Plug Into Austin’s Interactive Scene

By Gregory Foster | November 22, 2009

Convened By:

Notes By:

Session Card(s)

Keep Austin Weird
Silicon Hills
Michael Barnes with the Statesman identified Austin as an “Open City”, a really open and accessible area to start and join efforts. 04.06.2009
- However, the quantity can also be problematic in that there’s too much to do and join…
The people of Austin – open to new ideas, nice.
Provincialism cuts both ways. e.g.: NYC is provincial.
University of Texas.
Hunter Ellinger: A town where it is cool to be smart.
As a nonprofit: you see high activity, more respect for NPOs here whereas in other places they might be considered “charity cases”.
6000+ NPOs in Austin.
The presence of the state capital, especially for advocacy focused organizations.
Slide about “Common Observations” – the “surface level”, maybe not necessarily the unique attributes about the city.

Austin is good at packaging experiences rather than services (Alamo Drafthouse, Amy’s Ice Cream, RunTex)
Pine and Gilmore graphic cited.
- Stages: Commodities -> Goods -> Services -> Experiences -> Transformations
Anne Gentle [ @annegentle ]: As a business owner, one can focus on creating a good experience for your employees.
Jon Lebkowsky [ @jonl ]: Community is when people have history, shared relationships and experience over time.

“An aggregation of communities around a particular area”
Slide listing Austin scenes (spiritual, fitness, sustainability, interactive, entrepreneurship, etc.)