highlight midwest omaha

A New Omaha Rising

(silos)

TechiesWeb Designers

Entrepreneurs

MusiciansArtists

Innovators

Interesting people doing interesting things, without knowing about each other.

We are changing that.

Social Media is helping to bring our divergent communities (developers, designers, entrepreneurs, innovators, etc) together.

How Did We Get Here...

Sarah Lacy's Money Shot

"Omaha is looking at what is has - a different culture of innovation, ... a creative class -- and trying to build a community that will support anyone who has a good idea and the stomach to try to start something."

"They live and breathe the Web 2.0 movement, are excited by it, and want

to jump in."

BarCamp Omaha

• 30 + attendee led sessions• 100 + attendees• 15 + sponsors• Great opportunity for networking / sharing ideas

with our “creative class”• Building Community!

Also working on weekly video updates, podcasts, Ustream

maybe this slide with the following 3 can be comined into one...and tie into Dusty's spots? Let us know what you think...

Soo.... Where to from here?

Keep moving forward...

Events, events, events...

BIG Omaha 2009

• Social Media Conference• Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Rose, Evan Williams and...

Warren Buffett! (stranger things have happened)• Regional / Local involvement... • Goal? Continue to connect people, and build an organic

momentum • Bring together techies and non-techies

May 7th & 8th 2009

Warren?

Bring together local resources

Creative Incubator

Market Driven Innovation

• National partners• Identifying key "pain points" amongst companies, and

pairing seasoned entrepreneurs with them to solve those problems

Other social media initiatives...

Wrapping up

• "Siloed", but lots of people out there • #1 priority is to keep building community

o Events, Facebook, Twitter, blogging, interview, stories, etc etc.

o Without community, the other endeavours are difficult (or impossible) to foster.

• Work with city leaders and other entrepreneurs to build infrastructure around this community

• Begin to launch companies / highlight existing companies / showcase cool things

Sarah Lacy:"... interesting projects come out of Omaha, they're going to look very different by necessity than what

comes out of silicon valley or other places ..."

Thank you!