Would it be advantageous for Omaha to have a competitive relationship with a similar art scene such as Des Moines?
I’m inspired to think about this as The Des Moines Register posted an article stating just that. And having just moved back from Des Moines to Omaha, I am very conscious of the striking similarities and shared appreciation between the two cities. And they have weathered the same large socio-economic and technological tides that covered the Midwest lands. This mutual history and environment can help both cities create better and successful businesses and art together.
In the last decade, there have been a number of growing trends that has transformed the creative business landscape. One major foundation was the startup and popularity of Young Professional Groups. This group galvanized youthful leaders, entrepreneurs, and tech-saavy businessmen. This base brought enthusiasm to business in an age range that was known more for its slackerdom than anything else. Thirdly, the bank crisis erupted and the economy was going down nationally taking away trust and loyalty in large corporate structures. The economic-insulated Midwest was a great ecosystem for creative types to move to more freelance positions. Layering on top of the economy, came the social technology of twitter, foursquare, a energized facebook, and various google apps which all leveraged the social platform of smarter smartphones among others. This united both tech-saavy business types, creative freelancers, and artists. Being the social people we are, it wasn’t enough to talk tech, business, and art over twitter, and we formed entire social groups based around tweetups, barcrawls, and non-profit events. With some interactivity and instant access to coastal happenings, events, businesses, and ideas were being shared, stolen, and remixed in the Midwest.
This is the atmosphere that spurred on Barcamp, TedxLocal Talks, charity events, zombie walks, and many others. And almost in parallel during the course of this period, Omaha and Des Moines reached the same milestones: getting access to twitter and foursquare, starting coworking spaces, starting conferences and events based around the social media aficionados. The culture and spirit is so entrenched that entire journalism organizations are devoted to it and spur it on. And whether it was realized, whatever unique was starting in one city was being watched, planned, and tweaked in the other.
With such a common culture, being aware, appreciating, and having a friendly remix-style relationship with the other city is very beneficial. Whether swapping ideas, techniques, and events, our big ideas in and for our city can now affect so many others. And a friendly competitive nature wouldn’t be bad for Omaha and Des Moines.
What do I mean when I say “competitive”?
I’m not talking in terms of any type of hyping one community over another. I’m not talking that we need more art award competitions to decide what city is more artsy. I’m not even endorsing OMA vs DSM events. In fact, we do not have to be very intentional about it, just open. For I see competitive in a brother vs brother way.This is the competitive drive that moves most of us to do what we do.
What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be an artist, business owner, musician, filmmaker, or event organizer? I bet it was when you saw how it could be done well and how it affected people’s lives. And I bet you got into whatever it is you do for love of doing it and being around it. And I bet the more you saw others doing it and examples of it done well, it inspired a competitive desire inside of you for doing it yourself and doing it just as well. It’s that same inspiration, enthusiasm, and drive you take from Barcamp and TedxOmaha and other Omahans. And imagine that it can be taken to scale with the spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity we see bursting out from Des Moines. Let’s be honest, with half the size and population, Des Moines seems to be keeping up with The Big O.
I want to look over at Des Moines and see something new that has impact and bring that idea here, nurture it, remix it, infuse it, and push the idea behind it. This is not “I can do it better” indignation, but the complimentary merging of ideas and techniques the very foundation of our related experience came from, the internet. It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. So keep your eyes and ears open to the possibilities.
And truth be told this is probably already happening. I know alot of Des Moines people who attended Big Omaha and there is a busload of Omaha folks going to the Des Moines BarCamp. Awesome, keep it up. We’ve grown together so well, why not come together and see a growing benefit by being aware and friendly to our neighbors down 80.
Tags: barcamp, big omaha, collaboration, des moines, omaha
