This week at the Carolina Inn, the town of Chapel Hill hosted the summer meeting of the Mayors Innovation Project – an annual conference of mayors from cities across the country.

Close to 90 mayors gathered in Chapel Hill for the conference – the largest summer gathering in the history of the project. Topics ranged from economic development to housing, as well as other issues faced by cities, large and small alike.

Speakers included mayors, former mayors, town managers, and housing and economic development experts – like David Zipper, Chapel Hill High School class of 1996, who’s now a Washington-based economic development expert. He’s worked with mayors in New York and DC, and he was in town to lead a panel on fostering entrepreneurship.

Zipper spoke with Aaron Keck on the Thursday Afternoon News.