I stumbled up on “Can Phoenix Make a ‘Creative Class’ appeal” and found it reassuring that others in the area are talking about the current state of the economy in Metro Phoenix in ways other than “doom and gloom”. I personally happen to think this massive recession is just the wake up call this region needed. It has proven that land development as a primary economy and tourism as a secondary economy is nothing but a house of cards to every person in a position of power in the region. We have open ears and willing minds (even if they begrudgingly are moving along). I posted my thoughts on what Bill had to say directly on Bill’s blog, but wanted to do a separate post on what I thought of of the opinion piece “We can make Phoenix competitive in global contest for talent in the arts, sciences and business“.
Let me start by saying, can we drop this “global” buzz word bullshit? I mean we can’t even compete with areas like Boulder and Austin. Do we really want to be worried about Toyko? Point being, why don’t we start making it so talent and companies currently operating out of Phoenix want to stay in Phoenix. Perhaps draw some talent and companies from other places far weaker than Phoenix before taking on Goliath. Every technology company/startup I have talked to in the last 10 years in Arizona has had the “do we need to move to SF/LA/NY” conversation among it’s partners. We need to get to a place where that discussion isn’t happening anymore. Then let’s talk about taking on the world.
The opinion piece states “growing body of research that supports our state’s urgent need for economic diversification“. My father might say, “no shit, sherlock?”. My big problem here is the piece states the obvious but does little in the way of covering how to fix it. For example they state “The most prosperous regions over the long term are those with an extensive pool of creative talent“, but no where do they talk about the educational system. So, are we going to import ALL the talent? Hardly viable. They talk a lot about what CEO’s want, but in reality the companies of the future want one thing. A deep pool of talent to grow their companies with. Now that we are out of the industrial age, it is easy to move a company providing where you move it has a reasonable source of talented minds. Simply put, ITS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE!
While I agree “Branding a region is not branding a car – regions are complex, multidimensional and have multiple stakeholders“, I think it’s foolish to think that branding is going to fix things. We have a lot more than an image problem. Spending money to polish a turd just makes for an expensive turd. Can’t we use funding to start to fix real problems. If we get the right people, they will help mold the branding by being authentic about why they are here. So, please don’t waste time marketing until the product is ready for delivery.
Do we really get anything valuable out of Meetmetrophoenix.com? The fact that the headline banner says Shocking Truth… “PHX is one of only 13 cities with franchises in all major pro sports leagues: PHX Suns (NBA), AZ Diamondbacks (MLB), AZ Cardinals (NFL) and PHX Coyotes (NHL). The FBR Open has the PGA Tour’s highest attendance.” To be clear what you are branding to the entire creative class of the world is that Phoenix is completely moronic when it comes to creative people and thinks that big stadiums and sports teams are where it is at. What sport franchise is in Austin? How about Boulder? Research Triangle Park? Getting the picture yet?
At a time when most creatives consider print as a “dead medium”, let’s spend money producing a magazine. “PHX, a magazine”… Hint: creative/technical people aren’t adverse to this thing called social media… If you have questions, we have hundreds of self proclaimed experts living here…
While I like their final statement, “Working alone we will have some impact – but working with one voice of commitment and leadership we can be transformational.” I hate to inform them they are not the right people to be leading any kind of a charge. If we really desire the “AZ we Want”, we the people need to be leading that charge, not the same old cronies that got us into this mess. What are you going to do to make your mark?
More from Derek Neighbors
- What Do You Spend Your Time On?
- Does Phoenix Need To Change?
- Make a Mark on Your Customers
- Some Thoughts on the Future of Gangplank
- So What Exactly Is Keeping You In Your Current Mortgage?
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I agree with your views overall, but just to be fair, that “Shocking Truths” thing on the Meet Metro Phoenix website is a randomly-rotating thing. When I went to the site, my “shocking truth” was different from the sports one and I had to click “get shocked again” several times to see the one you mentioned. Not that it makes much difference…but at least there’s a varied message.
Seriously def post. On th’ real, folk need to look in el mirror and build up a really strong fundamental community and economy that’s strong enough to stand on its own before talking about displacing bigger burgs.
Your allusion to th’ primacy of educational quality is molto important. Can we grow a crop of smarties with some of th’ worst public school conditions, biggest class sizes, and lowest teacher pay in th’ game? Doubtful.
Like Conrey said, though, one of the best things that we can do to improve is to do, you know, something. Action, enterprise, and happening are themselves pretty good at retaining creatives’ interest and sparking more activity.
And you’re right, that ish has precisely zero to do with FBR.
Brandon,
To be fair I think having those sports teams are a plus to our economy and our citizens. They just aren’t things on the creative classes top 5 list when shopping for a city more often than not. Additionally, spending money to attract them in favor of spending money in other areas can actually be seen as a downside to many.
–
Derek
I’m pretty concerned/disappointed by the following leading text that appears in their section on First Solar, which I think should be one of the companies we’re most proud of if we expect to attract a more forward-thinking generation:
“Sample, draft content to illustrate the use of this space. Feature on innovative and inspiring companies based in metro Phoenix are perfect for this section.”
Ugh.
So, here’s what attracted *ME* to this area. I don’t know how representative I am:
1) Weather
2) Gangplank
3) Refresh Phoenix, and obvious evidence of similar groups and events (Ignite, Radiate, etc. etc.)
Maybe I’m easy to please, but to me, that’s the stuff that I craved in a new home, and PHX has been exactly what I wanted thus far.
Great post. Rather than demonizing those who hold differing viewpoints and passing blame, we ought to be the change we want to see. You want a technical economy and you are Working to making that happen. I want safe environments for teens and I’m working to make that happe. As we all do our part we will improve the valley for everyone.
We can be both.
Some good points. Certainly the conventional ideas are poor – print media? sports teams? Not sure that’s drawing any creatives. Still, they’re a hard demographic to court. Try too hard and it seems inauthentic especially if your ideas are stale.
In the spirit of the article, I wonder how you might best attract outside talent? Like you said, it’s definitely about people – and relatedly about education and drive. You wanna be around other smart ambitions people.
So then there’s a tricky problem: if community is more about actual people than their surroundings, how effectively can you court a creative class simply by changing local surroundings through investment and whatnot?
Not very, I think.
Cory,
“So then there’s a tricky problem: if community is more about actual people than their surroundings, how effectively can you court a creative class simply by changing local surroundings through investment and whatnot?”
I think the importance of changing some of the surroundings is giving the creatives already here the ability interact and build momentum. From this comes an authentic representation that there is a viable creative economy under active construction which helps keep people as well as attract outside people. It very much is a difficult chicken/egg problem. Awesome to see what you guys have done with ForeclosureGrove.