You can’t just walk into a room and tell people you’re cool.
Posted on April 25, 2007
It seems pretty obvious when you hear it. Just imagine someone you’ve recently met showing up at a dinner party and breaking that simple rule. The scene plays out pretty much the same way no matter how you slice it. That person is suddenly anything but cool.
Cities are stumbling over themselves to attract young professionals. Rather than doing what it takes to actually become a cool place to live, they just go out and say they’re cool. In the process, they turn off the very group they are trying to attract. If cities want to attract young professionals, they have to appear effortless in the pursuit. Trying too hard looks completely uncool.
Cities that have n ot done what it takes to become a cool place to live are experiencing “brain drain,” as young talent evacuates in search of more dynamic surroundings. Richard Florida, author of the bestseller, The Rise of the Creative Class, says cities that are unable to attract and retain creative young professionals are “trapped by their past.” He places his adopted hometown of Pittsburgh in this category, describing it as a place with stagnant growth and a dwindling population of thirty-somethings. He identifies the fundamental problem as a culture and attitude that is resistant to change. If Roanoke has nothing else in common with Pittsburgh, it does share these issues.
A recent study, commissioned by the Roanoke Chamber of Commerce Business Council and overseen by Roanoke College’s former president, Sabine O’Hara, analyzes Roanoke’s ability to attract the creative class. The study, dubbed The Five Pillars of Economic Development: A Study of Best Practices for the Roanoke Valley, identifies healthcare, education, technology, environment and amenities as the key quality of life indicators. It compares the Roanoke Valley with ten other cities of comparable size, from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Saratoga Springs, New York. Roanoke’s strongest assets in relation to the other cities were its environment and natural surroundings. Its most striking deficit was in the area of social and cultural amenities. More specifically, it lacks high-end retail, restaurant diversity, bars with live music and a sophisticated urban feel.
The study goes on to paint a vision of the Roanoke Valley in the future, complete with all of the social and cultural voids filled. In this Roanoke of the future, there is “intentional collaboration and coordinated efforts” among municipalities throughout the region. Everyone is “exchanging concepts and ideas that enable various communities to develop their own signature assets while contributing to the overall identity and image of the entire region.”
Cooperation among the municipalities and the free exchange of ideas would certainly be a departure from our past. While we may all agree that the collective assets of our region are far more attractive than those of any single municipality, we have not found a way to develop an identity or an image for the broader region that attracts the creative class. Our failure to do so has kept us from creating a compelling reason for young professionals to move here.
The study envisions a five-year marketing campaign to sell the idea of a marketing campaign– to ourselves. Even if a five-year marketing campaign convinces the communities within the region that they need to share a common brand positioning, who will we be? The Business Council study paints the image loosely as “Vermont with good weather,” or the “Northern California of the East.” Vermont and Northern California are both cool places. But this brings us back to the original problem.
The only thing worse than walking into a room and telling people you are cool is telling them you are as cool as someone else. Richard Florida refers to this type of “me-too” branding by pointing to the number of cities that defined themselves in relation to Silicon Valley in the late 90s. He argues that these Silicon Valley clones, dubbed “Nerdistans,” failed to establish a sustainable brand positioning.
NewVa is a case in point. For those who are not aware of the brand, NewVa was developed as a common identity for the Alleghany Highlands, Roanoke Valley and New River Valley. On the NewVa website, at www.newva.org, the rationale for the brand states that “a region brands itself to provide a distinct identity, different from other regions.” Unfortunately, NewVa ends up being a “me-too” brand in relation to Northern Virginia. It was also launched as a brand with no positioning line to give it any definition. And, the effort seemed to lack the “intentional collaboration” that Dr. O’Hara sees as so critical to the process. After the brand was launched, civic leaders in the New River Valley seemed largely unaware of the initiative and voiced their disapproval of being left out of the process.
This branding failure is all the more disappointing because the regions assets are so distinctive. According to Florida, the areas that have succeeded in attracting the creative class have leveraged three types of unique assets: technology centers, attractive rural areas, and creative urban centers. It’s all about providing options. He also notes that the presence of a research university is a major advantage. The region that NewVa was designed to promote has all of those things. We’ve got Virginia Tech with its Corporate Research Center. Unique rural communities dot the Blue Ridge Parkway and Appalachian Trail. Plus, Roanoke’s urban core is transforming itself with a new art museum, plans for Center in the Square renovations, new venues around the Market, and a burgeoning downtown condominium market.
The region that Roanoke shares with her neighbors has the potential to attract the creative class. It even has the potential to escape its past and develop an attractive culture and attitude. If we could just learn to share, we wouldn’t have to look like we are trying so hard. Now that would be cool.
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