20121025-Concentrate-Food Cart Culture

Concentrate Speaker Event: Food Cart Culture
October 25, 2012
held at Bill's Beer Garden (next door to Mark's Carts) at Downtown Home & Garden in Ann Arbor

What do food carts tell us about a city? A lot, actually. From local business development to street engagement, a community's ability to encourage and nurture these DIY businesses can be a barometer of its commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation.

Concentrate's Speaker Series invited Mark Hodesh, owner and mastermind of Mark's Carts to talk about what inspired him to create his food cart venue, what was required to make it happen, and how the carts have revitalized the blocks surrounding his Downtown Home And Garden business.

In turn, Mark has invited Concentrate's readers to come down and see things first hand. Thus we'll be chatting with Mark, some of the carters, and a few experts about what makes the food cart business tick, what the future holds, and how we might nurture more enterprises like this in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti at Mark Carts.

Panel discussion guests:
Mark Hodesh - owner and founder of Mark's Carts
Nicole Rupersburg - food reporter and blogger for Eat It Detoit (among other publications)
Priya Iyer - Lawrence Technological University Pellerin Travelling Fellow who studied successful mobile food systems, including food carts across the nation.

Video recorded by Jim Campbell, Exciting Productions
Produced and editing by Roger Rayle, [email protected]