Partnerships & Projects

Greenlight understands that a smart community includes networks of people collaborating. We at Greenlight have consistently focused on partnering with regional, state and national partners to learn and share new ways of developing inclusive, smart community results.

For example, in late 2018, Greenlight found a willing partner when it won a $10,000 grant from smart cities accelerator US Ignite to enable development of a new live-streaming app to use with its public safety drone program. That project became the Eastern North Carolina face for a regional initiative by the Research Triangle's NCNGN to support educational and economic development by accelerating the deployment of ultra high-speed internet access.  Greenlight staff have been engaged as guest speakers at RIoT events, to share our story of building an inclusive innovation economy, and we currently have plans to bring a Wilson RIoT Accelerator Program (RAP) to the new Gig East Exchange in historic downtown Wilson.

In early 2019, the City of Wilson and Greenlight were selected as one of nine rural communities among 130 applicants, to participate in the Rural Innovation Initiative by the Center on Rural Innovation, in partnership with Rural Innovation Strategies Inc. This Rural Innovation Initiative was launched to bridge the opportunity gap in rural America by helping build capacity to create resilient innovation-based jobs in this digital economy. CRI saw enormous potential in Wilson's Gig East Exchange, itself an outgrowth of Wilson's two-year engagement in InnovateNC, for which we were selected as one of six partners on this Institute for Emerging Issues project.

Greenlight has also for many years worked with national nonprofits, like the Coalition for Local Internet Choice, (CLIC), in their efforts to showcase examples of the long  term benefits that result when local communities are allowed to determine their own broadband and economic futures. Greenlight staff also helped stand up a North Carolina CLIC chapter which ultimately became the North Carolina non-profit NC Broadband Matters, known for its fiber (optic) lunches and annual NC Hearts Gigabit event at the NC Rural Economic Development Center.