A Few Thoughts about the Updayton Summit

Yesterday's UpDayton Summit was invigorating. The outcomes are reported in the Dayton Daily News and I'll also comment on them at the end of this post. I give the organizers credit because the flow of the day was pretty good, except for the voting on projects which took forever, even using the latest technology to cast votes.

About 200 people were present to discuss ideas about entrepreneurship, nightlife, neighborhoods, making a difference (which I thought was supposed to be about volunteerism but wasn't), hiring/employment, and school systems (don't think that one happened).

A couple things struck me...the target audience was 20-40 year olds and I'd say that maybe 1/2 of the participants fell in that category. I think it's great that so many older people were interested in reaching out to help Dayton be a thriving community but part of me wonders, if these are really serious issues for young people, where were the young people? Of course, we have brain drain. So perhaps there just aren't enough young people to step up.

Another thing that struck me and was a surprise was the amount of conversation we had about ideas to start things, not knowing that what they were talking about already exists. Now, granted, perhaps some services aren't what they should be or could be. Another thing is that some organizations just need to advertise better. Finally, people need to seek what they're looking for. Searching can sometimes be a hassle but my general impression is that people want things handed to them on a silver platter.

So here's a list of "needs" that were identified and resources that already exist:

People wanted to connect entrepreneurs to resources, including startup business development. Here's what I know exists: The Entrepreneur Center (which includes SBA resources), the Urban League also directs minorities to the SBA, the City of Dayton and several other organizations recently combined resources to open the Dayton Business Resource Center. What some participants were looking for were websites like "startabusinessdayton" or "daytonbusinesshelp". Perhaps the already-existing organizations should beef up their online presence!

People also wanted to connect entrepreneurs to investors through forums and even a business start-up competition similar to The Apprentice. We used to have the I-Zone. Does anyone know what happened to it? Was it a precursor to the Dayton Development Coalition or the Entrepreneur Center or are they completely separate?

Again, along the entrepreneur lines, people wanted more opportunities for students, even suggesting that the local universities work together to create programs for students. I didn't research all the schools but I know that UD has an Entrepreneur Program as well as several student run campus businesses. Maybe the other schools should take note, unless they already have programs of their own.

Looking for a job? Someone suggested a job fair, different from the universities and campus recruiting. Apparently the person didn't know that we have a Job Center that has job fairs throughout the year. Separately, multiple industries even have their own job fairs either at the Job Center or at the Convention Center. The Dayton Daily News (where people can look for jobs) is a frequent sponsor.

A community service day received high scores. Apparently people don't know that Dayton already has Community Action Day, Generation Dayton Day, and Rebuilding Together Day.

Things like a safe downtown, changing Dayton's image, developing a brand for Dayton, renovating vacant downtown spaces all came up as priorities. Apparently people don't know about the work of the Downtown Dayton Partnership, the Dayton Development Coalition or the City of Dayton. On the flip side, people said the brands that have been developed don't speak to us or represent us. Leaders, take note. I also tend to think that once the other things fall into place Dayton's brand will be created. So I don't put too much stock into trying to identify the brand first.

Student Housing downtown was an interesting idea. It kept coming up in the scoring but I'm not sure where it ultimately ranked. With local universities plus Sinclair and Miami Jacobs being actually downtown, student housing isn't a bad idea. The Savannah College of Art and Design has basically revitalized Savannah by rehabbing buildings to make housing, studios, classrooms, etc.

A Culture Club was another idea. Organizing events and arranging for discounts, and connecting people to arts and culture. That would be Culture Works. There's also the DDP's Campus Connect program. Someone was describing a Culture Pass but that was really about making downtown safe for people and events. I'm not sure how culture pass represents that. All I could think of was the Culture Works Passport (2 for 1 card).

A trolley system connecting people to arts and cultural events and locations was a priority. However, if we can overcome the image of an unsafe downtown people shouldn't need a trolley. They should be willing to drive. Arranging for transportation from local universities to downtown is a different matter and we should make sure that students have access to events and amenities.

STEM opportunities for volunteering and tutoring in math and the sciences was highly regarded. Hopefully programs teaching the STEM curriculum will reach out for community support for their students.

People wanted weekly updates of things happening. Ideally they want a central hub/portal but in the meantime the following organizations already do regular email blasts: Downtown Dayton Partnership, Culture Works, Dayton Daily News, Metroparks/Riverscape. One thing about all of these sites is that they aren't inclusive. That's why there was so much appeal about a central hub.

Some other projects that drew alot of interest (and could probably happen on their own, in a grassroots kind of way) were: public art programs (like murals, etc.), food co-ops and community gardens, green streets (including bike lanes), and a "buy local" campaign (which I'm surprised wasn't a top priority because it was scored all the way until the end, meaning it was high on the list).

Now on to the four projects that apparently scored the highest (although I'm not sure how the scoring software took into account how 1/2 the people left the Summit during the scoring because it took so long): Grow Downtown Dayton and focus on the urban core, Create more programs for youth, create a central communication hub, and fix up Wayne Avenue between the Oregon District and E. Third Street.

Here are my thoughts: growing downtownis already happening through the efforts of Mike Ervin, the Downtown Dayton Partnership and folks in the Oregon District. Growing downtown and the Wayne Avenue corridor are already priorities. At least these resonate with people and are seen as important. Too bad we can't focus on two different priorities since these are already in the works. Of course, maybe we can build momentum since two separate initiatives have identified these issues.

As for more youth programming: this could be focused at students who are downtown waiting for bus transfers. That was one idea. Others included beefing up the offerings of parks and recreation departments, schools, community centers, arts organizations, etc. This is going to be a challenge since the City of Dayton and Montgomery County are both making drastic cuts due to budget shortfalls and the closing of parks and summer camps is already happening. Creative solutions will be most welcome! Quite frankly I'm surprised this scored so high on the list but I have a feeling the scores were possibly driven by the older people in the room who want to see young people doing something more constructive with their time. At the same time, if young people see opportunities to get involved they might be inclined to have positive memories as they mature and might actually want to stick around instead of getting into trouble or leaving for greener pastures.

Finally, a communication hub that can be a source of things going on. Some people would say ActiveDayton.com is that source. For arts, people can go to DaytonArts.org. Others would argue those sites are insufficient and not representative or inclusive of the community at large. As I mentioned above, several regular communication vehicles are already in place for organizations with email blasts. We may not need them to be replaced but perhaps a portal of some kind can be a one-stop online presence where people can click on the things that interest them and follow links to sites of those other organizations. For instance, on this blog I have an entire list devoted to links of sites that identify things to do. Another topic that came up was the use of viral marketing and social networks. Many of the organizations above haven't gotten around to using Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube. Imagine how much their businesses and attendance might improve by reaching out to people without even realizing it!! There's no better marketing than word-of-mouth and being linked from profile to profile on networking sites serves that purpose.

Moving forward we need to remember that all of this is to make a better Dayton. People signed up to work on the four top projects. Hopefully people already engaged in these areas will see this is a sign of help...not a takeover. Now is not the time to be territorial. It's a time to work together and show how innovative and creative we can be at making Dayton the best place possible.

Comments

[Jeff]

If 1/2 of the participants were over 40 that means the summit would have had 100 people rather than 200 and the voting might have been more manageable.

This demographic issue is a real sore spot with me, and the reason is that if the concept is to surface ideas from a specific demographic group and their voice is diluted, why even bother with the "young creatives" label? It borders on hypocritical.

"We want to hear from you, but oh, wait, here is what I think we should be doing to attract you"

Now if this was framed as more of a dialogue, that would be different.

[Matt]

Jeff, you make some very valid points.

Taken directly from the Updayton website: the young creatives are the next generation of the creative class. They are engineers, poets, lawyers, computer programmers, scientists, artists and architects – anyone who is between the ages of 18-40 and creates for a living. Today’s entire creative class accounts for 30% of the population and over 50% of all wages and salaries – young creatives and their constantly increasing college graduation rates will be an even bigger force in our world. Where young creatives choose to live and work will determine the regions and businesses that are successful in the next decade.

I think I saw artists, community activists, some civic-minded people, and downtown advocates. I'm not sure where the engineers, lawyers, scientists, and computer programmers were. Of course you can't judge a book by it's cover either. People's employers weren't identified on nametags so it was hard to tell what people's backgrounds were. Having been around for a while there were some new faces (refreshing) but also alot of the same people who are involved in everything (myself included)

[David Esrati]

Matt- great post showcasing what's already available. In my breakout group almost everyone there was tied to one of the sponsor organizations and had their own organizations agenda to push.
www.daytonos.com was an attempt at a central, democratized hub- but, it still hasn't been fully realized.
I'm 46- which means technically- I was too old- but, I saw lots of others over 40 that were there. There was no carding at the door. Between my summation and yours- a reader would have a real good idea of what went wrong, and some ideas on how to get it right on round 2.

[Amy]

Matt,
I was one of the organizers of the summit (albeit that I came into the volunteer organization mid year to help with viral marketing efforts) as well as a facilitator at one of the breakout sessions about Entrepreneurship.

My session has about 12 people in it, none of which were connected to a sponsor. They included a teacher, a photographer, a web developer, a social worker, a graphic designer, a film maker, an aspiring salon owner, a lawyer, an existing business owner and a few others that I can't recall. 9 of the 12 were under 40. We had great conversation - and some incredible ideas for how we as young volunteers could remove barriers to opening a business in the region (i.e., Dayton Apprentice came from my room).

As you indicated, there were some issues with the voting process when we were brought back together in the large group. Our team has noted this and will take some lessons learned in planning the next summit (yes, there will be another next year).

I ask that all of you critical of this initiative to remember that this in a 100% volunteer effort by well-meaning organizers. Yes, there may have been things that we could have done better, but we have to start somewhere. I suggest that if you believe this could be done better, that you email us at getinvolved@updayton.com to get involved in making efforts effective upfront instead of being critical of the effort afterwards. Your cynicism only serves to dilute months of hard work in trying to reach out and inspire this elusive and important demographic.

Finally, I also heard a lot of people asking for resources that already exist, and for websites to bring existing resources together to make things easier to find. Perhaps instead of reacting to this by telling them to look harder for what is already there, we need continue deeper conversations with this audience to better understand why they aren't aware.

You can't ask people what they need and then tell them they are uninformed when they do so. We knew things would come up that already exist, but we wanted to highlight what indeed young folks need and want so that we can figure out where and why there are gaps in their understanding.

My gut tells me that as a whole, we are missing the mark in knowing how to market effectively to this tech-savvy and quickly bored community. We aren't in-tune to where they are to reach them, how to speak to them in a language that resonates, or how to package things attractively for them.

The summit was not the end of updayton and our work with the young creatives, rather just the beginning.

Will you join us in our journey?

[Frank Coleman]

I agree with the points made.

It seems like we were talking about initiating events in the community that are already happening!

[Frank Coleman]

Amy,

I will support any initiative that involves improving Dayton and its communities.

My biggest gripe is communication. There needs to be better communication with Dayton citizens and between the various organizations.

Also, I agree completely with your statement concerning marketing. There are several community resources available- but people aren't aware of them. They need to reach out to the colleges more through advertisements, on-campus promotions, etc.

[Jeff]

Another thing that struck me and was a surprise was the amount of conversation we had about ideas to start things, not knowing that what they were talking about already exists.

This event was heavily advertised, so you all were going to be getting the proverbial man on the street. In other words people who are not in the know, not "insiders", in the sense that they are not following these things either in online discussions or in the newspaper, either the DDN or DB-J. Yet they were, presumably the type of people this event was trying to attract.

[Andy]

Matt,
I completely agree with you about your observations. I would also note that you are being very even in your report and that you are one of the most optimistic people I know.

I don't understand why this generation, my generation, gets so much credit for being connected yet knows so little about the resources that are available. I think that you have done a great service to the conversation by researching your point and adding to the knowledge.

[Shannon]

Matt, I wanted to add to your list of available resources... Melissa Aldridge and team at the Dayton Development Coalition have put together a great catalog of resources for entrepreneurs at http://www.getmidwest.com/e-link