Detroit Homecoming Welcomes Expats to Reconnect and Reinvest
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Mayor Mike Duggan, and Detroit businessman Dan Gilbert set to speak.
Officials in Detroit are hoping to reconnect with what they say is the city’s biggest untapped resource: its former residents. The second Detroit Homecoming is underway this week. It’s an event for more than 170 of the city’s most influential and successful expatriates. Co-director Jim Hayes says the event recognizes the city’s greatest export — its talent.
“It’s a celebration of their young lives in Detroit, it’s a reeducation about what’s going on in the city, it’s a connection of them to the city, and hopefully it’s inspirational enough to get them to do something either commercially or philanthropically for their old hometown.”
Jim Hayes, Co-director of Detroit Homecoming
Hayes says more than $230 million have been invested in the city as a result of last year’s event.
