Indianapolis mayor to speak tonight

In an effort to educate business and political science students on marketing a city, Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson will speak at the Whittenberger Auditorium tonight.\nThe event, which is co-sponsored by the Union Board and Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity, will begin at 7 p.m.\nJunior Amanda Prager, lectures director of Union Board, said she expects at least 200 business, political science, School of Public and Environmental Affairs and sports marketing students to attend the speech.\n"He is coming to talk about how you market a city, how you draw national events for the city, which is a major part of development and growing for urban centers," said senior Emma Cullen, public relations director of the Union Board.\nPrager especially encouraged sports marketing majors to come because of to the importance of the Colts to the city of Indianapolis.\n"He's going to be speaking about marketing a city especially in terms of the Colts because they are one of the biggest commodities that (Indianapolis) can market to the rest of the country," Prager said.\nWith Indianapolis being the closest major city to Bloomington, Prager said bringing Peterson to IU is relevant to students and will be of interest to many at the University.\n"It's a great experience for IU students to hear what the mayor of Indianapolis has to say about how he, as a mayor, and we, as (residents of) Indiana, market our largest city to the rest of the country," Prager said.\nThough mid-term elections are a little more than a week away, the speech will be nonpartisan and will instead discuss what it's like to lead a major metropolitan city and how to be business savvy, Cullen said.\n"He's not here to promote the Democratic Party; he's here to talk about how he runs the city," Cullen said.\nSpecifically, Peterson will discuss plans on how to bring Indianapolis into the top 10 most marketable cities in the country said junior Andy Haas, vice president for professional activities of Delta Sigma Pi. Haas said Peterson will also speak about how he plans to bring a Super Bowl to Indianapolis.\nAfter Peterson's speech is completed, the second half of the event will allow for a question-and-answer session with the crowd.\n"We are hoping to pack the Whittenberger," Haas said. "I mean, this is an opportunity for any IU student to interact with a high-ranking official. We believe that this is something every student on campus will be interested in"