On October 16, 2025, a select group of leaders will gather for STRATA, a summit co-hosted by HqO and the MIT Center for Real Estate
Cities are designed to evolve slowly—layer by layer, decade by decade. But today, the pace of change is anything but slow. AI is reshaping the workforce. Autonomous vehicles are redefining mobility. Robotics is transforming how we build, deliver, and live. The result? A growing mismatch between technological acceleration and the urban systems struggling to keep up.
At the STRATA Summit, co-hosted by HqO and MIT, Jennifer Strong, award-nominated journalist and creator of the SHIFT podcast, joins the panel “Cities at the Speed of Change” to examine how exponential technologies are colliding with slow-moving urban systems.
Jennifer has created narrative tech podcasts for ProPublica, The Wall Street Journal, and MIT Technology Review. Her current podcast, SHIFT, explores how automation is reshaping daily life—and what that means for people, cities, and systems. With a journalist’s eye for clarity and a deep understanding of emerging technology, she brings a unique perspective to the question at hand: how can cities evolve at the speed of silicon?
Her reporting explores how smart cities, robotics, and autonomous mobility are not isolated disruptions—but interconnected shifts remaking the urban fabric. At STRATA, Strong will help frame this convergence from a human-centric lens, grounded in real-world storytelling.
As the gap between silicon and concrete widens, Strong’s insights will help CRE leaders, developers, and policymakers understand how to adapt and why clarity, communication, and systems thinking are essential tools in this moment of accelerated change. This panel will help us understand the future before it arrives, and why cities must adapt not just structurally, but intellectually.
The age of intelligent infrastructure is here. The challenge now is to keep up.
STRATA — Where the Built World Meets What’s Next
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