Austin's unique "BE"

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The Evangelist Test

The best indication that a message is on target is when others articulate it better than you do! This has been happening a lot in the first 3 months of 2010 for the Equation.

In January, Bijoy gave a talk at Ignite Austin and GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham posted a wonderful blogpost of the Equation highlighting the stewardship of Austin's Entrepreneur Scene.

In March, when Heather and Bijoy facilitated a SXSW Core Converation on "Austin, the Killer App," the participants (half visitors to Austin) beautifully articulated the equation with little guidance from us. Blogger Joey Martin captured the equation and applied it to the nonprofit world.

Brandi Clark, wrote in the Austin EcoNetwork's March newsletter about the importance of mapping the various scenes, including, of course, her Sustainability Scene Map.

And most recently, Barbara Kiviat of TIME wrote a cover story on Austin's unique ability to weather the economic downturn. While not explicitly stated, she perfectly described our high-functioning set of scenes, particularly Entrepreneurship. (with a mention of Bootstrap Austin on page 3!)

We'll keep looking out for awesome articulations of the Equation - and encourage you to answer the question: what is the Austin Equation to you? (And let us know so we can highlight it!)