I was honored to serve as the 2016 chair of the board for the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce. In that volunteer capacity, and in my professional work helping cities and chambers to brand and market themselves, I’ve learned the importance of establishing a common community vision. The cities that do this well are leaps ahead of those that struggle with infighting between factions that want to see progressive growth and those that resist change.

This year, the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce — with its partners in the city, county, and greater region — has hired a consulting firm to lead us through an economic development and community visioning process we are calling The Greater Manhattan Project. At our annual dinner on February 17, the program was designed to inspire the audience to participate in planning Manhattan’s future.

To support these efforts, New Boston created this video for the event featuring children of chamber members and their predictions for what Manhattan will be like in 20 years.

The videos (on a jump drive) were placed in a time capsule for the Chamber to use at the annual dinner in 2037. Hopefully some of these creative kids will become community leaders who will be in the audience that night 20 years from now! Enjoy their fun predictions for Manhattan’s future.