Midtown Wednesdays

LIVE BLOG: MIDTOWN WEDNESDAYS

We should celebrate the small entrepreneurs who are here in NEO. how do you acknoledge success here without bragging...this is something that needs to come from a larger group.

Every business sector needs to step outside of ourselves and identify what is good. The Crain's directories herlad success and largess.

Cleveland mentality is such that if you are working in Cleveland you must not be doing well...Cleveland is full of lots of great things...

Why don't we have civic organizations standing up and celebrating their successes?

Does the region have a large inferiority complex? Or, is it a lack of ability to accept failure? Local organizations talk alot about what they are going to do, what they dream but fail to do something.

What would be the context of celebrating businesses? I-Open can provide support network for people who may have failed. There are not alot of support networks here in Cleveland.

Should we concentrate on positive behaviors? It is good to stay connected with the people who get it.

I-Open teaches new ways of seeing things and then new ways of doing things. Cleveland has alot more things than what other regions have. There just seems to be less sharing.

When good things happen we should celebrate our work.

Alex Michaels: talking about developing branded entertainment medium...Alex moved his direction toward including branded product placement in the story. By including products in the stories, new attention is given to Midtown businesses. Massimos was featured in one of the detective show Alex produced. For the last couple of years, Alex has been connecting closer with businesses.

One model that came out of the Katrina disaster was the model of big businesses adopting and mentoring small businesses. We need to do more of this and do it on a larger scale with the businesses here. Appreciative behavior and use of products is productive.

What about creating a network of Midtown businesses that supports business placement in local shows? Commercials are being replaced by product placemen in the stories. Traditional businesses are still buying traditional advertising. Content is being put on line - this cuts out the local and national television station.

There is a new program "Saved" to put exclusively on the web with no commercials. Another unexpected move: the growing audience for late late night programming.

Alex currently shows on Google TV. Virgin Mobile is sponsoring new formats and content.

Next steps: getting more businesses involved.

Team NEO will help Alex by providing some suggestions for new resources.

STA Strategic Technology Alliance helps by connecting to nonprofits to vendors. The benefit is to work co-op buying power and to network among industry peers to have learn best practices. The advantage of this is to accelerate connectivity.

Case will host the New Media Consortium (NMC) conference June 7 through 9. The conference will talk about how to leverage technology for learning. NMC is talking about using new gaming for learning.

Phoenix Coffee sponsors coffee for the I-Open forums. Please thank them.

posted by Unknown @ 5/24/2006