That's changing.
The Chamber Of Commerce and main Rotary used to be a Who's Who of Charlotte business, but events like BarCamp 2 might be a Who's New. And we need new. The banks have been pummeled, and many NASCAR revenues are down.
The recession came down like a wedge between old Charlotte and new Charlotte. The old power base of established money lost some hold on techie new transplants -- in part because some lost their jobs. But also because that old Charlotte's hold on things -- and the banks' towering command -- was show to be vulnerable. Saturday's "unconference" was the new: Geekier, weirder, not-so-Southern, happily nerdy. The offbeat Texas music center has a longtime movement: Keep Austin Weird. And Charlotte can borrow the idea: Make Charlotte Weirder. (Burn your khaki pants!) Why? Because innovation is weird. Charlotte, like the rest of the world, needs to keep reinventing itself to emerge from the recession.
Programmers, search engine optimization professionals, online marketers, bloggers and -- gulp! -- artists convened for BarCamp (named after a programming term, not a tavern). Many were networking out of necessity: The self-employed, underemployed, unemployed -- familiar shades of a gray economy -- were there to bootstrap new careers. But there was also bankers and even a politician: Republican City Councilman Warren Cooksey.
Ecommerce businessman Jon West, sportscaster-turned-social-media guy Corey Anderson, social media maven Jenifer Daniels, innovative blogger Matthew Vincent and web designer Heather Murphy were a few of the 200 in attendance. Corey Creed, a consultant and teacher in SEO and social media, preached to find your niche and create content that you love. That's a new concept for a city that has previously embraced big companies, and the big-tent of the established business world. See a snippet of Creed's talk, below.
The free event featured giveaway T-shirts and coffee mugs, and lunch thrown in, too. (Sponsors are listed below.) So what's the only reason not to go? It was a little weird. A kid led one session -- on balloon twisting. An artist led another, in which he took participants down the "rabbit hole" of his studio in Area 15.
But, considering the economy, and strait-laced Charlotte's struggles, maybe that was the best reason to go.
BarCamp 2 sposors: Area 15, netphase, russ communications, Counter Culture Coffee, Amelie's French Bakery and heels.com.
Thanks for the mention, Jeff. You happened to catch my "you can even make money talking about Smurfs" quote. Haha!
ReplyDeleteIt's some radical thinking for sure, but if you're truly passionate about anything, there's a way to make money online doing it. Sounds crazy. But it's true.
Hi Jeff: Thanks for the mention! It was great to meet you and be a part of BarCamp, cheers to weirdness in Charlotte!
ReplyDeleteCharlotte needs to stop IGNORING the creative class. We need to diversify our workforce! Make Charlotte a more interesting place to live and we need an art/design college. If Charlotte fails to attract the creative class it's going to fall behind to a lot other cities!
ReplyDeleteOther cities have been courting the creative class for years. Most places are hurting, but Charlotte got hit harder than many in this economic crisis by putting all of our golden eggs in banking's basket. Diversification that includes all types mentioned in your post as well as the bankers and the NASCAR crowd is essential to Charlotte's economic health.
ReplyDeleteWill there be another Barcamp? Where could we find information about it?
ReplyDeleteGood story, but at the end it is still just a pipe dream. Charlotte and its leaders have made no attempt to do anything to diversify our economy. Instead we continue to offer tax breaks to relocate other cities failing businesses (GMAC). The previous posts are right, Charlotte needs to do more to expand, encourage, and develop its creative class but frankly they just dont care enough to do so. North Carolina as a whole with the exception of Raleigh only offers tax breaks to the likes of Dell and others so they will put a blue collar plant here. They could do so much better if they would offer that same money to encourage local business development and expansion and diversification on business and industry. Example...Nashville had country music and developed it into a great music industry city....we have NASCAR...use that talent pool to create a hub for transportation inginuity and technology (battery and engine technology). But as long as we misallocate our money to the likes of Bruton Smith and BoA so they wont leave us, nothing will ever change.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the mention Jeff and it was great to meet you!
ReplyDeleteI went "down the rabbit hole" and it was actually very refreshing. There were no ulterior motives in the room, no pretense, no plan, and no end; just babble and openness and weirdness. And he made some good points, and he made some ridiculous statements, but at the end of it I walked out thinking more while thinking less. That doesn't make sense, but sometimes all we need in the middle of our hectic lives is to sit and let it all out. Just think out loud and don't focus on anything. We spend all day trying to focus and reach goals and ends - it was nice to not have any direction at all for 45 min. Though I wouldn't want to live that way.
ReplyDeleteif you've got a good idea you don't need to sit around and whine about a city not courting to you, go out and do it.
ReplyDeletewho cares if we pander mainly to big biz. i sense a little whining here over this, which goes against the whole point
Agreed. Charlotte needs more weird. Weird is in the eye of the beholder, of course. I was among the BarCampers who journeyed down the aforementioned rabbit hole with local artist Jared Nicholson. My takeaway was that labels – such as old versus new, banker versus architect, marketer versus poet, experienced versus young professional – are misleading and ultimately not helpful. Neither I nor the organization for which I work (the Charlotte Chamber) can be classified in quite such clear-cut terms, nor should we be. We are living, breathing things that grow and evolve and present different parts of ourselves for different situations. Yes, the chamber is a living, breathing thing – the sum of its members.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to respond to previous comments about the diversity of the economy and recruiting the creative class. Charlotte’s economy is reasonably diverse. Some statistics are available in the economic development section of our Web site. The chamber and other area organizations are working hard to diversify even further. The Arts & Science Council is specifically addressing the creative class with the recently formed Creative Industries Council. I don’t want to steal the ASC’s thunder in that regard, but look for data to be released in November.
A city cannot be defined as having a diverse economy when a single industry can bring the entire city to its knees. Right now we have the third highest unemployment rate among the largest 40 metro areas in the country. Nearly all layoffs (minus manufacturing) is in some form or another tied to our banking woes. Examples...NYC,Boston, Chicago, San Francisco are all major players in finances. Their unemployment rates are significantly below ours, because they have a diverse range of businesses and industries that while not resilient, have allowed these places to fair much better than we have. An economy is not diverse when the other businesses in the city are so directly effected and impaled by the loss of one industry type. Its no different than Detroit and smaller midwestern towns that rely solely on their manufacturing plant in the town. As far as the information I found no numbers in terms of what these "diverse" industries employ. Any city can claim having a biotech or aviation business, but if that industry only employs a tiny fraction, as it does in Charlotte, then it really isnt much of an economic or employment player. I commend the BarCamp and that is definately not what i am criticizing. Its the lack of support from local leaders to inspire and help these types of creative thinking and businesses get off the ground.
ReplyDeleteNorth Carolina Unemployment in August 2009 (BLS data)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.localetrends.com/st/nc_north_carolina_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=curr_ue
versus North Carolina Unemployment Levels 1 year ago
http://www.localetrends.com/st/nc_north_carolina_unemployment.php?MAP_TYPE=m12_ue
Charlotte is the most contrived place I have ever been!
ReplyDelete