin from ANCA – the Adirondack North Country Association and they were in town running the 2015 Clean Energy Economy Conference at SUNY Poly. Their main mission is to focus on rural economic development through connecting entrepreneurs and farmers with programs, grants and initiatives that can create sustainable economies in the north country. In the past few years they’ve been seeing a renewed interest in agro-tourism, a return to farming and local food systems among other issues.

I spent a few minutes with Caitlin to learn more about ANCA, some of their projects and how they are trying to support entrepreneurs in the north country.


5 Minutes with ANCA - Adirondack North Country Association

I met Rohan and Ryn, who make up Roux – a food and experience design startup out of Syracuse, NY during my first week on the job as Director of ThINCubator. From the start I was really impressed by their ideas, professionalism and their hustle.

We collaborated on developing a regional networking event called MESH Kit which launched on June 9th and I think it was a great success. Beyond the event, I was really interested in their ideas about how Design can and SHOULD be used more to enhance the dining experience and how good design can help to support local food producers, build community and even help people to make better food choices.

I sat down with Rohan, Ryn and Ryan (who runs another startup with Ryn called Design to Table) to discuss the future of food, the future of dining, how they got interested in this space, and how their working to change the perception of lard. As Ryn says, ‘food is the ultimate material for design because you have it three times every day and experience it with all five senses.’ We cover a lot of ground in 10 minutes, but I PROMISE you the discussion is worth your time. Enjoy.

thINCubator