Social Media Revolution

Surprising to me how powerful this information is and yet how very few people over the age of 55 actually understand just how different this world is going to look in 5-10 years. The Paradigm HAS Shifted.

Rethinking Motivation

Another brilliant TED talk and articulation of why the old paradigm and traditional models of work/achieve/reward simply do not play out as expected and will continue to not play out as expected in the years/decades to come. In short, providing human beings with Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose within what they do serves as a far more motivational and productive instrument than cold hard cash and/or fear of losing one’s job.

More Than Just Surf City

Another much deserved re-post from friend and CEO of NextSpace Jeremy Neuner. If you’ve even heard of Santa Cruz, you should read this… in full.

-Sean

More Than Just Surf City
4th August, 2009
written by jeremy neuner

By now, almost everyone in the entire known universe has seen the Huffington Post’s mashup of “Sarah Palin vs. That Crazy Santa Cruz Lady.” Whatever you may think of the former Veep candidate, the young Santa Cruzan in the video—ranting to the city council about pesticides and slavery in an attempt to, um, participate in our local democracy—doesn’t do much to dispel a popular stereotype of Santa Cruz: that ours is a quirky, un-serious town.

I won’t try to deny that Santa Cruz is a quirky place. In fact, I wouldn’t want it any other way. What the rest of the world may see as quirky, most of us Santa Cruzans see as tolerant, welcoming, creative, and innovative. Still, I’m troubled by the possibility that the viral spread of the Huffington Post video is giving our fair seaside town a bad rap. So in the interest of providing a more complete version of the character of Santa Cruz, please take a spin through the following few items:

–In this short video, Greg Gumble (yep, THE Greg Gumble) from “The Economic Report” shows why Santa Cruz is a unique ecosystem that boasts a balanced lifestyle, a history of innovation, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, and a highly educated workforce. These are the exact ingredients for a strong, vibrant economy and we’ve got more than our fair share of those ingredients in Santa Cruz.

–Santa Cruz is loaded with creative designers, scrappy entrepreneurs, and savvy business people. This video, produced and directed by NextSpace member Dusty Nelson, features a who’s who of local educators, engineers, bankers, designers, government officials, and CEOs, all offering their pitch on why Santa Cruz is a great place to work, live, and play. Take 10 minutes and watch the whole thing. It’s an awfully damn impressive piece of filmmaking and showcases some of the world-class talent in this town.

–Speaking of world-class talent, check out this Business Week article about Santa Cruz-based Plantronics and Altec Lansing. Together, these companies racked up six innovation awards at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Tens of millions of people all over the world use their award-winning products and every one of those products was designed right here in Santa Cruz.

–What about the money? You need a pile of it to build great companies, not an easy task in these cash-strapped times. But local social networking start-up UserVoice recently landed $800,000 in seed stage capital. AlgaeOMEGA, a bio-fuels company spun out of research at NASA and UC Santa Cruz, received another $800,000. NextSpace member Carmen Kubas led her company, Lightfoot Industries, to a third place finish in a regional venture capital competition. And local heroes 12seconds.tv are luring investors with their new iPhone app and their huge community of users. Want to invest in some of the hottest new companies across a range of industries? Look no further than “quirky” Santa Cruz.

Like any city, Santa Cruz has lots of faces. We’re a surfing town, a tourist town, and a university town. Despite our depiction in the Huffington Post, Santa Cruz is a town that’s building an enviable ecosystem of business, lifestyle, and innovation. What’s our secret? We take ourselves seriously, just not too seriously.

A Slow Process of Revitalizing Santa Cruz

Strongly recommend you take the time to read Tom Honig’s recent opinion piece in the Good Times Santa Cruz entitled A Slow Process of Revitalizing Santa Cruz and check out the document he’s referencing that started out on the back of a napkin… where most great ideas start out IMHO :)

As I said in my introduction to the Envision Santa Cruz event in March, though parts of the existing systems that have been around for generations are failing all around us, I see more opportunity than ever these days. Times of crisis present incredible opportunities for those bold enough to take action and present new paradigms.

Santa Cruz is full of such people in fact and I am so stoked and feel so blessed to be among a community of like minded DOERS who are out there taking bold action, creating new paradigms and at very least TRYING to create a better world for themselves and future generations.

Santa Cruz - Our Quality of Life is Good for Your Bottom Line

2008 Was a Great Year for Santa Cruz Geeks

At the dinner we had last week I sat down about 30 minutes before the event started and began writing down all the different and amazing things that took place in 2008 that either directly or indirectly spawned out of the Geek Dinners we had started only a little over a year prior. I also started listing some of the movers and shakers in the room specifically providing infrastructure to help the technology and entrepreneurial community in town. What I came up with is below, and I gotta say, I’m still freaking impressed and very much looking forward to an even more successful 2009.

MEMBERSHIP
-grew from Sol Lipman, Margaret Rosas, David Beach and Sean Tario to nearly 200 amazing members within a single year

EVENTS
-Numerous CoWorking Jellys at Quiddities’ former offices and at a stellar rental on the beach
-FreelanceCamp
-Public Media Camp
-Numerous Santa Cruz Design and Innovation Center Events
-Geeks on the Beach - Dinner and short lived bonfire
-Holiday and Halloween Parties
-Santa Cruz New Tech Alliance Meetup
-iPhone Application Meetup

COMPANIES MAKING HUGE STRIDES
-12seconds.tv (spawned from Beach and Sol connecting at a dinner)
-UserVoice.com (convinced founders to move from SF and Wisconsin to Santa Cruz because of the geek dinner!)
-RideSpring.com (look out for even bigger things from Paul and RideSpring in 2009!)
-RoomQuick.com (You’ll be hearing a lot about these folks in 2009, guaranteed!)
-ProductOps.com (Bob said, “why the heck not, done it before and I’ll do it again,” and thus, ProductOps was born in 2008)

INFRASTRUCTURE
-Marty Collins and The Digital Media Factory on the West Side (not new, but Marty did some serious growing last year!)
-Jeremy, Ryan and Veronica and NextSpace downtown
-Santa Cruz Geeks Google Group
-www.SantaCruzGeeks.com
-Local geek Peter Koht hired as the Economic Development Manager for the City, who was able to launch within the first month in the position www.CruzBusiness.com

OTHER STUFF
-Mike Brogan, Acting Director of Marketing for Cruzio Internet, elected as the Technology Director on the Board of Directors for Santa Cruz Next
-UCSC Baskin School of Engineering starting to spin off some interesting and viable companies such as www.pergamumsystems.com and putting plans in place for some engaging and entrepreneurial focused events coming up in 2009

So, that’s what I’ve got off the top of my head… what’s missing?

“Slow Money” at NextSpace on Jan 22nd

Author Woody Tasch will be at NextSpace on January 22 at 6:30 pm to discuss his book SLOW MONEY.  In these difficult economic times, I think Woody offers us a very Santa Cruz solution that will allow our community to leverage its ideals and strengths to create a sustainable economy.
……………….
Author and Investor’s Circle founder Woody Tasch will discuss his new book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered, at Nextspace (101 Cooper St) in Santa Cruz, CA on January 22nd at 6:30 pm. This event is free and co-sponsored by Nextspace, Pacific Mountain Advisors, and Bookshop Santa Cruz. Call 831-420-0710 or veronica@nextspace.us for more information.

Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money presents the path for bringing money back down to earth—philosophically, strategically and pragmatically, and with an entrepreneurial spirit that is informed by the work of thousands of CEOs, investors, grant-makers, food producers and consumers who are seeding the restorative economy.  This mission emerges from Woody Tasch’s decades of work as a venture capitalist, foundation treasurer, and entrepreneur. His explorations shed new light on a truer, more beautiful, more prudent kind of fiduciary responsibility, a fiduciary responsibility that is not stuck in the industrial concepts of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but which reflects the new economic, social and environmental realities of the 21st century.

Woody Tasch is chairman of Investors’ Circle, a nonprofit network of investors that has facilitated the flow of $130 million to 200 sustainability-minded, early stage companies and venture funds. An experienced venture-capital investor and entrepreneur, he has served on numerous for-profit and non-profit boards, and was founding chairman of the Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, which supports venture investing in economically disadvantaged regions. He lives in northern New Mexico.

Podcast on Economic Transformation in Santa Cruz

This is a bit belated now, but my good friend Alex Lavidge hosted a Podcast last week with me and a few other movers and shakers here in Santa Cruz (@jjneuner and @pkoht), specifically speaking to the work we’re doing here in town to transform the old economic landscape and way of thinking from a grassroots level.

Episode Two – Learning from Santa Cruz, CA and nextspace.us

In all seriousness, if you’re interested in how government and the private sector can work together to make positive change happen, there are no better case studies than the ones Alex is working on in Knoxville, TN and we are actively living right now in Santa Cruz, CA.

Encourage you to give a listen if you’ve got the time.

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