Not even the best-designed urban conference, like the CityLab Detroit event that begins Sunday and runs through Tuesday, can offer instant solutions to a city's problems.

But what CityLab Detroit can do is bring together a lot of smart people who can network about best practices here and elsewhere. The conference begins Sunday with field trips to Eastern Market and other sites and runs through Tuesday, based at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center hotel.

Those smart people include a lot of Detroiters, from Mayor Mike Duggan to some local entrepreneurs whose business success has given hope to others, like Kristen Ussery of Detroit Vegan Soul and April Anderson of Good Cakes and Bakes. Many other Detroiters, from Detroit Planning Director Maurice Cox to Detroit performance artist Jessica Care Moore, are on the agenda as well.

Their job is to highlight for the out-of-town visitors what Detroit is doing right.

Then, too, multiple urban experts from around the world will be here, from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the mayors of Seattle and St. Paul, Minn., who will share the stage with Duggan for a panel Monday on building inclusive economies.

What we can hope comes out of these three days of by-invitation networking and field trips and panel discussions are some new and better ways to implement needed change in Detroit.

There has already been not a little grumbling in some parts that CityLab Detroit is another bunch of out-of-towners coming here to tell Detroiters what to. A "teach-in" scheduled for Sunday afternoon in reaction to CityLab bills its program as "real Detroiters speak out" about issues plaguing city residents, from foreclosures to failing city schools.

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Those are important issues, and no doubt CityLab Detroit organizers could have expanded their conference by several more days and invited dozens more speakers from Detroit to explore those issues.

But it's also true that Detroit does have a lot to learn from other cities. Minneapolis does regional cooperation better than Detroit, many cities in Germany do better with creating affordable housing, and almost every large city does better than Detroit when it comes to public transportation.

So let's give CityLab Detroit a chance to come up with the best ideas it can for urban revitalization. Not everyone will come away happy. But hopefully everyone will come away a little more aware of how to think creatively about urban solutions.

Contact John Gallagher: 313-222-5173 or gallagher@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jgallagherfreep.