Investing in Community

For regular blog viewers, you may notice that I end the weekly theme on Fridays with a blog on how investors plan on implementing these visions in a real town, a CoolTown. Here’s how the group plans on helping enable a sense of community:

1. Focus on a target audience – in this case it’s the cultural creatives. Learn as much as possible about the things they like to do, experience and prioritize. Learn about their sub-groups as well, like the free agents. This is the common interest that initially draws people together.
2. Build numerous third places for them to meet spontaneously, frequently, for longer periods of time. My favorite outdoor version is the piazza. The most well-known indoor version is Starbucks, though I much rather prefer independent owners who care more about the local community.
3. Host lots of events in these third places, the piazza and the parks, especially if it involves the unifying vibes of music and art.
4. Establish ongoing community programs for the residents and workers that inspire them to collaborate, barter, network and find common recreational or work-related interests.
5. I could list about fifty more lines, but that’s beyond the typical web viewer’s attention span.

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neilkt