At the 2025 Smart Cities Connect Fall Conference in Washington, DC, Carrot CEO Jaison Morgan sat down with Brian Knudsen, Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Las Vegas, for a candid and forward-looking conversation about how government procurement is changing. The discussion explored why traditional purchasing models fall short, how cities can unlock new forms of innovation, and why Las Vegas is betting on competition to solve some of its most urgent challenges.
The full conversation is available in the audio recording above. We encourage you to listen.
Procurement is often treated as a routine administrative function, but as Jaison noted, it represents one of the largest economic marketplaces in the world. State and local governments in the United States spend more than a trillion dollars each year acquiring goods and services. Despite the scale, outdated processes and opaque systems make participation difficult for vendors and limit access to new ideas.
Both speakers emphasized that the demand for change is coming from every direction: constituents who expect better service, elected leaders who want visible impact within short terms, and private-sector innovators who want clearer and more collaborative pathways to bring solutions forward.
Jaison and Brian traced their working relationship back more than a decade, when Las Vegas partnered with the U.S. Economic Development Administration to run an early version of what we now call a challenge program. The goal at the time was to diversify the city’s economy and reimagine the future of the downtown core.
That project planted a seed. It showed that competition could outperform traditional procurement by bringing new developers, entrepreneurs, and ideas into the process. Only a few years later, Las Vegas is once again leveraging this model to tackle an even more urgent issue: the region’s limited biohealth infrastructure.
Brian described how firsthand experiences with the healthcare system motivated him to act. Despite world-class hospitals and clinicians, Las Vegas lacked the research infrastructure needed to attract and retain top health talent. The city considered issuing a standard RFP to build wet-lab space, but Brian knew the traditional model would not bring the speed, creativity, or global attention required.
Instead, the City of Las Vegas engaged Carrot to design and manage a competition that could attract national and international interest. As Brian explained, the goal was not only to build a lab, but to create momentum, spark investment, and position Las Vegas as a hub for biohealth innovation.
The BioHealth Innovation Challenge is now underway, powered by Carrot's Platform and full suite of services. Organizations interested in shaping the future of health and research in Las Vegas are invited to apply by January 22.
Learn more and apply at:
https://biohealthinnovationchallenge.org/
The Challenge represents a shift in how cities think about procurement. Instead of selecting from a small pool of local proposals, the competition opens the door for a global community of researchers, universities, and biotech organizations to envision what is possible. As Jaison noted during the chat, the process is about more than selecting a winner. It builds a community, generates a library of ideas, and uncovers opportunities far beyond the final award.
The conversation closed on a shared theme: governments everywhere are looking for better tools, faster results, and more transparent processes. Competitive procurement models are growing rapidly because they meet this need. They give elected officials a way to deliver bold change. They give residents a sense of ownership. And they give innovators a place to contribute meaningfully to public challenges.
To hear the full discussion between Jaison and Brian, be sure to listen to the recording above. It captures not just where procurement is heading, but how competition is shaping the future of public problem-solving.
