Elevating Boston as Business Innovators Through Content

There is an overriding lack of confidence in Boston about its place in the world of innovation and business.  Why is this?  What is the solution for it?  Is this a real issue or just a perception?  Should it matter?  I would argue that this is purely perception and that, therefore, Boston has a content problem.

We Have a History of Innovation…

Boston has an undeniable history of innovation dating back to colonial times.  This city (well, let’s talk about Massachusetts more broadly) is responsible for Thanksgiving, the American Revolution, the typewriter, sewing machines, frozen food, Fig Newtons, microwave ovens, mutual funds, email and thousands of other innovations that affect everyone’s daily life.  Some even claim Yoga was invented here (though not clearly an April Fools’ joke, we couldn’t find much evidence to support this one.)

…And We’re Disgruntled

Despite this irrefutable tradition of changing history, innovating in technology, medicine, education, religion and probably every other discipline, Boston seems to have a perpetual chip on its shoulder.  This stems from a variety contributing factors, of which here are a few:

• Boston lost its position as the hub for business in America (to New York) by the 19^th century
• The near endless dominance of the New York Yankees over the Red Sox since a fateful trade in 1918 until 2004
• Boston led (or tied for the lead) the world in technology and then lost that position to Silicon Valley

Boston spent a long time wondering “What happened?”  In fact, we spent 86 years annually fretting about our Red Sox until one fine October when we were finally able to imagine a new story.  Maybe that’s the spark we needed to start thinking that we’re worthy of excelling in other areas again too?  It’s high time we allowed ourselves to be convinced that we are as capable of leading innovation, building great companies, and driving the future as we have historically been able to be.  What we need is to elevate Boston – both to the world, as well as to ourselves.

I recently attended one of many conferences where a key topic of conversation on panels as well as during networking breaks centered around the questions:

1. “How can we make Boston a great center of entrepreneurship again?”
2. “How can we build and keep innovative companies in Boston?”
3. “How can we compete with Silicon Vallley?”

That last question is sometimes unstated but it’s always right beneath the surface, even when it’s not said out loud.

Tech and Business Leaders Gather in Nantucket to Put Boston Back on the Map

The Nantucket Conference is a gathering of Boston’s technology luminaries.  It feels like the Davos or TED of Boston.  The attendees themselves remind us of what Boston is capable of.  After all, a notable Boston-based innovator, Bob Metcalfe, the creator of the base technology that made the Internet possible, was there closely watching and engaging in every session.  And Bill Warner, founder of Avid Technologies, on whose film editing systems every movie you’ve seen for the past 20 years was likely edited, was there helping push this very theme forward.  And of course, there is one of the organizers to the event, Scott Kirsner, whose very job is to write about innovation in Boston for the Boston Globe.

The Nantucket Conference is just one of many events and organizations devoted to fostering entrepreneurship and creating an environment to help Boston birth the next generation of great companies.  There are blogs focusing on it, and industry events and associations all devoted to this topic.  So why do we still question it?  Because we aren’t talking about it enough.  We aren’t generating and sharing enough content around the idea that we’re already well on our way to regaining our stature as a leading innovation center in the US, if not the world.  In fact, according to some studies, we’re already ahead by some key measures – like the number of patents per capita and the amount of R&D funding.  Some sources see Boston as nearly indistinguishable from New York and Silicon Valley in this area. Harry West, CEO of Continuum, told me that there are 40-50,000 people in design professions in Massachusetts.  You read that right – 40-50,000.  Who knew?

Some say that we don’t have enough Angel Investors or VC’s or mentors.  But again, the evidence refutes that theory.  There are many angel groups, local VCs, mentoring and incubator-like programs.  It seems that there is just a lack of visibility into this ecosystem and a lack of confidence in our ability to translate that into big successes.

Bostonians Need to Brag

If Boston was doing a better job sharing information about how great we are; if we were a bit more narcissistic (assuming that narcissism was channeled for ego stroking rather than what-if-ing and why-aren’t-we-good-enough-ing); if only we had less “why not us” and more “yes we can”.  This comes down to creating centralized platforms for the conversation, like the Nantucket Conference (especially if that great thought leadership content could be shared publicly after the fact), and getting everyone involved in this ecosystem creating content about their challenges and successes, mentoring each other, sharing their stories and publicizing all of it.

Boston is ready to lead the next century of innovation again and it’s time to elevate us and our business leaders into the position where the world knows it.  Maybe once we get the world talking about it, we’ll believe it ourselves.

Update:

Scott Kirsner reports that the conference has posted some of the content, with more on the way!

About the author

Bill Shander -

Bill has been working on the web since 1994 when he founded Beehive Media.  In early 2010, Beehive Media merged with Tippingpoint Labs and he became a partner in the company, in charge of the Experience Group.  Experience embodies design and technology.

Over the years, Bill has assisted clients across a range of industries with communications and business process challenges, including many international organizations such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, World Economic Forum, Booz Allen Hamilton and the Government of Dubai.

His background in journalism has provided him with certain skills that are essential in helping clients achieve their goals - clear understanding and communication, attention to detail and a generalist's ability to quickly understand a client's focus and hone in on solutions that will directly affect results. Bill has a wonderful wife and daughter and likes to play ice hockey and ski.

"Technology, for me, is most exciting when it disappears - when it enables a deeper experience driven by strategy and good content. It's funny but as someone charged with the experience, my main goal in most cases is to have the experience disappear because when the experience isn't noticed, that means it's most natural. But sometimes it needs to really pop - and that's fun too!"